We just bought a ribbed steel-sided (corrigated steel) house that has no flashing. The ribs stick away from the house and make great wasp houses, not to mention the rain enters. Are their products and methods to seal these gaps? This is the same material used in southern pole barns.
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I don't have a good answer, but saw you didn't get a response, so this will push your question back to where people can see it. You may also try posting it on the Breaktime forum where contractors and people in the trades hang out.
Doenst a roof overhang cover the tops of the corrugations? Are they even with the eves or below? Could you attach a continuous strip of metal like a lid that would cover but overhang them?
At any rate, Breaktimers may have answers--but when you post it, try to give as much info as you can without giving too much (maybe answering the questions I posed--how far from the roof is this? and so on).
Thanks for the questions. The house is a square 2 story with a roof overhang of standard width. There are two single story attached wings originally used as single garages on each side of the house. The place was originally built as a two car garage with an apartment on the 2nd story with the wings added later by the seller and he began the process of converting the main garage into a home. He did everything himself and it shows(ugh). There are no roof overhangs on the storage wings which are also the corrigated steel. He bought the siding from a farm store and added it over wood board and batten siding on the main structure so it sticks out farther than the window and door frames. There are flapping gaps of steel when the wind blows across those areas where he tried to enclose the opening for the original garage door and there's no stud to fasten the steel to. Behind that is wet insulation, no sheathing or wrapping. The vertical ribs are about 1" gapped away from the walls.
Your suggestion would work for weatherproofing in some areas and we may have to do just that but the 2nd issue is the most serious-my husband goes into shock if he gets stung by the wasps and almost every rib has a nest. He's already been stung and I had to use an eppie pen on him. We've had a killing frost so I plan to tear out any nests I can reach and call an exterminator but I've been told they won't crawl up two stories and spray into the rib gaps which is what is needed. There is one small place that's flashed like you suggest but the wasps still use it.
We want to tear off the steel and repair then have professionals re-side but we are too poor just now because we have not sold our other home yet and are paying for two so with every rain the studs and insulation get wetter. We've been told to leave it open, rain or not because unless we replace the insulation if we enclose it it'll trap the existing moisture and at least now air does get to the studs and insulation between the rains.
I will post this to breaktime with a photo-thanks for your help.
Wow, what you describe sounds bad--especially your husband being allergic to wasp stings! Several things come to mind in reading your post. It would be pretty easy to frame in the old garage door opening and nail the metal siding to the new studs--you could form a new wall with one bottom plate, even sheath it, then tilt it up into place from the inside and lift it up onto the mud sill (plate which you would bolt to the slab in the door opening). Nail it to the door jambs and header and the new sill plate. Go outside and nail the siding to this new wall. Then insulate.
I don't know if frost kills wasps, or they only hibernate. Could you use like a snake for unclogging sewers and run it up or down the corrugations to remove the nests? I guess leaving the nests is okay--they don't hurt anything if the wasps are dead. Maybe you could wad up fiberglass insulation and stuff it in the tops of the open corrugations--that or fiberglass window screen. That would allow moisture to escape. I suppose you have trouble getting up to the tops of those that are two stories tall? Could you walk along the roof edge to do it? (How steep is the slope of the roof?) You could spray the wasps at the same time.
Lastly, maybe you could put gutters on the roof and keep most of the rain out that way? Where there is flashing, spray wasp killer, then use canned spray foam to plug the openings on top so wasps can't get in. I would just screen or stuff fiberglass in the bottoms so any water that gets in can fall out.
When you post pictures I can see whether I'm totally missing the boat with what I'm saying!