I bit the bullet and agreed to new siding. I am a sell-out in that regard. My good intention was to remove all the stucco and restore the original bevelled cedar siding. But when it came down to it, after years of living in a construction nightmare and being beat down and overwhelmed with the scope of work, I decided to tear it all off and start new.
The profile of the new siding will look fairly close to the original. It is fibre cement board and will never need painting, unless it is damaged or I want to change it. It will come in the colour scheme that I chose when I was planning to paint. It will be all done in about 6 weeks. And the original part of the house will have the addition of 1″ rigid insulation on the outside. Also, I’ve seen the work of this siding company on a show home and it looks awesome.
So, those are the pros.
The cons are as I mentioned. My good intention was to restore what I had. It is a real loss to have torn away the cedar siding and put it in the dump. I had considered keeping it for siding a large shed I eventually want in the backyard, but there is no more room back there for piles of reclaimed wood. Honestly. The backyard runneth over and there is very little space for my dog to even do his business, let alone play. So into the dumpster it has gone. Along with the orange stucco. The stucco I have no qualms about and am pleased that I got rid of that dead weight on the house. But the cedar siding makes me sad.
Another con is the cost. OMG. But I have to accept it and move on.
So, the actual process is underway. I’m very happy so far with the installation company. The guy said he would start Monday and Monday he was here with a team of four people, cutting away the stucco. Today is Thursday and they have completed removing all the stucco, the cedar siding and tar paper, and are half-way through gluing on the rigid insulation. Then they’ll add house wrap and it will sit that way for about a month until the siding arrives. I expect the siding to take about 2 weeks to install.
The guy keeps a clean site and he and his workers are friendly and seem sympathetic to my old house and take care of it. For example, cutting stucco is very dusty work. They have covered my air conditioner and my plants and are stopped and cleaned up by the time I get home at 5:30. The guy has expressed his sympathy regarding my being hosed by the first builder and says he will help “make it right”.
So, that’s promising.
What I can show you so far:
And today is raining, so I’m not sure what will be done today. It wouldn’t surprise me if they continued on.
Anyway, more photos as we go.