Hill Country House Help

[Cody.h]

Here's a couple pics of my In-Laws house in the Hill Country of Texas...down by Llano. We went down a couple of weeks ago on vac...the wild flowers were so high I was worried the pick-up was gonna set them on fire.





The house was built about 25 years ago when my In-Laws went hunting and
just to get away from it all. They did it all except pour and float the pad and well and septic system work. The fireplace is made from rocks picked up on 6 acres they own....its even more beautiful inside.

But the problem is the siding on the outside of the house...





as you can see its all rotting at the bottom. It is just whats called masonite siding here...paperboard is what its called up north.

My Father-in-law is talking about just cutting off the bottom 2 feet and residing with the same but would be open to other suggestions. I think it all needs to come off, soil graded away from the bottom and completely resided.

I come up with $1500.00 to reside it and the soffits and facisa with Hardiplanks for materials...even adding the inevitable 30% over budget we're still $2000.00.

So any ideas and suggestions welcomed. Anyone with hardiplank experience wanna share any tips??? And just how far off the ground does Hardiplank need to be?? they say 6 inches but it is cement???

[Pappy]

I would go the Hardi route. It is available in several patterns as 4x8 sheets so it goes up fairly quickly. The only Hardi I have used is soffit and found a nail gun tends to crack it if you hit too near the corners.

[Hellrazor]

Masonite is a pain and cutting it and patching it will look odd. Hardi would be a permanent solution.

http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner...me/default.php

Thats a list of the products they sell.

[Russianwolf]

The main thing is getting the ground away from the siding, once that's done you shouldn't have the problem again. I think the house would look best with cedar siding, but I have a feeling that you guys want something more low maintenace.

[crokett]

Definitely need to regrade. Have you though about vinyl? That is about the lowest maintenance out there, 'cept for brick.

[Hellrazor]

From the builder end of this:

1. Missing flashing behind the masonite. The sill plate/sheathing should have some kind of flashing overlapping the joint at the slab. The top of flashing should be installed behind the tarpaper/tyvek/etc vapor barrier.

2. The masonite looks like its installed 4" below the sill plate. You really only need 1" of overlap if its flashed and closed up properly. That ends the need for regrading. Looking at the first picture it looks like you have a decent slope away from the house anyway.

3. It doesn't look like any gutters are installed. That also has a great impact on shedding water away from the house. The rain is splashing up on the bottom 2-3' of the siding now.

[Cody.h]

Well thank you all for confirming what I thought about the grade and lack of rain gutters. Its so humid there that every morning moisture drips off the roof so the siding is wet day at least for a while.

I hope Mike is right about the siding having too much overlap...grading away from the house will be mostly shovel work because of the rocks and
another building very close the the house where I took the pics.

Low maintenance is a must as its a 5 hour drive just get there from Lubbock. I allready don't get enough shop time so Cedar is out and vinyl will just crack and fade in the Texas heat.

I told my FIL about my estimate and you'd have thought he was gonna choke at $1500.00...he still just thinks he can cut off 2 foot...Z flash it and be ok for a couple of hundred bucks. I've got the LOML and her Brother on my side for tearing it all off so we'll just see what happens next.

Thanks again for all the help!!!

[docrowan]

Before your FIL overrules and decides to patch, have you checked to make sure you can get matching masonite?

We owned a house about 25 years old in Jackson. It had three lap clapboard look masonite siding (runs horizontal). One piece about three foot long had a rotten spot about the size of a silver dollar and I had to replace it as part of the sale of the house. I looked at every building supply house in three counties and couldn't find a match for it. I finally made a piece by cutting strips of 1/4 tempered hardboard to the width's of the three "laps" (all different widths), then gorilla gluing them clapboard fashion to a 1/8 hardboard back and trimming the whole thing to the right width and length. I caulked and primed the sucker six ways from Sunday and once I got it up you couldn't tell the difference, but what a lot of aggravation.