We have decided on the siding to use. Last weekend we went to Menards and bought the siding since the store is having a construction sale and we saved a bit of money. It should arrive at the store sometime this or next week. We thought we'd drive the truck to pick it up, but I think it will be heavier than our Orange Crush can handle, so we might just pay to have it delivered.
Definitely, siding the house will be the "big project" for the spring and part of summer. (If I can help it, we will also be adding some new members to the family - of the clucking kind. I've had chicken fever for a while, but we'll see).
We are going to be installing Certainteed Fiber Cement siding, which is similar to the more famous Hardie Plank siding. There are a gizillion details that need to be addressed before a single piece of siding goes up, so it probably will not be until late april/may before we really get going. First of all, we need to locate as many through-wall penetrations as we can anticipate (like outdoor light fixtures, outles boxes, vents, etc. etc.) so that those openings can be properly sealed and flashed.
We also need to cover the top six to eight inches of the foundation that is exposed with something. We're leaning towards using pvc coated metal flashing, though using a textured acrylic stucco directly on the foam of the ICF is also an option. And there are other things like sealing the gap between the wood framing and the icf basement with foam, finish flashing some windows, caulking here and there, etc. etc.
Also, the siding comes from the factory primed, and we need to put two coats of paint to protect the siding. So we need to decide the shade of paint we want, and figure out how much paint we need.
Working with fiber cement siding is a bit harder than vynil, I believe, so it will be a slow process for us to make sure we do it right. We probably need to plan out how we will actually put the siding up. We've got instructions, but we need to gather the tools, fasteners, and other materials that we need.
The other thing we need to wait on is the weather. Right now is so wet and muddy that you sink almost to your knees in some areas. That would make the working conditions a royal pain, so we will have to wait for things to dry out a bit. We sure hope this spring is not as wet as last spring.
The dirt is already settling around the house, and sometime we have to work the final grading. We will be making changes to the side of the house where the window wells to some of the basement windows are located. The weight of the soil is proving too much for the wood window wells, so we're going to try something different. We had planned on doing this sometime in the future, as we expected the wood wells wouldn't last. We hadn't anticipated that it would be sooner rather than later. I think since our soil is mostly clay and silt, when it gets wet the hydraulic pressure in the soil is causing the wood to bow. Thank goodness we decided to use stronger steel reinforcement on the basement walls.
Good news is that after several days of rain the basement is bone dry. Of course, the reall test will be the ground thaws completely and it rains heavily. It could be that right now only the top layer of soil melts when it's nice, and any water is running off over the frozen dirt (eroding our soil to boot). So, once the ground thaws, the rain will soak in and it will be a test to our waterproofind and foundation drainage system.
There were a few phantom wet spots upstairs, but we could not locate any leaks in the roof. What we think is that there was some ice in some sawdust in one spot that melter when the weather was nice and handn't evaporated. The others we can't explain, but we'll keep an eye on them and actually go out there when it's raining to verify that it isn't a leak in the roof.
That's about it for new. More next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment