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In this segment of DIY's Be Your Own Contractor, the do-it-yourselfers talk about the challenges and problems they faced in installing the house exteriors.
Installation Stories
- For his rustic home in Rockwood, Tennessee (figure A), Fred Samuels used white pine which he purchased the pine lumber from a local sawmill. He used the pine siding throughout his home (figure B) and, as with nearly all of the jobs in the construction of his home, Fred -- with some help from his wife-- did the siding work himself. In fact, compared to some of the other phases of construction he undertook, Fred regarded the siding work as relatively easy.
First, plywood sheathing was installed on the exterior of the structure, followed by the pine siding. Fred and his wife hand-sawed the lumber to size, stained the wood and then used screws and a screw-gun to fasten the siding rather than hammer and nails (figures C and D). He hand-sanded the wood to provide a soft but textured finish. The finished wood siding (figure E) has a natural feel that is well-suited to the rural setting of the home.
Betty King and John Spracklen wanted to avoid vinyl siding for environmental and health reasons, and so opted for fiber-cement siding for their home in Olmstead, Kentucky (figures F, G and H). They chose this material to avoid the phenomenon of off-gassing and also because they preferred the more traditional or authentic look of the material over vinyl or similar materials for their Victorian style home. This type of siding is fairly easy to install, and John did most of this installation himself. In addition, this material offers several advantages over wood and other materials in that it doesn't shrink or swell and is resistant to rotting and insect damage. The only thing John found difficult about the installation was cutting the siding material. A diamond-blade cutter is required for cutting and sizing the material, and the process creates quite a bit of dust. Another challenge with this material is that it may be difficult to find. When he ordered the siding for the 4000-square-foot house, he ran into problems with his supplier. As a result, it took longer than expected for the materials to arrive. By the time it did, his siding contractor was no longer available. It was for that reason that John became more of a do-it-yourselfer on this particular project than he first intended. The installation was particularly challenging on the taller portions of this large house.Safety Alert: If you're going to be a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to installing your siding, be sure and follow necessary safety precautions -- especially when working on ladders and scaffolding.
Alan Sain installed vinyl siding for his home in Butler, PA (figures I and J). He chose to use a siding product usually used for soffets, and install the siding with a vertical orientation to create a look similar to the cedar siding he had used in his previous home. Taking this route resulted in cost savings as well as a reduction in maintenance needs.
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