How To Repair Wood Siding

Whether information technology's cracked, rotted, or the victim of a woodpecker'due south bill, a damaged strip of wood siding is an open up invitation for water to leak in and wreak havoc on a house. So when a piece needs fixing, it's a task that merits a large red flag on the "To practise" listing.

Replacing a broken clapboard isn't that difficult, just equally This Former Business firm general contractor Tom Silva shows, it'south a fragile procedure that takes patience and precision. "If yous're not careful, it's like shooting fish in a barrel to break the surrounding clapboards," he says, "and and so yous'll end upwardly ­installing much more new siding than y'all intended."

Power tools are out for this job: too much vibration. ­Siding repair is best done with manus tools—with i exception. "Forget the tape measure," Tom says. Instead, you tin size the ­replacement using the quondam clapboard every bit a template, a uncomplicated technique that virtually guarantees a tight fit on the first try.

Steps for Repairing Wood Siding

Step 1: Cut

Webb Chappell

• Using a utility knife, score the entire length of the damaged clapboard from cease to end, about halfway upward from its bottom, or butt, edge.
• Don't slice all the way through the board, or you lot may cut the builder's felt underneath.

Stride 2: Pry

Webb Chappell

• To break loose the lower one-half of the damaged piece, start at one stop and gently tap a small-scale pry bar underneath the barrel edge, next to a nail.
• Pull the bar toward you, don't push information technology, so you don't mar or crevice the neighboring clapboards.

Pace iii: Snap

Webb Chappell

• Work the pry bar along the barrel border until the lower half breaks off, preferably in 1 length. (It may accept more one laissez passer.) If this piece remains intact, save it as a template for sizing the replacement.
• Leave the upper slice in place for now.
• Thump the exposed capsule to see if it'southward sound. If non, cutting out and patch any soft spots before continuing.

Choosing Nails and Siding

Matching Up

The clapboard you apply for a patch should alloy in seamlessly with your existing siding. Hither'due south how to make certain you have a patch that'south a perfect match before you begin.

• Sizing: Measure the butt-edge thickness and the widths of the exposed faces of a few courses on the wall. Add an inch to the face width to account for the overlap of the piece to a higher place. (These measurements will exist slightly smaller than the "nominal" dimensions that lumberyards and home centers use. A nominal ane?2x6 is actually vii?16 past 51?2 inches.) If you're not certain what size you need, enquire the store to translate your measurements.
• Texture: A rustic, rough-faced clapboard will look out of place in a field of polish siding, or vice versa. Fortunately, nigh boards are smoothen on one side and rough on the other.
• Course: Tom pays extra for clear (knot-free), vertical-grain (quartersawn) siding because it's easier to paint and is more than stable than cheaper, flat-sawn boards. It's too easier to maintain considering pigment sticks to information technology longer, and the terminate joints remain sealed. But if C-VG doesn't match the residuum of the siding, then go with a grade that does.

The Nail Yous Need

While there are many varieties of clapboard to choose from, ­only ane kind of nail volition do: a stainless steel ring-shank boom for siding. Stainless steel doesn't rust or stain the paint or leave black streaks on the wood, and the rings on the shank human action like barbs, gripping the sides of the hole to forestall the nail from popping out.

For the best guarantee against pop-out, use 7d or 8d (21?4 or 21?2 inches long) nails and bulldoze them ­into the studs. Y'all tin get away with hammering 5d (13?4-inch) nails just into the capsule as long equally it's v?8-inch (or thicker) and made of plywood, OSB, or solid wood.

To find out how thick your capsule is, remove a piece of siding and poke a drill bit into a vertical seam betwixt 2 sheathing pieces. Because these seams always country at a stud, measuring how far the bit goes in will tell you the sheathing's thickness.

---

Where to Notice It

Caulk:
Dap Products Inc.,
Baltimore, Doctor
800-543-3840
dap.com

Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/siding/21014970/patching-wood-siding

Share this post