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My old house is stone veneer and the gables were covered up with vinyl siding years ago (not my doing). But the garage was built in 1939 and 95+% of its siding is still in good condition, thus 89 years. Only some of the boards right next to the ground have rotted and been replaced.
If your siding is that old it's not vinyl. It likely aluminum.
Doesn't the cement board siding need to be painted? When we looked into it several years ago, you still needed to paint it regularly.....too much maintenance for our tastes.
I don't know about ALL varieties, but it's made in a color-impregnated variety. Same color throughout the whole piece. My folks put this on their retirement home built in 2009.
As for the maintenance of wood siding, so long as it's keep in decent repair it should be quick to prep and paint. The problem is that Most people differ maintenance. They just ignore something until it's in desperate need of a whole lot of time/money/attention. I see this all the time as a mechanic, a $50 fix that's ignored until it'll a $5,000 fix. So, yes, if the whole house NEEDS to be taken back down to bare wood this time, it's annoying and expensive. But you retain a higher resale value (yes, you can see there are plenty of us weirdos who prefer authentic older homes are around by the posts in here) and the maintenance, once brought up to a good standard, is not huge.
But people do all sorts of terrible things to homes that destroy what others consider valuable. Painting over natural wood finishes, ripping out original and authentic items, etc... it's your property to do with as you please. Just don't be blind and think that there's no consequence to those decisions.
If your siding is that old it's not vinyl. It likely aluminum.
No, you misunderstood. The siding on my house that was applied to cover the original wood siding on the gables is vinyl. It was installed around 2000. The siding on my garage that is still in good condition, dating back to 1939, is wood. Just ordinary drop lap siding.
The point I was making is that having seen wood siding last 89 years on my own property, and well over 200 years in other places, I am not overly impressed by claims that hardi board or equivalent can last 30 years.
We ripped all of the ugly old siding off of our house and restored the original bead board on the eaves and porch. We stripped all of the paint off of the trim and on the garage which was built in the 1920's. We used a stain vs paint on all of the wood work except for the bead board. It was stained with a walnut stain and a good coat of water seal. The wood stain comes in solid colors and doesn't peel like paint. It's an easy sand if the stain degrades and you just stain over it. If you take the time to remove the old paint and restore the house to what it should look like, I believe it's ten times nicer looking then ugly vinyl siding. Our house went from zero curb appeal to a beautiful historic house by paying attention to the details that were buried under all of that siding. We also restored the original brown stone look to the front porch and the stucco on the second floor. The old girl shines like she did in 1911 now. It was hard work but well worth the effort.
You do realize that after a while paint cracks and peels and you repaint it, yes? You do not need to replace siding every time the paint cracks and peels; you scrape down the paint, prime the bare wood, and repaint with a high quality paint.
If you do one side a year the house will never look too bad (most paint starts to peel around four years) and the job is is always manageable.
I see nothing in your post to indicate why you would be contemplating the replacement of all your siding. After a while, there will probably be a few pieces that rot and need to be replaced. You just pull off the ones that are rotted and replace them with new wood. It is easy and straightforward.
Vinyl siding is maybe 1/16" thick. It will do nothing to improve the insulation in your walls. The way to improve insulation in your walls is to improve the insulation in your walls. You can go from the outside by pulling off the top board of the siding all round and blowing in from there, or you can go from the inside by cutting a strip off the drywall (plaster?) along the tops of all the walls and then patching after blowing in the insulation. Obviously if you have siding on the outside, blowing it in from the outside is preferable.
Do not replace original windows just because people who make windows advertise heavily. All the evidence I have seen indicates that storm windows plus carefully sealing around the existing windows provides as much insulation benefit as new double pane windows plus you won't get condensation inside the panes when (not if) the seals fail plus you will be retaining the much higher quality all-wood double hung windows (which I assume is what you have based on a 1923 build date) and they will fit properly with the age and architectural style of your house.
Further to both subjects, a 1440 sq. ft. house built in 1923 was quite a nice house in that day, when the average house built was probably around 800 sq.ft. I expect there are a lot of high quality features and details. Don't put el cheapo vinyl siding and vinyl windows with fake window pane dividers on a nice house like that.
Remember, MENDING IS BETTER THAN ENDING.
First of all, I'd like to say, long time forum member, but this is my first time posting in the house section. I am very impressed with the responses and the detail I am receiving, so thank you very much.
To answer your question Turf, I think you brought up the most valid point and one I have not considered as of yet. I should probably have the siding inspected to make sure it's in good condition, unless that's something you can only gauge after peeling the old paint off? As to whether the wood siding is original or not, I do not know. There are two different patterns of siding on the house. The first level has the long thin planks, similar in size and style to modern vinyl siding, the upper half is a lighter shade of blue and is more rectangular shaped wooden siding. I will try to post a few pictures of the house later today when I am home and able, it might give a better idea of what my concerns are and what direction I should take.
As to the windows, all the exterior windows on the house have been replaced by the previous owners with the exception of the porch windows. The porch is not heated or insulated, so keeping heat in is not as important to me for that room.
The house also had an addition built onto the house sometime in the past, I'm not sure when, but that section of the house has drywall instead of plaster, so I'm guessing it's from sometime in the last 50 years. From the exterior it's almost impossible to tell that there's an addition, unless you look at the blocks underneath it.
Again, I will try to upload a few detailed pictures of the
house later tonight.
Picutres of the house. The upper level is a different kind of siding from the lower level, still wooden though. And the back of the house by the deck is the addition, so the siding is much newer, and the paint appears to be in great shape in this area.
Not sure what's going on, but I can't get any other pictures to upload. I'm using photobucket to share the photos, and the website has changed drastically since the last time I used it, can't get pictures of the side and rear of the house to post.
We ripped all of the ugly old siding off of our house and restored the original bead board on the eaves and porch. We stripped all of the paint off of the trim and on the garage which was built in the 1920's. We used a stain vs paint on all of the wood work except for the bead board. It was stained with a walnut stain and a good coat of water seal. The wood stain comes in solid colors and doesn't peel like paint. It's an easy sand if the stain degrades and you just stain over it. If you take the time to remove the old paint and restore the house to what it should look like, I believe it's ten times nicer looking then ugly vinyl siding. Our house went from zero curb appeal to a beautiful historic house by paying attention to the details that were buried under all of that siding. We also restored the original brown stone look to the front porch and the stucco on the second floor. The old girl shines like she did in 1911 now. It was hard work but well worth the effort.
Bravo! Kudos to you for taking the effort to appreciate what you have. Those of us who possess these great old houses feel lucky to be able to have them in our care, even if it sometime takes more maintenance to keep them up- the reward is to have that house proud feeling every second you come home and see it and then walk through the front door.
Picutres of the house. The upper level is a different kind of siding from the lower level, still wooden though. And the back of the house by the deck is the addition, so the siding is much newer, and the paint appears to be in great shape in this area.
Dude, that’s a classic and very handsome Foursquare- it’s a beautiful house! It would be one thing if it were a little shack but you’ve got something special.
Keep the real wood clapboards on the bottom with the shingles above the belt line- fiber cement board and composite trim if you must but please for the love of God no vinyl on that handsome house! (Although I would ditch the too skinny shutters- no need, or at least install ones that fit: 1/2 of the window width they imply to be able to close over. )
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