Protect Wood on All Sides to Prevent Warping
Trim is one way to turn unsightly siding seams into an attractive architectural feature. Exterior trim is usually put up first and painted later, leaving the rear surface to absorb water. "Back priming", or painting all surfaces before it is installed reduces the wood's ability to absorb water, thereby reducing its potential to warp or twist.
Consider Using Hail- and Fire-Resistant 50-year Composition Shingles
Green roofing is a real dilemma for me. In order of importance I want my roof to be functional, aesthetically pleasing, and green. Why is "green" the last priority? Because there are few green options! Aside from expensive green roofing materials like faux-cedar shakes made from recycled garden hoses, most roofing is generally energy-intensive to produce and releases toxic contaminants when it's manufactured, installed, and landfilled. So it's best to find the longest-lasting roofing available so you don't have to waste energy, resources, and money to replace the roof. Like most green building materials, "green" roofing implies "durable" roofing.
Diary Entries
You can read more about David's remodel experience and learn valuable knowledge about green building standards, materials and best practices in his book Green Remodeling.
March 1, 2003 - Working with Oriented Strand Board (OSB)
The weather has finally broken and we can move back outside. The first thing I want to do is protect the oriented strand board (OSB), or the outside layer of the SIPs. I don't need a housewrap like Tyvek™ because the OSB doesn't leak air and the panels were caulked meticulously when they came together. Rather, I need to keep moisture away from the not-so-waterproof OSB. The roof overhangs in the original design protect the OSB siding to some extent, but in addition I wrap the walls in 30 pound felt paper, similar to how you would protect a roof. We tack the felt on at the bottom of the exterior wall and work up, just as a fish's scales are layered so that water runs off them. Extra precaution is taken at the corners and penetrations that are more vulnerable to water seeping through them. For example, windows are "flashed" or waterproofed with Flex Wrap™ that diverts water away. Felt paper then goes over the window-flashing wrap so all the drainage is outside (if the felt paper were installed under the window flashing, water could leak behind the window).
March 15, 2003 Cement Siding Products
I want to stucco the building but I don't like synthetic stucco. Real stucco, or two layers of cement hand-troweled over wire mesh, turns out to be too expensive for my budget. I hire a siding company to install cement-based James Hardie Panel™ which is a fire-resistant siding made from fiber cement that comes in 4' x 8' sheets with a stucco pattern. Working with cement board takes a particular set of skills and tools. With the wrong saw blades, clouds of dust are created every time you make a cut. You also have to cut precisely because it is harder to work with than wood. The first contractor I hired said he knew how to work with the material but quickly proved otherwise. I replaced him with another crew that only worked with cement siding products.
March 17, 2003
We put two-by-fours over each of the seams in the James Hardie Panel™ siding, creating a wood trim pattern that echoes the overall building architecture. The top surface of each two-by-four is beveled like a windowsill so water will run off and away from the building. All the wood trim is "back primed".
