Guide to Typical Colorado Home Siding Finishes

Rough-Sawn Lap Siding:

  • This product was often milled ‘Rough Sawn’ (which shows the saw marks) and stained or painted. If it is still in good condition, it can be treated with one of the finishes mentioned above.
  • Removal: This type of siding must be removed prior to installing house wrap and new siding because it is too ‘deep’ to be installed over. The boards are usually ¾” thick or more.

 Standard Lap Siding:

  • Lap siding often still looks good and can often be ‘refreshed’ by re-staining or re-painting.
  • Removal: it can be ‘sided over’ by first installing vertical batten strips to nail the siding to, but I strongly recommend removing it to avoid having to extend all the jambs of the doors and windows and for a cleaner finished product.

Board and Batten Siding:

  • Board and Batten Siding can be refinished and may look great and additional battens can be applied prior to painting or staining to change the appearance.
  • Removal: It is very similar to the channel rustic in that it is easy to remove the battens, corner trim, window and door trim and re-side as described above.
  • T-111 siding: This is similar to board and batten, but has grooves milled into it to simulate siding material. The grooves are usually vertical and it is easy to either re-finish or side over.

Vinyl, Steel and Aluminum Siding:

  • All of these types of siding are much more popular in the east where there is much more moisture. Vinyl is quickly sun damaged in Colorado. Steel and aluminum are better but dent easily and do not trim well. I don’t recommend using any of these products.

Full Log Homes:

  • Full log homes are rarely re-sided and should not be unless the logs are so deteriorated that it is necessary to do so. If it is possible, I suggest repairing rot with a product recommended by one of the log home associations and then re-finished.
  • Covering: in the instance where logs must be covered with another product (sad as it may be!), then careful ‘furring’ of the logs must be done and then a finished product installed. The furring process is timely and difficult and should be done only by someone with ‘a good eye’.

Natural and Synthetic Stone:

  • If they are in good shape, maybe just re-grouting and re-sealing will do the trick. If they need to be removed, you are into a very expensive and involved project!

Stucco:

  • EIFS (Exterior Insulated Foam Stucco) is notorious for leaking and ruining windows and doors due to the improper installation techniques that have been used over the years. It can be repaired, but the process is one that should be undertaken by an experienced professional.
  • Removal is usually easy as the Styrofoam insulation (which, by the way is often a very low R-value rigid insulation) can be stripped of  (and usually is backed by a solid surface such as OSB, Oriented Strand Board), or plywood. A new finish can then be applied as described above.

Comments are closed.