New Siding

Apr 02, 2020

New yellow siding When we moved into my mother's old house (a double-wide mobile home), we discovered quite a few things that needed to be updated after it had sat here for nearly 25 years. We started with the Master Bathroom, and while redoing some of the drywall, noticed some mold on some of the insulation. We then discovered that the old cedar log siding had began to rot away, allowing rain and such to get into the cracks and crevasses. So, I decided to try my hand at putting on some new siding. Quite a big job for one man, but I got it done over the course of about 6 months or so.

The 25 year old cedar siding, not looking too good these days

another angle

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you re-siding a house by yourself? One wall at a time. Spent all day pulling off the old siding and getting it ready for the new. On a related note, it's really hot outside.

Put some OSB over the not-very-efficient cardboard stuff that was on there

Almoooost done

Whew, that was not an enjoyable job. I only smashed my thumb about 17 times.

Got the house-wrap on there for even MORE efficiency. Try to get the siding on tomorrow.

Day 2: Another couple of bites of that elephant; got the trim and siding on there. Still need a little bit of trim at the top, and some caulking all around, then I can start painting. It was also very hot today.

Getting it done! Not easy with one man, but I figured out a system where I put a nail in as a pivot/anchor, and slid the long pieces onto that and then nailed in the piece I was holding, and that made things quite a bit easier.

All done with the north side

So much rot! Yeesh. Hopefully my job holds up better than the mobile home people's from 25 years ago 😛

Got the OSB on there

And the house wrap

And the trim. I'm trying to reuse as much of the original as I can, it's expensive

And the siding. I'm going to spend a fortune on the caulk alone

Yeesh, between the rain and the heat, I've not gotten a LOT done, but I have got a little bit. Got the porch all done; even ran electric for an outside outlet controlled by the porch light switch

Got the siding on there

Now for the gable. Didn't get nearly as far today as I'd hoped; I had to dodge wasps as I went up and down the ladder. Spent more time swatting at them than I did on the house. Must be a dang hive or something up in there, I killed probably 7 or 8, and they were STILL coming out. The "kill on contact" spray does not kill on contact.

Crazy how such a small area can be so difficult. Up and down the ladder so many times, so many wrong angle cuts. It's not the best, but the gable over the porch has new siding now.

Finally back at it, I mistakenly thought it was a little cooler than it actually was. Oh well, onwards and upwards. Got the rest of the old siding off the front.

Nearly ran out of daylight today, but I got another big section done, just need to caulk it. The rest can wait until it's cooler weather for realsies.

Four... hours... later...

Almost looks like it's done from this angle

actually remembered to take a "before" shot this time

got the old siding off, the under layer was in better shape than I expected

got the wrapping on there

and the trim

Siding and caulking done. All in a day's work

Old siding on the southwester side (see where I took out a door and put in a window and used some of the original siding that was in storage)

Old siding off

House wrap on

Got the trim on there

This outlet was there since the house was put in, but it never worked. So I tapped into an existing hot wire and now it works fine. It's so nice having an outlet outside.

Probably about halfway done with the siding

Now the rest of it

All that remains is the south end, then paint! Hooray!

Almost forgot to take a "before" shot, had already gotten started here

All the old siding off

Replaced a spot that had some mold growing on it

Got the plastic on there

AND THE LAST BIT OF SIDING!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOO

Started the painting process today, looks a bit splotchy, but it'll look better with another coat. Didn't realize I had some J.J. Abrams lens flare going on

Got quite a bit more painting done; was trying to use a sprayer, but it appears that Ye Olde Brush and Roller works a lot better

Finished up the whole front this afternoon; hopefully 2 coats will be enough

Another angle

Got started on the south end; worked as high as I could reach without a ladder

Well all the yellow has two coats now; unfortunately I think I'm going to have to put on a third.

Looking good, will look much better once the trim is done too.

Got started on the trim, but then got interrupted by the weather...

Took a break from the siding project to do another project. Extended out the front porch into a usable area. The old "porch" wasn't big enough to really do anything on