Whole-Exterior Renovation

By the time we walked this house, the original siding had reached the end of its service life. Field boards were cupping, the weather-facing elevation had chalked through its finish, and probing at the bottom courses found soft spots where water had been getting behind the cladding for years. Two fascia corners were rotted through - the kind of damage you can only fully scope once the old material comes off.

The owners wanted three things: stop the water intrusion, replace the envelope with a system built for Oregon rain, and bring the street face of the house back up to the standard of the block. No additions, no structural changes. Just the exterior, done correctly from the sheathing out.

We stripped each elevation to the sheathing, replaced the panels that probing and moisture readings condemned, and wrapped the house in a continuous weather-resistive barrier with taped seams and properly lapped flashing at every window, door, and penetration. The barrier is the actual rain protection; the siding over it is armor and appearance.

The new cladding is factory-primed fiber cement lap siding, blind-nailed to manufacturer spec, with fresh kick-out flashing where roof meets wall - the single most commonly missing piece on the homes we repair. Fascia and trim runs came back in primed exterior-grade stock, and the whole envelope was caulked and painted in a weather window we watched all week.

We sequenced the work one elevation at a time so the house was never open to weather overnight. Tear-off in the morning, dry-in by the afternoon, every day.

The rot was worse than the surface suggested - it usually is. Behind the worst corner we found a fascia return and a section of sub-fascia that crumbled on contact. We photographed everything before touching it, walked the owners through the added scope the same day, and rebuilt the corner correctly instead of cladding over it.

The other constraint was spring weather. Fiber cement does not care about rain, but caulk and paint do. We staged the finish work around dry windows and pushed the final coat rather than paint into a wet forecast. A few days of patience beats a peeling finish in year two.

The envelope came through the following wet season tight: no intrusion at the repaired corners, no telegraphing seams, no callbacks. The flashing details that caused the original damage are now correct and documented in the owners' project binder.

What is holding up well: every flashing transition and the rebuilt fascia corners. What we would tell any owner with 20-plus-year-old siding: the visible boards are the last thing to fail. By the time the surface looks tired, the water has usually been inside the wall for a while. Scope it honestly before it becomes a framing repair.