help! siding newbie

[6677]

Help- zero experience here ! Siding questions.  Have to tell builder this week!  I have been planning to use horizontal 1x8 treated pine siding, copying what a friend used on his house. I really like the grayed look and the texture of the lap siding and I like that it does not need to be painted. Now everybody tells me I "have"  to use a cement type plank siding. My builder (he;s mostly concerned about carpenter bees) , my building supply guy, my wife..... I even called the salesman  that sells  the pine siding ... and he says he's putting hardie plank on his house!
Am I nuts to persist in wanting real wood siding?
Everybody says 'wood is too much maintenance"...but my friend has had this siding in place for 15 years no problem and no painting whereas the cement products have to be painted. Help! Thanks experts- gotta give them an answer this week.

[rick91351]

  from Rick and Ellen in Idaho

In a thumb nail one if you are in an area that there might be a chance of a wild fire - range or forest I would do cement.

Two - Paint sticks to cement siding very well from what I see.  Hardie pre-painted is like 30 year.  The brand I picked is 15 year.   

Three - Hardie is not the only player in the market.

Four - Much less chance of woodpecker and insect damage.

If I can avoid a lot of maintenance I would do it.  I would rather put my time back in to the property.  Really I am not equating it to hunting - fishing and fourwheeling but fencing, tree care both orchard and forest and such.  I just don't do much of the hunting and fishing stuff.  When I am on one of  the fourwheelers it is mostly looking for cows - going the neighbors - and such.   I am retired but work harder now than ever before.  Just love 'living the life'.         

The house I am building after all the studying it all out to the best of my ability will receive cement.



I could side it literally with wood off this place for pennies on with we will be shelling out.  The shop building off to the right hand side was sided with beetle killed timber off our homestead or ranch.  We worked with our neighbor felling, skidding and saw milling the siding for the shop.     



Shop under construction

[Squirl]

That is some good advice by rick.

I went with wood. 



Wood is abundant in my area (Central NY) and is in high demand.  It is a wet area and low fire risk.  I talked to a few building supply places and they can't keep some kinds in stock.  It is a very popular choice for its look and it has a lower upfront cost.

I had a lot of people telling me the same, cement or vinyl, too much maintenance, etc. Many of them oo and ah over how it looks with wood though.  If I was going to paint it, I might consider cement.  I went with stain to show off the wood.  I expect to put a second coat in 2-3 years and a coat of stain every 5 years after that.  To me, it is one of the most beautiful parts of my my house.  It is worth the work.

I went with 6" novelty pine.  If you like the grey look, I would opt for the extra few dollars for cedar.


Mason/Carpenter Bees prefer a premade house to digging in yours.

[MountainDon]

Your IP places you in AZ. If that is correct I would really think more about cement fiber lap siding. A good paint on cement fiber lasts years and years. Looks good to us though we can appreciate the appearance of a nice wood like Squirl has.   LP smartside looks good too but has not the fire resistance.   But then it is a personal choice/decision.   

We're in NM

[6677]

you folks are amazing!..thanks... so much to learn here... seems the consensus favors concerete  based products.....but those beautiful wood siding pictures make my wish  even more for wood!.... does that "bee home" work?  great idea!.... didn't know an ip  adress has location content... (but i'm in north carolina)...
i am so glad to have found this forum!
thansk a million!

john

[UK4X4]

I built a cabin / mountain home not a cookie cutter city house.

wood for me........large heavy but just looks awsome ....we'll see down the road if the maintenance sucks !-

love the carpenter bee home, I need to see if I need one, I saw something like a bee eating wood on one of my beetle kill posts which had some small holes in it...need to check into that

[Don_P]

One thing that helps with carpenter bees is thinner edged siding. We have cedar lap siding on our VA mountain home in a "Dolly Varden" pattern. The exposed bottom edge is about 1/2" deep and there is insufficient room for the bees to bore into it. My neighbor has rough sawn 4/4 (1" thick) white pine siding and the bees have gotten into the exposed bottom edges in places, we have no bee damage on the siding. I thought I was being smart at the time and used treated pine decking for the fascias. Since the bees do not eat the wood but simply bore into it for nesting they have gotten into the fascias. On the barn I used sawmill white pine screwed flat to the wall with gaps in between boards and chinked. They have bored into the faces of a few boards and nested there, they have also gotten into 1 post and the lowest 4x6 purlin on the timber porch. They are in several of the timbers in my shop as well. I do have some drione dust that seems to work but requires going in after you see the damage... I'm usually very busy that time of year, lucky bees! I still prefer wood but there is a good argument for cement.

[Squirl]

The bee home worked for me.  I had a few looking to make a nice home in a trellis I had.  They were happy not to have to do the work.  They are great pollinators too.  I like to keep them around.