Pretty in Pink

Three years after deciding to reside, here I am finally stripping siding off of the house in preparation for applying new, fiber cement siding. This is a seriously dirty job! This house was built at the end of the "dirty thirties" but in 75 year on the central plains a lot of dirt collects in the walls and ceilings of a house. It is not unusual to find an inch or more of dirt at the bottom of spaces between studs. I resorted to the shop-vac to clean up as I pried up sheathing boards to check for sill damage.

The old part of the house was built in 1936 and in keeping with the time, the sheathing in that section is solid, 3/4 inch thick, 8 inch wide yellow pine boards. AMAZING! Beautiful wood and rock hard after 75 years except for a few spots along the sill where water or termites have attacked during the past 3/4 century. Fortunately, I only found one damaged section, only 16" wide and not rotted through the full thickness, so I reinforced this rather than cutting out the sill to replace the bad area.

The newer portion of the house was built in 1975 and large sections of it are sheathed in this less desirable product. Although it has the advantage of being much flatter than the board sheathing, as is obvious from reading the labeling, this product "may smolder or burn". I hope to never see this warning tested but meanwhile I tell myself it can't burn any faster than the dry old wood in the rest of the house.
Siding does come down off this much easier since it is much softer than wood so nails can be pulled out without great effort.

As the project requirements have grown, "tool

world" has been created in the side yard. Indeed, I am a KU alumni but the canopy was selected only for it's clearance price as I needed a shelter to keep tools under while working. After a few days of dragging hammers, nails, screws, drills, saws...... back into the house every evening, I was looking for alternatives. This one gives me the chance to display my Jayhawk pride while keeping my tools dry. The 10' span of the canopy is almost as big as the side yard so I'm now effectively killing the scrappy grass that had finally managed to grow in this space. Sacrifice is sometimes necessary.

After all the siding on the south side of the house was removed and hauled out back where it is stacked, in hopes someone will want it, I set about applying pink, fan-fold insulation board. Having initially planned to use vinyl siding, I bought fan-fold to help level out the surface for the new siding. With vinyl it is not necessary to remove old siding but the lapped texture is not amenable to siding over without something to smooth the surface.

I did not find the application of pink fan-fold to be great fun, despite the lovely appearance the house has all covered in pink, with red text all over it. OK, I'm kidding! Pink seems to be all about trademark, they want EVERYONE who goes by to know you bought an Owens Corning product. Hardly anyone gets to see that pink, cotton candy stuff you put in your attic or walls but this stuff is like a giant OC billboard.

Since it comes in 4' widths, 50' long, which unfolds spontaniously, it proved to be a challenge to keep the sheets of insulation where they needed to be while holding a stapler in one hand. It went up but not without a fight. Then, after getting it tacked over half the south side, I did additional research and found it was at best a waste of time, in terms of R-factor, at worst a possible problem in terms of moisture retention when used in conjunction with housewrap. With that information I decided to finish out the south side but I will not be applying fan-fold to the rest of the house. Too bad, it would have been interesting to have the entire house pink, especially if it turns out I don't get the siding attached before winter sets in.