Exterior Cladding near you

A cladding quote is really a quote for several layers, and the cheap version of the job is usually cheap because it only replaces one of them. Ask which of the following the price includes, in writing.

The Building America Solution Center describes the retrofit plainly: one method for increasing the insulation level of the walls in existing homes is to remove the exterior cladding and install rigid foam insulation. Doing it at any other time means paying twice to take the wall apart, which is why the conversation belongs in the first cladding meeting rather than the last.

Attachment is the technical part. Building America directs installers to place furring strips in a vertical orientation only, so that water can drain behind the cladding rather than sit in the system, and states that the spacing of fasteners through the furring strips must be such that the cladding load is distributed to no more than 10 pounds per fastener. That is a design question a competent contractor should answer with numbers, not a shrug, and it is the reason heavy claddings and thick foam do not automatically go together.

Where the water control layer sits also changes how the windows are handled. Building America gives two options, at the outer face of the insulating sheathing or between the insulating sheathing and the existing wall, and notes that if the water control layer stays over the existing sheathing the windows are installed within the existing framing, while if it moves to the face of the foam the windows move out with it. Drying direction matters too: with foam on the outside the wall dries inward, so the guidance limits new or existing closed-cell spray foam in the cavities to no more than one inch of thickness and asks that other spray foams have an installed vapor permeance of at least 1.0 perm.

In fire-prone parts of the West the wall is a fire barrier as much as a rain barrier, and California has the requirements most often quoted because they are published as code. Chapter 7A of the California Building Code, as issued by the state Department of Housing and Community Development, requires that the exterior wall covering or wall assembly be noncombustible material, ignition-resistant material, a heavy timber exterior wall assembly, log wall construction, or an assembly that passes a ten-minute direct flame contact exposure test, and it requires that exterior wall coverings extend from the top of the foundation to the roof.

Vents are the other half, because embers do not need flames to get inside. The same chapter requires ventilation openings for enclosed attics, eave soffit spaces, rafter spaces and underfloor areas to be covered with metal wire mesh, vents or other devices whose openings are a minimum of one sixteenth of an inch and do not exceed one eighth of an inch, made of noncombustible and corrosion-resistant material. It also states that vents shall not be installed on the underside of eaves and cornices, with an exception where the enforcing agency accepts special eave and cornice vents that resist the intrusion of flame and burning embers.

Soffits get their own rule. The exposed underside of enclosed roof eaves and eave soffits has to be protected by noncombustible material, ignition-resistant material, one layer of five eighths inch Type X gypsum sheathing behind the exterior covering, or an equivalent tested assembly. If you live in a designated hazard area, ask your building department which edition of these standards applies to your address before you choose a material, because the code edition adopted locally is the one that governs.

If the house sits in a local historic district, the material choice may not be yours alone. The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation are codified in federal regulation and, as the National Park Service notes, are the standards most often used by local historic district commissions nationwide, which means the review board applying them to your project is probably reading the same ten sentences.

Three of those standards shape cladding decisions directly. The historic character of a property shall be retained and preserved, and the removal of historic materials or alteration of features and spaces that characterize a property shall be avoided. Deteriorated historic features shall be repaired rather than replaced, and where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature shall match the old in design, color, texture, and other visual qualities and, where possible, materials. New additions and exterior alterations shall not destroy historic materials that characterize the property.

In practice this means a proposal to wrap original wood siding in a modern panel can fail review even when the panel is the better product, and a repair-and-paint proposal can sail through. Find out whether your address is in a district before you sign anything, because a certificate of appropriateness obtained after the fact is not a pleasant conversation.

States take very different approaches. Oregon regulates the activity rather than the trade: the Construction Contractors Board states that Oregon law generally requires anyone who works for compensation in any construction activity involving improvements to real property to be licensed, lists siding among the construction activities covered, and requires licensed contractors to carry general liability insurance. Other states license by trade classification, and several have no residential cladding credential at all, in which case the checks that carry weight are the permit record, current insurance certificates and local work you can go and look at.

The federal lead rule is not optional anywhere. EPA states that anyone who is paid to perform work that disturbs paint in housing and child-occupied facilities built before 1978 must be certified, and a whole-house re-clad is far past the twenty square feet of exterior painted surface EPA treats as minor repair and maintenance. The exterior work practices are specific enough to audit from your own driveway: the rule requires closing all doors and windows within twenty feet of the renovation, covering the ground with plastic sheeting extending ten feet beyond the perimeter of the surfaces being worked on, and erecting vertical containment where the work affects surfaces within ten feet of the property line. Open-flame burning or torching of painted surfaces is prohibited outright, high-speed sanding, grinding, power planing, needle gunning and abrasive blasting are prohibited unless the machine has a shroud or containment system with a HEPA vacuum attachment, and a heat gun may only be operated below 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit.

LokalMatch is only the introduction. You describe the wall once, including the existing material, the number of stories, the age of the house and anything you already suspect about the sheathing, and cladding contractors covering your ZIP code get in touch with you directly. Those pros pay for the requests they receive and homeowners use the service free. LokalMatch does not install cladding, does not price work and does not vet, rank or recommend any contractor, so the license check, the insurance certificate and the lead certification on an older house stay with you.