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This is pretty commonly seen in flips. You look on Google streetscape, and the place looks entirely different before they slapped on some cheap vinyl siding, which actually makes it look pretty good in the real estate photos -- at least superficially. But I always wonder "what lies beneath." Is there any way to know? Any horror stories to share?
We replaced the siding for our 1915 house in 2016 (we purchased in 2015). This was definitely not the first time the house had been resided, I could see from old town photos that the house at one time was cedar shingle for the 2nd floor, and clapboards for the 1st floor. When we purchased it was all cedar shingles.
All of the paint was peeling, siding and trim. We decided to replace the siding and trim instead of trying to sand and paint. I wanted to switch to cedar shingles with stain to avoid the paint peeling in the future.
I was worried about what we might find under the siding, but it turned out that we had diagonal sheathing boards under the old siding that were in great shape.
I was also glad we removed the siding because we learned two things. One was that at some point someone blew in insulation into the walls from the outside which was good to confirm. The other thing we learned was that we had rot in one corner of the house, and also rot under the first floor bathroom extension. I was glad to get both of these rotten spots fixed.
So a mix of good and bad, but in the end all good because we repaired the rot.
I notice, in a lot of cases, it's a slap-dash job, leaving gaps. Wouldn't this leave an opening for not only moisture and temperature, but also mice, snakes, and other vermin?
My 1935 house had vinyl siding on it when we bought it in '01. When we added on in '07, I was going to redo all the siding so everything matched. Took off the old white vinyl and found green shingles. Eww. And some were missing. So I took them off the front porch and found cedar shingles under them that were in pretty good shape. So I exposed the front and rear cedar shingles and sided the rest.
If it's aluminum or even older vinyl, seems to me it's more likely to have been done responsibly. It's more the quick flips that I'm thinking of. It's definitely a fast and easy way to vastly improve the look of the exterior, but could hide a multitude of sins...
And mold. How is this not an issue in more old houses made to look new (again, most notably in cheap flips)? It's not like an inspector can look underneath it.
We have a brick house with vinyl siding trim and on a second garage. We are told that the original wood is underneath, but are too scared to open that can of worms. There has to be a reason why someone would go to the expense to do that. I detest siding, and would love to go back to the painted wood. Maybe if we win the lottery.
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