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I've seen those articles on "Cost vs. Value" and I can tell you that in this area, replacing that Masonite is not going to give you much value, if any.
If you are in a neighborhood, with all home having Masonite siding, and you change your Masonite to fiber cement, I doubt an appraiser is going to give you more than a couple thousand dollars difference. (I think I'll ask an appraiser and check this out).
I had clients that were buying a home in a neighborhood with all homes having slab foundations. This client wanted a crawl space. At that time, the builder said he would do it for $6,000 extra. I called an appraiser and asked and was told that would give ZERO value to the home when selling. So, again, if buyer wanted the crawl instead of slab, he should do it but don't expect any value upon selling.
Basements are another example. If your home is selling for $165 per sq. ft. and you finished your basement, appraisers in this area are going to give you about $50 per sq. ft. for that basement area.
I can only speak for this area as this is the only area I've sold homes in.
This reminds me of a TV show on HGTV. There was a home that didn't sell and so they changed the bedspreads on the house and moved some furniture around and the house sold IMMEDIATELY for $50,000 more. Right. TV. Fiction.
We will never again buy a house (1986) with Masonite. I had no idea what it was -coming from the midwest. We bought a house here with it and in short order it started looking distressed -swelling and paint peeling off of it -noticeable from street level. We played the inspect and replace some every year game for a while but it was getting harder and harder to find someone willing to come out for such "small jobs"; and, I am not about to climb all over my house with ladders inspecting every inch and replacing as needed (sometimes hard to tell future problem areas from ground level... you have to get up there)... I value my life.
Increasingly hard to keep up with, every year more and more pieces needed to be replaced. When it came for a total repaint we had 3 companies come out for quotes. The first two quoted substantial replacement projects first before they would feel comfortable repainting it. The third company flat out refused to paint it at all because it was in overall such bad shape they wouldn't be able to stand behind their work; said so much swelling and contracting with the Masonite the paint would not adhere properly anymore. They don't do full resides, and didn't recommend anyone, didn't try to sell me anything, just said if it was their house or a family members house they would reside all of it (vinyl or Hardi.... as long as it's not Masonite).
I disagree that the value of a house with masonite would be the same as a house with newer siding -all else being equal. We would gladly pay a premium for the siding job to be done already. SIGNIFICANT upkeep, future cost, and convenience factor. Even the people that aren't bothered by Masonite and say it is not bad stuff add the caveat.... "as long as you stay on top of the maintenance". Also, it is a large messy job that takes a large crew a couple weeks with lots of scaffolding all over your house. It's not like a roof that takes a couple guys with a couple shovels and some nail guns a day or 2 to complete. Give me the new siding, I'll replace the roof or do other projects.
Masonite.... NEVER again. If it does have it... I'll be pushing for a deep discount.. don't care if the inspector or realtors say.. it's in "OK" shape.
We will never again buy a house (1986) with Masonite. I had no idea what it was -coming from the midwest. We bought a house here with it and in short order it started looking distressed -swelling and paint peeling off of it -noticeable from street level. We played the inspect and replace some every year game for a while but it was getting harder and harder to find someone willing to come out for such "small jobs"; and, I am not about to climb all over my house with ladders inspecting every inch and replacing as needed (sometimes hard to tell future problem areas from ground level... you have to get up there)... I value my life.
Increasingly hard to keep up with, every year more and more pieces needed to be replaced. When it came for a total repaint we had 3 companies come out for quotes. The first two quoted substantial replacement projects first before they would feel comfortable repainting it. The third company flat out refused to paint it at all because it was in overall such bad shape they wouldn't be able to stand behind their work; said so much swelling and contracting with the Masonite the paint would adhere properly anymore. They don't do full resides, and didn't recommend anyone, didn't try to sell me anything, just said if it was there house or a family members house they would reside all of it (vinyl or Hardi.... as long as it's not Masonite).
I disagree that the value of a house with masonite would be the same as a house with newer siding -all else being equal. We would gladly pay a premium for the siding job to be done already. SIGNIFICANT upkeep, future cost, and convenience factor. Even the people that aren't bothered by Masonite and say it is not bad stuff add the caveat.... "as long as you stay on top of the maintenance". Also, it is a large messy job that takes a large crew a couple weeks with lots of scaffolding all over your house. It's not like a roof that takes a couple guys with a couple shovels and some nail guns a day or 2 to complete. Give me the new siding, I'll replace the roof or do other projects.
Masonite.... NEVER again. If it does have it... I'll be pushing for a deep discount.. don't care if the inspector or realtors say.. it's in "OK" shape.
It doesn't matter what the inspector or Realtors say about Masonite siding, when it comes to getting a "discount". The sellers KNOW what other homes in their neighborhood are selling for and they aren't going to give you a discount because you don't like the typical siding in that neighborhood.
I don't like vinyl siding but I wouldn't expect to buy a home in a neighborhood that has all the homes with vinyl siding and expect to get a discount since I don't like it! And then...I bought a home at the beach with vinyl siding!!!
It doesn't matter what the inspector or Realtors say about Masonite siding, when it comes to getting a "discount". The sellers KNOW what other homes in their neighborhood are selling for and they aren't going to give you a discount because you don't like the typical siding in that neighborhood.
I don't like vinyl siding but I wouldn't expect to buy a home in a neighborhood that has all the homes with vinyl siding and expect to get a discount since I don't like it! And then...I bought a home at the beach with vinyl siding!!!
I will add we are between Hardi sided homes and the one behind us was resided with Hardi just prior to ours. This did influence our decision to go with Hariplank -otherwise would have gone with vinyl. I have no probs with vinyl... you see tons of it in the midwest..... on 500K+ homes. Would have used thicker upgraded stuff here though as thinner stuff can warp with the more intense sun and heat. Also, newer builds in the neighborhood use Hardi. Less and less nasty Masonite in the hood, mix of vinyl and Hardi, thank goodness.
Masonite typically does not have a wrap underneath it.
Even if that were true, it would more strongly confirm the idea I conveyed, which was that partial replacement makes it hard to see what's underneath. One would be able to examine the sheathing directly under the boards that were replaced, but not see what's going on under the boards that were untouched.
Most of the damage I saw when I was involved in this industry directly was under the Masonite and had absolutely nothing to do with the outer-visible condition of the painted Masonite boards. The problem was that the back and unpainted side of the Masonite is like cardboard, and humid / wet conditions cause the inner (hidden) side of the board to constantly retain unacceptable moisture levels. Try sticking a moisture meter in the BACK side of 95% of boards that look fine from the outside, and let me know how what you find. 30%+ moisture is the typical and not the exception. And that assumes the board doesn't come apart in your hand when sticking the moisture meter needles into it. Meanwhile, the outer side of the board looks to be in good shape.
The only way to fully assess what's going on is to pull off all the siding on one side. There was almost ALWAYS an unpleasant surprise, most of which can be fixed very inexpensively when its caught at an early enough stage. The underlying problem will not be improved by putting new fiber cement siding over damaged wood, in fact it makes the problem worse because of the perception of "newness" from the outside.
I would say probably 75-80% + of the homes I saw built in the 90's in this area had house wrap behind the Masonite. You might find anecdotal exceptions to that in certain neighborhoods, where a builder just decided not to. The other thing I saw a lot of (unfortunately) was "inconsistent" wrapping. Wrap in some locations and not others. Sometimes the wrapped spots were in worse shape than unwrapped spots, because they weren't ventilating properly and drying out as fast.
An entire side of a home can often be resided for a few thousand dollars. To save a few bucks by trying to replace piece here and there, while removing the opportunity to fully assess the underlying condition, is a bad maintenance practice. I have seen sellers do this right before they dump a home to trick the prospective buyers into thinking there's no issue with the siding. I always feel bad for the buyer.
Increasingly hard to keep up with, every year more and more pieces needed to be replaced. When it came for a total repaint we had 3 companies come out for quotes. The first two quoted substantial replacement projects first before they would feel comfortable repainting it. The third company flat out refused to paint it at all because it was in overall such bad shape they wouldn't be able to stand behind their work; said so much swelling and contracting with the Masonite the paint would not adhere properly anymore. They don't do full resides, and didn't recommend anyone, didn't try to sell me anything, just said if it was their house or a family members house they would reside all of it (vinyl or Hardi.... as long as it's not Masonite).
This is exactly why replacing a few boards at a time costs a lot more in the long run, or even in the near-future-run.
It doesn't matter what the inspector or Realtors say about Masonite siding, when it comes to getting a "discount". The sellers KNOW what other homes in their neighborhood are selling for and they aren't going to give you a discount because you don't like the typical siding in that neighborhood.
I don't like vinyl siding but I wouldn't expect to buy a home in a neighborhood that has all the homes with vinyl siding and expect to get a discount since I don't like it! And then...I bought a home at the beach with vinyl siding!!!
Maybe "pushing" for a discount was the wrong word choice; I would be "expecting" a discount figured into the asking price. For instance, I'm interested in neighborhood/area A and street B has house C and D on it, and the two houses are exactly identical except one has 20 year old Masonite and the other 5 year old Hardiplank. If they are both the same price then one is over priced or one in underpriced. One obviously has been improved. I would gladly pay significantly more for the new siding and have that expense wrapped up in the mortgage rather than be nickel and dimed with Masonite upkeep or have to try to finance a reside project in the near future. Again, assuming this in a neighborhood/area I'm wanting to be in. I know I could pick another less desirable locale and get the hardiplank there for the same price as the Masonite in the area I want to be in (and a lot of people do make this compromise).
Like any improvement project, I would expect to pay more for it vs home with no improvements. Probably not 100% of what owner paid, but yes, more for an improved house vs an unimproved house. To not would mean I would expect to pay the same for a totally maintained and updated house as a house on the same street that hasn't been touched in 30 years. Who would expect this? Who would accept this? With that concept then everyone is just paying for the lot and the home itself has no value or impact at all on price.
First off, let me say that Hardiplank (fiber cement) is a better product than hardboard siding. That goes without saying and should not be arguable. That said, Masonite (a brand name much like Coke/Pepsi) does not ALWAYS nickle and dime you to death. Keep good paint on it and keep it well caulked and it will likely perform well. Some of the products manufactured in the early to late 80's Masonite, Georgia Pacific, Weyerhaeuser, etc) failed because of a poor recipe/composition and manufacturing issues. It would go bad within a few years regardless of how it was maintained. Poor initial paint jobs didn't help things any. There were class action law suits at the time that owners could take advantage of. Some took the money and didn't fix the siding.
Over the years I've seen many houses with perfectly fine hardboard siding....mine included. Why? Because I paint every 4-5 years (2 brush coats with a quality paint) and keep it caulked. In 24 years I've replaced one piece of siding....where the lower course meets the deck. As far as hidden damage, in my 20 years experience, I have seen it occur.....when the siding was significantly deteriorated, not when it was in satisfactory condition or slightly deteriorated. In my opinion, the risk of hidden damage is relatively low if the siding is properly maintained.
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