I got a new web video made for 1st Oregon Exteriors. It’ll soon be embedded on the home page, but I thought I’d give you a sneak peak here. I hope it lets you know how much we really do care about doing a good job on your home!
Are you ready for a free estimate for your next siding, windows or painting project?
P.S. We also made a new video for our Portland roofing company, Roof Life of Oregon. Have a look at our Roof Life of Oregon video when you’re done here.
I have watched the siding business from the front row for 13 years. I’ve found it interesting to watch which siding works and which siding fails in Portland’s unique weather. Obviously, the OSB type siding failed. (OSB includes LP, Masonite, Weyerhaeuser siding products.)
At 1st Oregon Exteriors, we don’t install vinyl siding…and I’ll tell you why.
Have you ever noticed that one or two of your exterior walls just look worse than the other sides of your home? They look beat up, they’re rough, and they won’t hold paint very well. When the wind and rain come, a drip may even appear in your windowsills. If there is a drip coming all the way through to the inside of your home, imagine what’s going on inside your walls.
Mold, mildew, and dry rot are not to be taken lightly and should be a major concern in Portland. Some of our largest repair jobs are the result of improperly flashed deck attachments and improper window installation. It costs soooo much less to do it right the first time than it does to come back and fix a disaster. The handyman from down the street, or the contractor who operates out of his mobile office (pickup truck with a ladder) may have a lower bid, but are you qualified to check his work and make sure his weatherization efforts are up to par?
It was one of those nice February days when walking around a neighborhood is a real joy, especially Portland’s historic West Hills neighborhood. We were going around meeting neighbors of one of our recently completed projects. We had taken an older home with very nice old growth cedar siding and replaced it with a narrower lap siding. The house went from a 10- inch reveal to a 5-inch reveal. (The “reveal” is the amount of siding exposed to the weather. It also makes a big difference in changing the look of your home.) We used smooth faced cement siding called Hardi-Plank. That and a lot of other neat stuff made this house unique in the neighborhood. Our client’s neighbor, Bill McClennan, had noticed the change and he gave us a “well done boys!” congrats.
My son and I really liked Bill from his handshake. Our intent was to just meet the neighbors and leave a business card for future help in any of their exterior home projects. Bill told us about his ongoing re-siding project. Time, along with Oregon’s weather had worn out his cedar shingle siding. His current focus was the southwest walls, what we call the “weather walls.” This type and kind of siding is one of the most expensive sidings that you can put on a home, about $1,600-1,800.00 for every 10×10 area. In the remodeling world, an area of that size is called a square.
Bill put us on stand-by, just in case he couldn’t complete the task as he is getting up in age. But, before we left, he had something he wanted me to see. We went into his garage and he showed me a siding shingle that had given its life protecting Bill’s home for 42 years! As you look closely at the siding shingle Bill is proudly holding, you will notice the bottom seven inches are almost completely gone. The next seven inches is the backup row for the exposed row that would be in front of it as it sits on the wall. That bottom edge started out ¼ inch thick before Portland’s wind, rain, sleet and snow whittled it down to nothing.
Some say that a picture is worth a 1,000 words, and in this case Bill’s snapshot stands as a reminder to the rest of the Portland homeowners: Always check the two weather walls on your home, as they will wear out 2-3 times faster than expected.
Let’s face it, replacing your siding or windows will be an expensive venture.
You may or may not have planned the expense for this calendar year. Most of us try and plan big expenses. Others have their money out working for them or just want to retain their cash for other purposes. And then there are those who can do home projects if the costs are spread out a bit.
That’s why 1st Oregon Exteriors offers to its clients the best financing in Portland. Smart Money Financing is underwritten by EnerBank USA, located in Salt lake City, Utah.
With a short 10-15 minute phone call, qualified homeowners can get approved for a standard unsecured loan of up to $30,000. They have rates that reflect your good credit too!
1st Oregon Exteriors also offers 180 days same as cash financing at no charge, on approved credit.
“We install now, you don’t pay for 6 months!” ASK US HOW.
Every project we estimate for you comes with this special offering. Just think, it all starts with you and your dreams of what your home will look and function like. There are a lot of really neat and fun things to do to the exterior of your home. We are excited to help you to begin, give us a call 503-925-0124.
What are the types of siding that I need to worry about, and how can I tell what it is?
Let’s face it; most people really don’t care about their exterior siding until it fails, allowing water into the walls of your home. You may discover siding failure when you go to paint your home and you find that you can push your finger right through your siding or trim! And if you have wood windows, Portland’s legendary weather always proves to be too much for the exterior sills and trim.
After you make these discoveries is when you want to figure out what went wrong, or how to make it right.
The really good news is you don’t have to know what happened, or what went wrong. Just call us, and we will look at it for you and give you a solution at absolutely no cost.
If you’re the type of person who would like to know the types and kinds of defective siding here in Portland, Oregon, here is a simple breakdown:
In an effort to replace real cedar siding, at least three companies made Oriented Strand Board or (OSB). They made it out of wood chips and fiber and steam pressed and formed it to look like wood. Between the years 1990 and 2000, thousands of Portland homes were sided with OSB type siding. The most popular siding used in Portland, Oregon was made by L.P. (Louisiana Pacific). It was the first to the market and a lot of builders switch to it from cedar. (It saved them a lot of money and it met the wood siding requirements of the neighborhoods). Right behind L.P. was Weyerhaeuser and Masonite products with very similar products.
All of these products came with a 25-year warrantee, but within 3-5 years, the boards started to swell, absorb water and develop mold and mildew within the boards. All of these types of siding need to be removed and replaced as soon as possible.
The two other types of defective siding you will find in Portland is Masonite’s imitation stucco board. It starts out with a hard outer shell and then quickly softens and begins to rot. 50% of the problem is the product and 50% in due to poor installation. A lot of Tudor style homes built in the last twenty years used this stuff and it is bad news.
Another type of siding in Portland is called EFIS. (Exterior Finish Insulated System). Some call it “Fake Stucco.”
It looks great and you can make some really amazing accents and facades on your home, but when it fails, it will cost you a ton of money to fix or replace. The biggest areas of concern are the window trim accents, transitions between floors, and doorways. They crack out and leak; we have too much water here in Portland for this type of siding.
I hope this information is helpful and I look forward to serving you.
Do you have questions about your siding? Call us, or leave a comment below…
This question is commonly asked, “Do you do small siding repairs?”
With Oregon’s weather bearing down on the southwest sides of your home’s exterior, something is going to give. And, it doesn’t matter what type of siding you have. It’s a matter of physics. A High-low pressure situation is created by the controlled environment inside your home versus the changing barometer outside. Your home environment creates a siphon for water and air penetration. This means if the caulking, siding, or flashing fails at any of the 100’s of intersections, or a window expands and contracts one too many times, you now have a leak. If you’re lucky, you will see the leak right away and get it fixed, but most leaks will go undetected in your walls and cause a lot of problems. Like mold and mildew to grow and/or dry rot to set in costing you a lot of time, energy, and money. Your best defense is to have your home’s exterior checked every 5 years. To ignore the outside of your home in Portland, Oregon is to make owning a home more expensive than need be.
The two largest repairs that we have remedied in our 12 years of business have both been stucco. One was an EIFS type (imitation stucco) installed incorrectly, the other was traditional stucco installed incorrectly. Both types allowed water to get behind the siding and remained undetected for a period of time resulting in dry rot and fungus inside the walls. Both of these projects were over $130K to fix. Removing and replacing defective siding on most homes will cost about $20-30K, as long as there are no dry rot issues.
Small repairs in your weather walls are a lot less expensive to fix than the above-mentioned projects. Often, it’s a structure such as a dormer that’s allowing water into your home. A dormer is a structure that sticks out of your roof line, usually with a window and it really takes the brunt of the weather. We may just have to take it apart and put it together correctly using components and a skill set not found in the new construction. You may have siding that has a leak, but can’t be detected from an outside ground inspection. The worst thing to do is ignore it. Letting it go just because the rain stopped will end up costing you a lot of money. Contact us if you have concerns about your siding.
