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.
