# Type of Wood Siding for a House?



## JPSD (May 18, 2013)

Hi all - we are considering doing wood siding on an addition to our house. We were wondering with the installation - should real wood siding always be on top of battens? We are not sure if we want to run the boards vertically or horizontally yet (it's a modern addition). We were told it is nice to do battens so it breathes better...still deciding on the wood species...looking for something durable and not crazy expensive and not too hard to maintain (we get a ton of sun)...kind of like the cedar so far...thanks for any help or tips!


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*My house has Cedar siding, solid color stained*

Cedar is as good as any wood, better than most. The photo you posted looks like Redwood to me. No matter what wood you pick, the color will NOT stay as when it was new. I picked a solid color stain originally an oil base, but now it's water base from Sherman Williams. I can get it in 5 gal pails and mix it through the pour hole with a bend 1/4" or 5/16" rod. If you take the lid off it's easier to use a propeller style mixer.


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## Frost (Sep 24, 2018)

Do a search for " rain screens" and you'll find lots of methods for holding the siding away from the sidewall to allow drying and breathing of siding, both good ideas in my opinion. Plan it out beforehand as adding a rainscreen also effects window and door installation, or at least outside trim details. 

I've yet to find a better siding then wood and I'm partial to western red cedar. Finish the back side if you can.


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## Tennessee Tim (Dec 15, 2010)

JPSD, 

You may ask Jay Whitecloud on this forum about that as he could tell you the deeper history behind the issue. I know there's some suggested changes via this type of install with moisture and so called "sweating" regarding adding the spacers. I can only answer for my area AND what I've seen happening. There's a couple of issues that are also happening due to houses being built tighter/less breathable/lack of fresh air transfering and excessive moisture buildup. 99% of issues I find are actually poor workmanship causing leaks which get blamed on sweating when it's actually leaks trapped in walls.

Wood is beautiful but it must be maintained properly from the start.

Enjoy you venture!!!


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## 35015 (Nov 24, 2012)

Hi JPSD,

I will try to offer what I can...Let me know if I can expand on something? I would share (oddly enough?) I spent today processing wood siding from both house, a barn and a barn door all from 1680 to 1740 in circa date, so that speaks to the durability of different woods with minimal ...to NO...finish on it...



JPSD said:


> ...Hi all - we are considering doing wood siding on an addition to our house. We were wondering with the installation - should real wood siding always be on top of battens? ...


*I would have to say that would be a BIG YES...!!!
*
Rain-screen systems for such siding have been around for centuries...

Some are better than other, but almost all are better than none!!!

If wood-siding is going to last (like the examples above I shared) the wood really needs air circulating on both sides...



JPSD said:


> ...We are not sure if we want to run the boards vertically or horizontally yet (it's a modern addition). We were told it is nice to do battens so it breathes better...still deciding on the wood species...looking for something durable and not crazy expensive and not too hard to maintain (we get a ton of sun)...kind of like the cedar so far...thanks for any help or tips! ...


Even with a...modern motif...in a design (my own or a collegues) I am still most likely going to go with a local sustainability grown wood species...The species variety is huge!!!...

AND!!!...if you get the right instillation contractor, this can be down with simple local "green" (aka fresh of the mill) wood. The shrinking (when designed and installed correctly) can actually assist and accent the...modern elemental look within a design wither the siding is vertical, horizontal or oblique in orientation...

AS to species...*White Oak, Red Oak, Locust, Hemlock, White Pine, and just about any wood out there* that you can get...and like the looks of...can be used in this application. Some are more durable than others, but with the correct finish...if you want to *keep the original and natural colors *to some degree or level is a must...(tradtional oils only are my recommendation...more on that later if you want it?) and installation, none are going to last less than 100 years with proper care and maintenance...

Hope that was helpful!!!

j


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## Catpower (Jan 11, 2016)

The last few years around our area there has been quite a few houses sided with cedar and either left plain or some were coated with some finish that looks great when applied but in a few years finished or nor the cedar gets pretty nasty looking.


We are in N Texas so it gets a lot od sun and then the winter is normally pretty wet, the last few winters have been more like London, always wet or foggy. 



It is the weather doing the wood damage, it might not really be damage, just crappy looking


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## MaintenanceMan (Jun 25, 2010)

http://benjaminobdyke.com/products


I believe an underlayment such as this "Rainscreen" is used these days under shingle and other wood siding. They carry something similar at my local Menards.


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## OldMAK (Feb 6, 2019)

We just finished putting shingle siding on our home based on the 100 plus year old home we moved out of we didn't use any battens or spacers other than a different kind of paper. Tyvek comes with a ridged side in the kind of paper for under shingles. I spent a lot of time researching this before committing to such labor but I think in the end it'll be just fine.


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## JPSD (May 18, 2013)

Thanks everyone for the tips and feedback - very much appreciated!


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