With routine maintenance, your siding should last for years. To keep your house looking its best, inspect your siding for damage in the spring and autumn, make any needed repairs promptly and clean and repaint regularly.
Inspecting your siding.
Look for obvious problems such as warped boards, missing or damaged shingles, holes in stucco, crumbling mortar, cracks, and defective paint. Don't ignore less obvious interior problems such as dry rot and termite damage; these can eventually destroy your house.
Begin with a visual inspection: the drawing at right indicates vulnerable areas. When you make your actual inspection, let the following list of problems and solutions guide you:
Deteriorated caulking :
Make a note of any caulking that has dried out and renew the seals. Check the seals around windows and doors, around protrusions, and where a deck or masonry fireplace adjoins the house. Caulk any cracks in board siding.
Defective paint:
Often, repainting the defective area is all that's needed. If necessary repaint all the siding.
Cracks :
Long, vertical cracks in masonry walls may indicate settling. Place tape over a crack and leave it in place for several months. If the tape twists or splits, consult a professional to determine if there's a serious structural problem.
Mildew:
Combined heat and humidity may mildew wood and painted surfaces.
Efflorescence:
Brick or stone veneer may become covered with a white powder called efflorescence, formed when water-soluble salts are washed to the surface. In an old wall, this may indicate a leak that should be fixed. Cleaning the siding will remove efflorescence.
Dry rot and termite damage:
Dry rot is a fungus that causes wood to crumble; termites destroy wood by chewing out its interior. Both can work away at wood timbers and siding so inconspicuously that they can easily escape your notice.
To detect damage, probe the edges of wood siding with a knife and look for soft, spongy spots. Pay special attention to any part of the siding that's close to or in contact with the ground, even indirectly.
Check for visible evidence of termites; look for their translucent, ½ inch long wings or the mud tubes they sometimes build (usually visible from under the house). If you find evidence of dry rot or termites, consult a licensed termite inspector or pest control professional.
Cleaning your siding.
To keep siding in good shape, hose it down and, if necessary brush it with a carwash brush that attaches to a hose.
Hose down vinyl panels and sponge them with a mild liquid detergent.
If brick or stone veneer suffers from efflorescence, scrub the siding, one small area at a time, with a mild solution of muriatic acid (one part acid to ten parts water) and rinse the wall well with clear water.
You can retard the growth of mildew by washing the siding with a solution of cup detergent, cup trisodium phosphate, and 1 quart household bleach in 3 gallons of water. Brush or sponge the walls, then rinse.
CAUTION: When working with this solution or with muriatic acid, wear goggles and gloves, and cover your plants with a plastic tarp.
After cleaning the siding, repair any caulking and paint or stain any areas that are chipped or peeling. Wood siding is especially vulnerable to rot when the finish deteriorates.
Whether it's in the form of boards, shingles, or shakes, wood siding is durable and, with annual maintenance, should last the lifetime of the house.
To prevent deterioration of wood board siding, repair simple surface problems-holes in the wood, split and warped wood, and damaged paint as soon as they appear. Severely damaged board siding can't be effectively repaired; in this case, you'll need to replace the affected siding.
When shingles or shakes are damaged, it's usually best to replace them, since repairs to these materials are hard to conceal.
Be sure to determine the cause of any serious damage before replacing siding. If moisture is causing the problem, find the source by checking for deteriorating roofing, leaking gutters or downspouts, and poor drainage.
Consult a professional if you can't locate the source of the leak. Once you pinpoint the problem, be sure to make the necessary repairs; new siding installed over problem areas will just deteriorate again after a short time.
If after removing damaged siding you see evidence of dry rot or insect infestation, call in a professional.