The Historic District

I have a question I have been pondering, and I cannot come up with the answer. In a few weeks or less, I will be putting new siding shingles on the outside of the sleeping porch. Presently, the exterior looks like this:


The specs for Hardie siding shingles calls for a waterproof barrier like Tyvek. What do you think? Barrier, or no? Presently, there is no barrier, but that is expected for a house this old.

Thank you!

Hi,

Personally, if I'm removing the old shingles, I'd use the barrier...just because now you can. It will shed any water that migrates behind your Hardie siding. And water usually DOES get in behind, no matter how hard we try! You COULD use tarpaper, which would be 'authentic' altho it does not breathe...your call...

Only way I wouldn't do it is if you are doing a die-hard historic renovation (but then, you wouldn't be using Hardie, lol...you'd use real shakes...)

No sense turning away the advancements we've made over the last 100-200 years, but also tempering their use with taste, a thought to what we really want to be doing, IMO. I mean, I use modern caulk....things like that...

wouldn't hesitate to use tyvec but you might find you need to buy a big roll and get lots more than you want. try checking craigsist materials to see if there is a part roll for cheap?

Thank you for the advice, Phil, and Gibson. I will move forward with the plan of using Tyvek.

I think the point is before the days of insulation you could get away without using some kind of waterproof membrane behind siding but nowadays it's not really a great idea.

Another thing to consider is the air gap via a rains screen. Take a look at this: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blo ... ainscreens

It should improve paint life on that siding.

As a craftsman who has sided a house w/hardishingle, IMO yours is not a good candidate for that material. You will have one course of whole shingle, and a course of ends (which are face-nailed).
The flare/kick at the bottom is not a detail that hardi takes to easily.
With such a tiny area, you can afford "perfections", and just pre-stain them all sides and they will last forever.
Casey

or you could just use the same - cedar shingles. most on my house lasted 90 years. I notice in certain lights I can see the pattern left by the round sawblade used to cut them. its actually pretty obvious when you see it. Kind of akin to wavy glass you dont' see it until you look the right way and then its obvious from 50 feet away. You can also tell by the arc of the blade that it was a huge blade , about 3 feet in diameter.
My brother has a friend he works with that has a little setup to cut them and so last time he visited I gave him a shingle as a sample. they are about 1/4" at the bottom and taper to nothing over about 18 inches or so. I guess replacements might be a bit coarser grained and likely wouldn't have the nice circular saw patterns. I'm going to have to learn more about repairing shingles but my plan is to hopefully just replace the really bad ones and try not to take it all apart.

"Perfection"is the highest grade of cedar shingles.
Casey