Rusty Nails in Siding

[accolay]

Hello,

I'm attempting to refinish some original cedar siding by stripping the paint then repainting. This is an area that had extensive water damage due to a leaking roof at some point. I had to remove about 12 boards to repair the rotten sheathing underneath.

The rest of the siding still attached have rusty nails in them. I'm thinking about the best way to repair this without splitting the old siding, maybe removing the rusty nails, filling the holes, then drilling new holes and using new galvanized nails.

Any ideas or thoughts?

[Gothichome]

Hello Accolay, that sounds like a pretty good plan to me. I sense though that there has been some repair to these boards in the past, the nails should be under the next board up except at the ends. Are all the nails bleeding rust stains.

[accolay]

Thank you for the reply.

These nails go through the bottom of the board through to the top of the board underneath. and you can see the rust coming out from underneath the paint. I will try and snap a photo later today.

Those lovely eight or ten inch x 24" asbestos cement shingles were put over the top with a layer of cloth/mylar fabric under it. Inside the house they put tar paper on the studs before putting on the sheathing so when water got inside it was like a nice little envelope for rot. I think the worst is in just this one place. One could push their finger through that sheathing in a few crumbling spots.

I could take off the rest of that siding... it's certainly not being held on as well as it could be. I'm mostly worried about accidentally splitting boards as they come off- 12' is 23$ and this repair could get fairly expensive if I'm not very careful.

https://www.menards.com/main/building-m ... 845897.htm

[Gothichome]

Accolay, I think your stuck with the situation, the damage you hinted at by pulling boards would be far worse than the staining issue in my opinion. The only solution I can see would be a yearly/bi-yearly scrubbing with TSP.

[phil]

maybe if you try wood bleach , ( oxalic acid) that helps remove the stains. if the siding is no longer getting wet, then maybe it wot bleed back so much with some paint or stain on it.

If I pull wood off and crack it, I just immediately glue the crack and then continue, that way I loose less fragments and they key better than if I set them aside. usually I find if I catch them straight away I can just use tape as my clamps , as long as the parts fit they are very strong when glued up. if they sort of hinge from the break then I keep them joined to help them align. wiggle them to distribute the glue. Being siding I guess you'd need to use a waterproof glue.
the other thing Ive found is that it is usually easier to pull casing nails right through from the back , If I pull them they way they went in they inevitably chip the surface and the result isn't just a hole, but a chip near the hole as well. If they have heads then you have to clip the heads or pull them that way. I have a tool that is for pulling nails that are driven right in. it works well to pull the nails without heads. if they snap off, or to pull the back side of the nail so the head pops through if they have smaller heads. there is a tool used for siding it looks like a thin flat bar, it has a hard edge you can sharpen, and the other end is made to be hit with a hammer, so you can put it under a shingle and hit it to cut the nail. then you can evidently replace shingles in the middle where you can't access the nails easily.

if you want to treat the rust, the stuff that turns rust black works well. you can look at rust mort although I'm not trying to sell a certain brand, you'll find other rust inhibitors in auto parts places.