subject: Preventative Maintenance: The Key To Lower Wood Siding Cost And Problems [print this page] Wood siding requires ongoing maintenance and everyone knows what kind of headache that can turn into. It makes great sense to fend off problems before they develop.
Wood Siding Repair and Maintenance Keep Siding Costs Under Control
These five tips help keep your wood siding repair projects to a minimum or help you to avoid them altogether.
Trim the bushes. Keep vegetation away from the wood siding. Shrubs, flowers, bushes, and grasses should be kept at least 18 to 24 inches from the exterior of your home. This space allows air flow and moisture trapped between the plants and the siding to escape. Plants are a notorious hang-out for wood-chewing bugs that make foraging raids to your siding. Trees and high shrubbery need to be kept at bay as well. Trim branches that bang into your siding during high winds.
Siding costs and enemies. Plug carpenter bee holes. Discourage these pests with a preventative dose of insect spray or plug the holes with wood putty. Avoid trapping the bees in the holes since they'll dig their way out and your siding repair project grows.
Use narrow wood shingles for repairs. The wood siding on your house has already shrunk. Adding wood shingles means the newer ones will shrink as well. Use narrow shingles to reduce the amount of shrinkage and the gaps that shrinking creates.
Splash protection. Rain splashing up from the ground and onto the house siding increases the likelihood of rot. The trick to avoiding this problem is to make sure the gutters aren't overflowing or failing to pick up rain that would otherwise drip next to the house.
Glue cracks. Use a waterproof glue on small cracks to keep them from getting larger.
A little preventative maintenance goes a long way towards avoiding the need for siding repairs.
