As early as 90 years, a new building material called siding began to appear on the domestic market. Its outstanding characteristics such as resistance to burning, environmental friendliness, lack of maintenance, easy cleaning, any color shades and attractive appearance are preserved even in severe climatic conditions for many decades, which served as a powerful impetus for crowding out other unreliable materials used in facing facades of buildings. It turned out that any homeowner with basic skills in using the tool can mount siding. Therefore, the demand for it continues to grow and only strengthens.
But still, it is worth paying special attention to the siding decoration of wooden houses, which, due to their wooden structure and, as a rule, of many years of age, can have geometric violations. Despite the simplicity of laying siding, this process should be carried out in strict accordance with the technology provided.
This article will also be useful for those who decide to make their own finish siding a wooden house.
Varieties of siding panels
Finishing this building material with wooden buildings has many advantages over other options, although it is not very popular. After all, the properties of wood allow you not to waste heat. With proper care, panels can last a long time, while maintaining an attractive appearance. But such care should be systemic, in addition, it is expensive and time-consuming. Siding is able to serve for decades without any service.
Before answering the question of which siding is best to sheathe a wooden house, it is necessary to take into account the requirements for the material from which the cladding should be made. After all, the structure can be in a region with increased activity of insects, rodents, high humidity, and so on. Not the last will be the issue of budget.
Today, the production of siding is carried out in several varieties. It is made from various materials offered by manufacturers:
- vinyl;
- wood;
- metal;
- fiber cement;
- basement.
PVC siding (vinyl)
Considering the price and practical application, we can say that vinyl siding is most often used for siding a wooden house. It is made from polyvinyl chloride, which is molded in the form of panels called PVC panels. These panels have personalized quality characteristics that affect their ductility during expansion and contraction due to changes in air temperature. If the siding has high ductility, it is able to expand and contract longer as the temperature changes. In other words, plasticity affects the durability of siding and is a sign of the quality of the material. The service life of high-quality siding reaches 50 years, while siding with the lowest plasticity index will last about 7 years.
The features of vinyl siding include its wide color palette, which allows you to realize any architectural design in almost any design. The lightness of the PVC panels and the ease of fastening will make it possible to independently finish siding a wooden house with the task of meeting a small budget. In addition, vinyl has a high resistance to physical damage and is absolutely not prone to corrosion. But you need to remember that it is forbidden to mount vinyl plates at low temperatures.
Wood siding
Specialists call this type of plates an ideal solution for the restoration of old suburban and country houses, but by no means optimal. Of course, finishing with wood siding will give the house a rich appearance and can be widely used for many country houses, but it will be very expensive. Such repairs cannot be called budgetary, and installation should be entrusted to professionals. After all, a tree does not have plasticity and with an inept cladding all errors will appear. In this case, it will be a shame to spend money on material and not get the desired effect, saving on the work of professionals.
But if the price issue is not paramount, then in addition to a presentable appearance, the buyer will be presented with the advantages of wooden siding, such as the lack of thermal conductivity and the creation of a comfortable climate inside the building due to the “living” material that allows the facade to “breathe”. A positive feature of wood as a building facade is the absence of a “thermos effect” between the wall and the cladding, which will affect the durability of the entire building.
Also, when decorating a wooden house with wood siding, one cannot fail to note the unconditional environmental friendliness of such a structure, which is absolutely harmless to human health.
Metal siding
Before sheathing a wooden house with metal siding, it is necessary to determine what specific properties of the metal are needed in a particular design.
Metal siding can be aluminum, steel and copper. Accordingly, each of these metals has its own weight, ductility, strength and price. The latter is significantly different from other types of siding and often becomes the main criterion that determines the choice of the buyer. Therefore, without special need, metal siding is not purchased, and therefore is not in great demand in our region.
But the advantages of this type can be safely attributed to fire safety, the ability to install metal siding at any temperature, a large color variety, obtaining an imitation of the facade under a beam, pine or shipboard. Also, metal siding can be made in any length. But you must immediately understand that if there is an overabundance of the material, it will not be possible to return it to the seller, since it was manufactured according to individual sizes.
Fiber cement siding
This type of siding copes with a decorative purpose, imitating any wood species and the color of natural stones, but being devoid of their shortcomings. For example, fiber siding has a relatively light weight, is not prone to decay, is not affected by insects and does not require maintenance. Also, its advantages include thermal and sound protection, high resistance to precipitation and humidity, absolute environmental friendliness and fire safety. Another “plus” of fiber cement is its resistance to temperature changes, namely (in contrast to PVC siding) the fiber center does not deform when heated and freezing. In terms of colors, fiber cement panels are not inferior to other types of panels, finishing a wooden house with siding of this type will not be more difficult than usual laying. But the price will significantly differ from the usual price for vinyl, because fiber cement has practically collected the advantages of all types of panels and does not contain the disadvantages inherent in other types.
Base siding
It is a durable type of panels used in the facing of foundations. It is made of polyvinyl chloride in the form of panels according to the example of vinyl siding, but has a large thickness.
Basement siding imitates brick or natural stone. It fits perfectly into architectural solutions and can be mounted on the entire facade of the building. But due to its high cost, it is often used in combination with vinyl siding, perfectly complements it in connection with extensive color offers.
The service life of the basement siding is approximately 50 years. It is mounted like vinyl panels. Physical shocks or other loads on the basement siding will be easily tolerated. Its advantages over PVC panels include resistance to temperature changes even in severe frosts, which means the absence of further deformation.
But even the most durable and high-quality panels will not withstand operation if the siding decoration on the outside of the wooden house is incorrectly performed. In addition to observing the rules for attaching panels, it is absolutely necessary to prepare the walls of the building for installation.
Preparation for installation
Preparation is considered the most difficult and critical period, because it directly affects the obtained installation results. First, it is necessary to treat the walls with material that prevents the appearance of fungus and insects. After the wall, they are carefully leveled with the help of slats, because the siding does not tolerate the "wave effect" and is deformed. On processed smooth walls of a wooden house, wooden or metal slats are fastened strictly to the level, which will be the frame for attaching the siding. Profiles should be on all edges of the structure, around doors, windows, openings, and so on. Between them, it is possible to lay insulation under the siding for a wooden house. In this case, it should be ensured that the insulation remains below the level of the rails in order to ensure ventilation between the wall and the facade.
Ways of fastening siding
Two mounting methods are used: vertical and horizontal. The first is called spotlights, which has recently replaced a plastic lining. It is used in external finishing work for the internal hemming of the roof. Using the second method, the facade of the buildings is directly sheathed. Both horizontal and vertical siding are fixed in the same way. But the main condition before installation is to carry out thorough preliminary work.
Tools for fastening siding panels
For fastening it is possible to use various tools. The following options are offered (you need to choose based on availability and personal use skills):
- personal protective equipment: gloves and glasses;
- marking: level, pattern, tape measure;
- Siding cutting: scissors for metal, knife-cutter, hacksaw, grinder, jigsaw;
- panel fastening: screwdriver, screwdriver;
- if necessary, create new holes on the panel: hole puncher, grinder.
Installation of siding
As already mentioned, at the beginning of the installation it is necessary to mount the profiles on the walls of the building (including the corners).
First, the crate of the wooden house is formed for siding, and then the PVC panels are fastened taking into account their possible movement due to temperature changes, leaving a gap of 6 to 8 mm to the inner edge of the profile. The installation starts from the bottom of the building, where the start profile is fixed. The panel starts up in it and stretches up until it clicks.
After that, the top of the panel is nailed or screwed in the designated cut places. At the time of fixation, it should be remembered that the panel clamped to the rail will not be able to move freely when the temperature changes, which will lead to its deformation. To prevent this, you need to leave a gap between the nail head and the panel (from 1 to 1.5 mm). The nail should be in the center of the hole and be straight nailed.
The mounting points of the panel must be maintained at a distance of 30-40 mm from each other. After fixing the panel, it should be checked for free movement on the sides. The next panel is fastened in a similar way: the lower part of the panel is inserted into the upper lock of the fixed panel and is pulled up until it clicks into place. The upper part of the second panel is nailed or screwed. The wall cladding ends by reaching the finish profile at the top. A PVC panel is inserted into this profile, its excess part is cut off if necessary.
Observing this simple instruction on preparing walls and lathing, as well as fastening PVC panels, it is possible to siding the facade of a wooden house on its own, ensuring its protection and a pleasant appearance for decades.