wood shingle ideas

[michael skehan]

Hello,

I hope this is is the correct place to post but the prior owner to my house had an addition put on and put the wood shingles to the ground. The have as you can imagine rotted so I'm faced with needing to replace them. I'm in the middle of painting house so would like to address now. I'd love to use something like Trex but I cannot one that comes in cedar shingle look. I see clapboard and other style shingle.

thoughts?

thanks

[Bill White]

Check out the Hardi shingle.
Used 'em on our home in some places.
Bill

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Hardi's shingles are pretty good. I am using them on the new woodshop, easy enough to work with and look good. I'm using the staggered edge. They are not supposed to be in direct ground contact either of course.

[joe milana]

What's behind those shingles, and why were they run to the ground? There should be some exposed foundation below the bottom course of shingles. If the wall was framed to ground level, you have other issues besides rotting shingles. If not, eliminating the bottom course of shingles would be wise.

[Myk Rian]

If not, eliminating the bottom course of shingles would be wise.
+1 on that.

[Zach Callum]

What's behind those shingles, and why were they run to the ground? There should be some exposed foundation below the bottom course of shingles. If the wall was framed to ground level, you have other issues besides rotting shingles. If not, eliminating the bottom course of shingles would be wise.

+2 on that..

[Peter Quinn]

If there is framing behind those shingles, you really need to lower the grade. You could run a water table made from Azec if the style permits, but there is no reason to have even that start closer than 12" to grade. Address the grade issues and the shingles will become an easier problem.

[michael skehan]

Thanks for all replies and I haven't investigated this further but everything that home owner did before has been either wrong or the cheapest way. The addition is a sunroom on the side of a cape cod style home. From a real quick look some back it appears that two quick tubes were used on two far corners away from house for a foundation then floor framing sits on this. Plywood and framing was then brought to the ground with shingles nailled to it and they touch the ground.

I want to remove either bottom or bottom two runs of shingles to replace with something that won't rot. Hardi shingles can't touch the ground and are really expensive so i'm not considering this option. What I'm considering is wrapping bottom framing & plywood with peel & stick flashing membrane to eliminate ground contact then using this on back and bottom side of last shingles to eliminate ground contact of them. I'm also thinking of running a run of metal flashing along bottom of plywood behind shingle that is also bent to run under shingle to stop ground contact or animals from getting under if decide to borough shingle.

I'm open to other suggestions?

[joe milana]

Almost sounds like someone built a deck on grade at one time, then decided to enclose it. The rotten shingles are the least of your worries...long term. Your ideas are probably as good as any, and it may be a situation where you will simply have to nurse the room along until it's time to demo the room & start over. The Grace or similar flashing might do some good, and maybe run a Azek trim board around the bottom perimeter and shingle down to it. Be sure & flash the top of the trim board. A pic would help.

[michael skehan]

I'll take some pictures tomorrow but here's a sketch of what I'm faced with, I hope that it makes sense.260752