Exterior wood wall - siding ideas?

[John Pariseau]

I'm finishing up my barn project, and decided to put a wood surround around the side entrance. The main siding is a blue steel siding, board and batten.

I've attached a simplified rendering - PLEASE IGNORE the roof over the door.

Messages Image(380988142).jpg

I have a pile of pallet wood planks. Enough to side this three times over.

It'll be installed with an air gap (rain screen), ideally horizontally.

I'm at a loss as how to process this wood. I don't want to do much, if anything to it, IMHO. Obviously it will need a coat of stain/preservative. I also don't want to make it a haven for bugs. Or a buffet for evil woodpeckers.

I looked at a composite wood-like cladding system, but I estimated it would cost around $450 for the material.

Shiplap pine comes to about $88 in materials (need around 88 lf, about $1/lf), and a gallon of stain.

Any suggestions? Should I just buy the pine siding?

[Bill Dufour]

Redwood or cedar fence boards then shiplap. Pine will rot outdoors.
Bill D

[Mel Fulks]

Do you mean the project will not have a roof? Or you have the roof figured out and don't want advice on that part of the
project ?

[Liam Black]

Pine will suit you. If I were you, I would choose it, I love the smell of this tree

[Steve Fish]

When you say “process the wood “ I’m reading that as you want to turn your pallet wood into siding. The easiest thing I can come up with would be to run it through a dado stack to turn it into the shiplap. Afterwards give it a couple good cotes of stain on some saw horses before you put it up. Maybe I missed the question/point? Happens all the time lol

[John Pariseau]

My photo didn't post, attaching again. Sometime in the future the entrance will have an awning roof over it, but for now it will not. I would always appreciate some advice on that part (and will post when the time comes), but am not ready to plan for it at the moment.

Posting some reference photos first.

This is one finished side:



This is the other with doorway:



I've attached a rendering of the completed side entrance.

[John Pariseau]

Is my rendering showing up? There should be two photos in the previous post, and one computer render.

Anyhow, I'm going to apply Ice+Water to the plywood around the door. This will create a weatherproof/bugproof plane on which to put furring strips, then siding, for a rain screen. The wood siding will be about 18" on each side, and 24" above the door. I have 1" of thickness to do this in, so my wood siding needs to be no thicker than 7/8" (for an 1/8" air gap).

Steve - I've considered the shiplap approach, but don't have a stack and a lot my boards are not terribly thick. Can thinner boards be angled like lap siding, without any special cuts?

I should have the Ice+water up today, as I've put all of my horizontal furring strips on, and the housewrap is going up today. A little excessive (I probably only need the tyvek), but I don't trust exterior wood (again, woodpeckers) and feel this is a small enough area I can maintain.

[Jim Becker]

I see no issue using "wood" to enhance the visual of the entrance like you wish to do, but I agree with using material that's more suitable to long-term exposure because even with various finishes, a wood that's unsuitable to the weather is going to fall apart, attract insects, etc...things you state you don't want to happen. For that small area, you could easily mill your own "shiplap" from an exterior appropriate species, apply a penetrating finish and let it weather to a nice grey relatively quickly since it will be fully exposed until you get your awing installed in the future. You could also use even more durable manufactured material and faux finish it to look like weathered wood. That could be worth the effort because you get "the look" and also get very long term durability comparable to your metal structure.

[John Pariseau]

You could also use even more durable manufactured material and faux finish it to look like weathered wood. That could be worth the effort because you get "the look" and also get very long term durability comparable to your metal structure.

What would you suggest I look into? I've read a few guides on how to use composite wood in this sort of application (interestingly enough, they want an air gap in the back). But, I built a trex deck... and mold unfortunately grows on the stuff.

Thanks!

FYI - made some progress on the rain screen - covered the square cutouts with a high quality flashing tape then covered it with Ice + Water shield. Based on where my battens will fall, I went with 20.75" wide sides.

[Lisa Starr]

I've made "siding" out of the Cedar Fence Pickets a couple of different places on our property. The oldest is 5 years and is not treated/stained in any way, as we wanted it to weather to that silver/gray. We've had zero problems with bugs and woodpeckers. I purchased the pickets and rough cut to length. Then set up my router with a rabit bit set to 1/2 the thickness of the wood. Run 1 long side, flip the piece and run the other long side with the rabit on the opposite side. Just left the second rabit off the starting and ending pieces. They pieces are face screwed with Stainless Steel trim screws.

[Jim Becker]

Putting a small air gap isn't a horrible thing if it's indicated for a given material. That said, one of the first things I'd probably do is see if I could find a leftover box of Hardy siding (which I have on my home) at the ReStore or from a local contractor. Even an "odd color" box at a supplier...it paints up just fine which fits into the idea of a faux weathered finish, too. You're not going to need a lot of material for that space.

You could also use a sheet or two of textured exterior wall panels and cut your own "boards" by ripping along the lines and then applying it to the wall like lap siding after pre-priming it all sides. And of course, you could simply by something like Cedar deck boards, mill a slight recess with a router table to create something akin to lap siding, pre-prime or treat all sides and install. 8' cedar deck boards are about ten bucks a piece.

[John Pariseau]

Putting a small air gap isn't a horrible thing if it's indicated for a given material. That said, one of the first things I'd probably do is see if I could find a leftover box of Hardy siding (which I have on my home) at the ReStore or from a local contractor. Even an "odd color" box at a supplier...it paints up just fine which fits into the idea of a faux weathered finish, too. You're not going to need a lot of material for that space.

I should check into this - I only need about 26 square feet.

I've never worked with Hardy - but I have worked with Boral. Is Hardy board "fragile"? I found Boral to be crumbly.

[Jim Becker]

The Hardy siding on our home went up in 2008 as part of our addition project. There was very little waste to my memory and it's pretty tough stuff. I had to bore a 4" hole through it for a dryer vent last fall and I managed to ruin more than one hole saw (my own stupidity there) before switching to my jigsaw with a "demolition" type blade in it. (which was also trashed by the time I got the hole in the wall) I didn't find it crumbly at all.

[Mike Kees]

Hardie is cement fiber siding. It will break if you bend it far enough. The key is installing it with the proper nails and nailer. It needs a thinner diameter galvanized nail designed for Hardie specifically. When it first came out Hitachi worked with them to make the first nailers and nail specifically for Hardie application. You should be able to rent a nailer easily. It is blind nailed,(nailed at top and then the next row covers the nail heads). You also need tools to cut properly. Most guys use a shear as the dust created is very bad stuff. You can buy saw blades made for it to. For the small amount you are doing it may not be worth the trouble.

[Mel Fulks]

Not seeing the nail heads is a little too modern for me. I used headed stainless nails.