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Exterior Remodeling - Award Winner

  Filed under: Accolades 

The bones of this old girl date back to the early 1900’s.  The homeowners had purchased the home in the late 60’s and had put it through a series of renovations, but without a cohesive vision of where they wanted to end up.  That was until 2011.  After looking at roof line inconsistencies, wavy siding and a stark front entry they had made up their mind.

They wanted to rejuvenate the exterior and make it look straight and clean.  Their front door and awkward steps needed a new front porch that would tie neatly into their patio from the addition. They needed a new roof with proper ventilation and to tighten up the shell to reduce energy costs.  All doable, but not without challenges.

To redo the exterior the entire house was wrapped in scaffolding and the aluminum siding that was put on over the original clap board was removed.  Once down the true sway in the wall was noticeable.  With a belly nearly 2” top to bottom and more little wiggles that an inchworm.  After confirming it was structurally sound, we took to firring and shimming out the wall to create as close to a level surface as possible.  DOW blue board was then installed between the firring strips and the assembly was sheathed in with Huber Zip Wall making a very efficient shell.

Through the process of straightening out the walls, a front porch and window trim was added to complete the old farmhouse look the owner had always thought of but didn’t have.  All the trim boards were done in Azek to ensure that this improvement would last the owners a very long time.  The floor was done with Schluter’s exterior system and finished off with slate.

The roof was something of a head scratcher.  Since their addition had a cathedral ceiling done with no ventilation and was showing heavy wear on the shingles as a direct result, we opted to use a Hunter system called Cool Vent where they integrate an insulation panel, ventilation space and new sheathing.  While it sounded great, the application was a disaster.  A number of the panels collapsed when fastened to which created “pot holes” in the roof and exacerbated the already present hump in the ridge.  So after a full install and shingling, the entire system was torn off and we devised a site correction with supplemental materials.  The result was very attractive and fully functional, but it is the last time we use a Hunter product.

As you will see the results are very impressive.  The front porch looks as though it was part of the original 1900’s design, the siding is perfect and the trim work sets everything off in a very classic manner.   When old becomes new, we all win.