Caring for your home’s exterior

Making improvements to the outside of your home may seem like a daunting task. However, it’s one that’s incredibly important. That’s especially true depending upon the age of your home and if there’s current damage that needs to be repaired to keep it structurally sound.

Brent Taylor is the owner of OC Taylor, a Raleigh-based company that provides exterior remodeling services to the Triangle area. As a licensed general contractor, he works to restore the integrity of a home’s exterior and to keep it looking and functioning at its best.

“What exterior remodeling basically boils down to is water mitigation, or trying to keep water out of the structure,” Taylor said. “If there’s a premature failure in something, I want to identify that and I want to fix it, so it doesn’t happen again.”

To properly care for your home’s exterior, he recommends the following.

Taylor said the age of a home can determine whether siding needs to be replaced, as do certain signs that can signal your siding needs to be replaced.

“A lot of people don’t know what kind of siding they have, but we can kind of extrapolate from the age of the house,” he said. “If it’s newer construction and it has fiber, cement siding, lap siding, I can start to see if anything’s going to come up with it. I kind of start seeing that around year 12.”

One example, he said, is that caulking issues can cause premature siding deterioration due to damage from pests and weather. Similarly, older building materials that are common across the Triangle are starting to age and can lead to costly damage down the road.

“Masonite, for example, was really only designed to last 25 years and a lot of Masonite around here is 30 or 35 years old. It’s already aged out,” he said. There are tell-tale signs that Masonite needs to be replaced, he explained. “With Masonite you’re going to look for the slats that have fallen down or are rotting. If you look on the bottom edge of the siding and you start seeing striation lines, or cracks, that means your Masonite is absorbing water and it’s not long for this earth.”

Modern siding can protect your home for the entire time you own it, he said. “The benefit of redoing your siding, especially if you have Masonite, is we’re replacing it with a newer product. I’m a big fan of the LP SmartSide, which is an engineered wood, which can update the aesthetics. It comes with a 50-year warranty. And then when I paint it on-site, I’m caulking it with a 60-year caulk and painting it with lifetime paint.”

He also said there’s a 50-year warranty on labor with LP SmartSide, which means any issues that may come up would be covered under those warranties, giving homeowners peace of mind as well as a new, modern exterior for the home.

Taylor said he frequently sees people who try to make simple repairs to the exterior of their homes, which often causes more issues.

One example, he said, is that he’s seen people use foam spray to repair gaps or pest damage. “Foam is probably the worst thing you can do because that will trap the moisture in and cause internal rot and damage. Also, that foam is not UV stable, so it will break down in the sun. You’re potentially doing more damage by training to mend it.”

He also cautioned against simply painting siding to update or modernize a home if there’s damage involved in the siding.

“If your siding is failing and you put a coat of lifetime warranty paint on it and you have problems,” he said, “Sherwin Williams is going to say it’s not the paint, it’s the foundation, or your siding. If you invest in that big paint job, you’re going to have to do that all over again because the siding is going to need to be repaired.”

Taylor said modern siding also allows for some flexibility to re-side an exterior wall at a time to make the process more cost effective.

There are several tasks that should be followed throughout the seasons to ensure your exterior remains in its best condition, Taylor explained.

“Clean the gutters. Make sure everything’s pruned away from siding,” he said. “Make sure the mulch is not covering the white drainpipe from your HVAC system. That’s something to look at because water will back up and then the fan, then it’ll flood, and the fan motor will get wet. It’ll rust and then you’re looking at a huge bill.”

He also said to look for standing water and address any grading and downspouts that don’t push water away from the house, which can cause foundational issues.

“Home ownership involves keeping the plants from touching the side of the house, cleaning your gutters… Those are probably the yearly thing depending on the type of siding that you have,” he said.

Taylor said he likes to take a customized, hands-on approach with his clients to ensure their individual needs are met, and that it’s specific to their home.

“No house is identical,” he said. He encourages Triangle residents to get in touch with any concerns about exterior damage. “If they spot anything, they can call me.”

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