Repaint wood siding or cover with Vinyl?

[Dan Taylor]

First Post here. Let me start by saying thank you to all of you for offering your time and sharing your experiences on this forum. I'm happy to be a member and look forward to building solid mutually beneficial relationships.

My question is:

Should I preserve the original wood siding on a 100 yr old 2-unit multifamily or just cover it with Tyvek, foam board, and Vinyl siding?

I'm looking for experience on this one. I've had countless contractors tell me to go with Vinyl, however, the cost is about 3x that of re-painting the exterior. Not surprisingly, all the painters say it'd be a travesty to cover the wood siding.

Relevant Facts:
- This is a complete gut. Interior is down to studs and water staining is visible around most all windows and interior corners. Water penetration is definitely my UTMOST CONCERN here.
- Paint is in really bad shape, peeling all over the place. Caulk is practically non-existent.
- Wood siding is in relatively good shape with only a few spots needing replacement/repair. The wood siding is nice IMO, or at least was 100yrs ago. It's architecturally stimulating with beautiful window trim and crown molding under the soffit.
- The neighborhood is a mix. Some vinyl, some aluminum, some wood, some stucco. In this neighborhood, vinyl siding is considered "nice and new" as most are uninterested in architectural integrity or historical relevance.

Things to consider:
- There's a small single story addition (10 x 15) that will need to be completely torn down and rebuilt (for a plethora of reasons). So, if I chose to stay with wood, I'd have to match it (or perhaps attempt to preserve some of the original siding before demo).
- My original budget called for paint (estimates 3-5k, as opposed to siding 12-15k). But, considering the potential water damage to the BRAND NEW interior, this is a serious concern.
- We'll also be replacing ALL the windows and doors. Again, I'm dumbfounded on this one. Originally the intent was to use replacement windows, but if i were to go with vinyl, the potential is there for New construction windows with proper flashing and weather barrier. However, if i keep the existing siding and trim, I'll need to repair quite a few window frames before installing replacements. I guess it was common then, but it really confuses me: the window frames are 1x nailed directly into the exterior trim, which is nailed to the exterior sheathing. there is no "window frame" nailed to studs directly, only indirectly. So, if the exterior window trim comes off, the window and window frame goes with it.

Considering the challenges I face with updating the windows and matching the original siding (which shouldn't be too difficult w/ standard wood clapboard), along with the water penetration issues, WHAT DO YOU THINK? Caulk it up real good, scrape, prime and paint or go with new construction windows with vinyl?

I never intended for this to be a complete gut, just new carpet and paint (LOL). Amazing the problems you find when you pull up a carpet or two but considering I got the house for a few thousand bucks, I decided a gut was essential and I'm happy i did it for longevity sake as this will be a long term rental.

Thanks for your help and any advice you have to offer. Normally Google, with due time, has all the answers but this one is tough to get an unbiased opinion on. Literally watched 2 house flipping programs just yesterday. Episode 1 he painted, Episode 2 he sided with no explanation either way.

[Joel Owens]

1. make sure this is not in an architectural district where you need approval to touch the outside.

2. If not according to you then multiple exteriors are allowed in your neighborhood by what you are seeing from the other buildings. We contacted a contractor before about taking off EFIS synthetic siding and putting on hardi plank. His first question was what was the other houses on the same street covered with?? If they are all brick for example he has seen the HOA not approve something they deem lesser quality or not the look they want for the area etc.

3. Get your roof fixed and structure holding up the roof and secure the property first. You want to stop anymore water coming in. You get rid of the water the bugs, mold, mildew, animals, start going away.

4. I do not like vinyl siding. It isn't really used in my state of Georgia anymore. It was used heavily for the last 10 to 15 years or so but now all builders use hardi plank with a mixture of stone or brick for accents. The vinyl siding fades with the sun and also cracks and rips off with a strong wind in places. Even if you have more of the original color it looks different when putting on after the fading of the original ones over the years.

I have seen vinyl used when someone wants to cover over and hide an existing problem with an older property. Say they have defective siding or the siding has asbestos etc. they will cover over with vinyl instead of dealing with the problem.

The key with your wood is to know what kind of shape it is in. A good power wash with lower PSI will get all the crud off and let you know what you have. If most of the wood is strong then it is just reseal and recoat what you have. Most rot occurs next to the gutters and down next to the ground of the house and around all trim.

What I did when I had my quad buildings was they had the old cedar wood siding. For the most part they were in good shape. Just some rot down on the bottom. So we would take off the rotted cedar wood siding and put hardi plank for just those pieces and then match it up with paint.

If just one exterior wall was mostly bad we would hardi plank the one side and leave the other and over time replace a wall at a time. the cedar wood siding is very expensive these days which is why we used hardi plank. These are for 4 unit rental buildings in a good area that take abuse from tenants for buy and hold cash flow. If you are reselling right away you might want to redo the whole thing and not use this approach.