To side or not to side?

Question

I have a massive three story house in Lakewood.

About 3,000 sq ft so the estimates to completely side the house is anywhere from $25-30k.

First, does anyone know a reliable handyman who can replace a couple wood siding pieces?

Second. The house is about 100 years old and the wood siding is starting to show its age.

I spent two days chipping and painting two sides cause I got cited from the city of Lakewood.

Its hard for me to spend that much money which wont raise the rent of a tenant at all.

The wood siding is in relatively good condition aside from a couple pieces. Is there a product that I can use to cover up the pieces starting to rot away?

Should I just suck it up and side the house now? Or should I get another property to help pay for the work?

Tamara Deering · Answer

@Mitchell Litam

You could try.  If it were me I would replace the boards in the lower picture.  You would have to remove the white trim board at the top and loosen the gutter to remove the trim at side.  Then remove the top 6 rows of siding.  You can either replace the whole board or cut at the damaged part and weave in pieces working from the bottom up.  Replace the trim boards, caulk the edge on the side where the siding butts into the trim and replace the gutter.  This is not super hard but you can probably get a handyman to take care of that.

For the top section I think you will need to try the bondo solution.  Scrape off as much paint and damaged wood as you can, mix up the can of bondo, spread it on like drywall mud and sand it as smooth as you can.  You will lose the wood grain but it will be water tight and buy you some time.  I would also see if a roofer or your handyman can put some step flashing under that window.  There is some up there but I think some larger flashing may help the water go into the gutter and not back up on the siding.  Also make sure that small gutter has a steep enough angle to run towards the lower downspout because it looks like the water is backing up onto the wall.

Bob Collett · Answer

Mitchell,

Regardless of the size of the house, you are probably going to spend 2 or 3 times the cost of painting to side the house.  It might not increase the monthly rents... but it will certainly increase the value.  Moreover, unless you plan to paint every 5 to 8 years, you are going to run into issues of peeling paint.  You already have rotting wood.

As a property manager, I would recommend siding rather than scraping and painting.  Even after you scrape and paint... unless you take it down to the bare wood, its still going to look like crap.  Also, once it starts peeling, you are always at risk of paint chips testing positive for lead.  In a couple of years, the burden of proof falls to the owner to certified the rental to be lead safe.

Best of luck whichever way you go.

Bob

Tamara Deering · Answer

@Mitchell Litam

If it really is just a couple of pieces you can fill and sand with either bondo or plastic wood.  Also, it is not that difficult to splice in a piece of wood, you can cut out the offending piece with an oribital saw and splice in a new section.  The tricky bit with siding is that it is installed from the bottom up and needs to be removed from the top down so if the damaged section is in the middle or worse the bottom you will have to remove a lot of laps to get to the piece that needs replacing for a true fix, not a repair.  If you can pull off one of the two fixes I mentioned above I would probably do that, installing new siding for a rental probably won't pay off.

Bob Prisco · Answer

@Mitchell Litam sorry we are much to busy doing about 20 repairs / rehabs a month for our out of state clients,

Good Luck

Michael Masterson · Answer

@Mitchell Litam sent you a PM. I need some interior work done in December if any of you have contacts as well of local contractors

Ceiling textured in kitchen

Paint entire unit

New flooring in kitchen

Polyurethaning all hardwoods

Mitchell Litam · Answer

Thank you so much for all your advice! I apologize for the hiatus in communication I was out of the country.

The quotes I got were for vinyl siding! I thought it was high but I got the same quote from 3 different people within $5000.

@Bob Prisco @Bob Collett @Michael Masterson @Dionte Graves

Being local investors do you have any siding reccomendations? I do plan to replace the windows before I side shortly.

I have had quotes from Garfield, Apollo, and Raetrent siding.

Michael Masterson · Answer

@Mitchell Litam owning several in Lakewood myself I would definitely go over with vinyl, especially if you still have the wood intact. It dramatically improves the look of the house, and you undoubtedly will get the money back if you sell.

Dionte Graves · Answer

Forgive me if im being redundant from the previous responses, but I know you can get the house sided for far less than that, referencing vinyl siding.  im pretty sure in Lakewood the city approves vinyl. I just got a roof and siding for about 6500 in South Euclid. Much smaller house I have, but your siding in this area should cost 7-10k, being that these Lakewood houses have some difficulty with high third stories, neighbors house is usually in close proximity, making access difficult.

Lastly the siding will increase the value In that area.

Bob Prisco · Answer

@Josh C.sorry just assumed vinyl,,, ,$125 a sq to buy, about 100 per to install. call it $250 a sq installed. At 35 sqish, not anywhere near 30k,,,,,,

Good Luck

Josh C. · Answer

@Bob Prisco

I assume he meant wood siding, but if the area allows I would throw vinyl siding as you mentioned. Not sure the average guy gets it installed for $125 a sq since material is $70/sq minimum but way way less than 30k.

If they don’t allow vinyl (nicer areas do not) I’d go hardie over wood all day. And a full tear off, new house wrap, window flashing, hardie and paint could easily be 30k for 35 sq.

To side or not to side?

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