Inspect Your Homes Cladding | Home Improvement Power

August 22nd, 2011 by Roger Frost

Plywood is a structural panel. Plywood siding is popular because it is less expensive to install than solid wood siding. It is readily available and easily installed. Plywood siding adds to the strength of a house?s structure. Most plywood siding requires an exterior wood finish. Rough-surface plywood is ideal for paint and stain.

OSB stands for oriented strand board. It is formed of wood wafers mixed with a waterproof resin binder. It is then laid flat and oriented. Heat is applied, and wafers are formed into panels. Unlike general waferboard, the wafers in an OSB panel are oriented so that they align parallel with the length of the panel, giving it significant strength. If exposed to the elements, OSB will absorb moisture quickly and swell, and the wafers and layers will delaminate. The edges of OSB are particularly susceptible to moisture and physical damage.

Buckling and cracking are commonly found with hardboard. When hardboard is used as siding, the wood must be allowed to expand and contract along the length of the board. Buckling and cracking of wood siding materials can be caused by nailing too tightly, or because adjacent boards are butted together too tightly. A space of 1/16-inch to 1/8-inch should exist in between the edges of adjacent sheets of OSB or plywood. The space allows room for expansion and contraction. Hardboard siding should have a space of 3/16-inch in between the pieces.

Some pigments are toxic, such as the lead pigments that are used in lead paint. Lead was banned from being manufactured for residential use in 1978 by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Paint manufacturers replaced white lead pigments with the less toxic substitute, titanium white (titanium dioxide). You can learn more about lead paint, including remediation techniques, in InterNACHI?s Lead Safety for Renovation, Repair and Painting course. The film-forming component of paint is called the binder. The binder binds the pigments together, and strongly influences such properties as gloss potential, exterior durability, flexibility and toughness. A binder can be categorized according to its drying or curing mechanism.

?Chalking? refers to the white, powdery film on the surface of paint. As the paint weathers and the binder slowly degrades by ultraviolet radiation and moisture, chalking can occur. Over time, the binder?s hold on the pigment is released. After years of being hit by sunlight, paint simply starts to wear or erode away. This exposes the pigments beneath, and since they are no longer bound into the paint film, they are easily wiped off. This result is chalking. Old paint is likely to be chalky. The chalk is the powder that is deposited on your finger when you rub it over old, chalky paint.

Inspect for rot by pressing the wood with your hand or finger. Tap on wood with the back of your screwdriver. A non-invasive moisture meter can be used to confirm suspicious conditions. Probing the wood may confirm whether it is deteriorated, wet or rotting. Look closely at wood near the ground surface. Check the end grains and joints. Check the siding for adequate clearance from the roof surface.

Professional home inspectors will check your exterior cladding for signs of deterioration, condition of finish and any signs of rot. The Barrie Home Inspector has performed over 4,000 home inspections and is the Premier home inspector for Barrie, Orillia and Alliston

Want to find out more about The Barrie Home Inspector, then visit Roger Frost?s site on how to choose the best Professional Home Inspector for all your Real Estate needs.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Source: http://home-improvement-power.com/inspect-your-homes-cladding.html

ghost hunters apple news jurassic park current events current events metric conversion chart metric conversion chart