I have an old house (1947) that had metal siding on it when I bought it. I tore off the metal siding and found fairly nice cedar clapboard under it. I had it repainted. This was all about 10 years ago.

I need to repaint, but I'm also thinking hard about changing the corners on the house where the siding meets, so that it has vertical boards as corner trim. I really like this look, and am curious if there is any downside to doing this? Other than the challenge of making the vertical cuts all the way up the siding. Do I need to allow space for the horizontal clapboards to expand... and thus will the corner trim be an issue... or should it be okay if I leave a 1/4" or so gap, caulked really well... to allow the boards to expand?

I need to do something, another option, though I don't like the look nearly as much... is that I've seen similar houses in my area that have these metal looking corner pieces that fit over the corners... and seem to be there to help protect the corners. It looks just okay in my book, I'd really prefer to install the corner trim instead.

Here is a pic of the current siding:




Thanks for you thoughts!

 

Welcome to the forums! The vertical trim boards may make a good statement, although the corner cuts were done well. You don't want to cheapen it up with the metal corners, as they are made for a specific siding brand, which is no longer made, IIRC. You would rip your lumber (and I would use a product like 5/4 AZEK) to where one board will overlap the other one, and that second one will be 1" narrower. That way the measurement from edge to center will be the same on both sides. Yes, your vertical cut will be a challenge, but so is getting up in the morning . You can do it. Let us know if you have any more questions. XSleeper will be along after supper, so hang in there. He loves this stuff!

 

Larry is right on with his advice. Cutting the siding isn't too hard... a light cordless trim saw will do the trick. tack a board onto the corner as a guide... that way the saw can be set to one depth and not cut too deep into the sheathing. LP Smarttrim would probably be my first choice, Miratec is good too. As Larry said, one piece will be 3 1/2" wide, the other you will want to rip 2 1/2 wide. predrill and nail them together, with a little construction adhesive down the joint. You could us Azek or another PVC trim, but its a bit pricey.

Don't add 1/4", just cut back to expose the sheathing corner at the top and bottom, then cut back an additional 2 1/2". That should give you room for your corner. LP makes a one piece corner too, so that would work well.

Depending on the size of the house, a 5 1/2" corner might look good too.

 

One other design option is to use two full-width boards that meet at their back corners, and then run a piece of 3/4 round vertically in the crease where they meet. 3-1/2" wide boards may be about as wide as you want to use if you go this route, since the appearance will be 3-1/2 + 5/4 = 4-1/4" wide on each wall. And yes, 5/4" is probably the thickness you want.