Wood siding on dettached garage


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Old 12-23-13, 10:10 AM
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Wood siding on dettached garage

i'm in the process of doing some minor renovations to my dettached garage. my goal is to get some vinyl siding on the garage next year or the year after. while i am re-doing some interior portions of it, i noticed in several areas i can see daylight through the wood siding. The garage is very old, who knows how old the wood siding is. I'd like to make sure i can keep the weather out of the garage without having the completely tear down the existing siding, its just not in my budget right now. i asked a friend (who considers themselves a pretty avid DIYer...) their opinion on how to address this issue. he said to get some rigid foam board, and attach it to the backside of the wood siding from inside of the garage to seal up the small cracks and voids in the wood siding. looking for some opininons on that solution.

i would say 90% of the voids are as small as in the picture i attached. a few others i will need to cut some wood and make some small patches from the inside. does the rigid foam bard sound reasonable, or should i maybe try some sort of exterior caulk to take care of the small voids?

as far as use, the downstairs would be for my motorcycles and vehicle, the upstairs i plan to finish into sort of a work shop.

here are the pics:

i had to paint it before the bank would release the loan


here is a close up of the type of siding:


Exterior shot:


Void spaces, this is what the majority of the void spaces look like:
 
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Old 12-23-13, 10:20 AM
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I like the rigid foam idea. That would stop the drafts and give you small amount of insulation value.
 
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Old 12-23-13, 10:21 AM
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Is there any particular way i should attach it? Come to think of it, my buddy did offer suggestions for that part.
 
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Old 12-23-13, 10:33 AM
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If you do a good job of measuring/fitting - it will hold itself in place but you could also use roofing nails [make sure they don't go thru the siding] or nail in strips of wood along the studs to hold it in place. If the fit is loose, spray foam along the perimeter would seal it up good and hold it in place.
 
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Old 12-23-13, 10:37 AM
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excellent ideas, thank you!

that was my concern too, using nails and having them come out the other side of the siding.
 
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Old 12-23-13, 11:07 AM
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I don't see what the point is. Putting up foam on the inside would probably prevent you from seeing light out the gaps, but unless you do a REALLY good job of air sealing, the exact same amount of air is still going to leak in... it will just come around the edges of the foam. If rain gets into those cracks, you really aren't keeping the rain out- you are just trapping it between the back of the siding and the foam, and the siding would not be able to dry out. If water is not coming through the cracks, then adding the foam probably won't hurt anything.

IMO, the best thing to do would probably be to caulk the cracks from the inside, where they are most visible. You won't miss any that way, like you would if you tried to do it from the outside. A cheap construction adhesive like PL375 would probably hold the cracks and checks together to prevent them from getting worse. A tube of sealant is also a lot cheaper than a sheet of foam and will probably go a lot farther. I just think the foam would be a waste of time and energy. Especially if the garage is unheated, if you only plan to put up a piece of foam here and there, or if you plan to insulate the garage really well sometime down the road.

When you go to install your vinyl siding, it will be a good idea to put up a WRB, either a housewrap like Tyvek or a fanfold product, which will cover the old siding from the outside, preventing any water that gets behind the vinyl from weathering it any further.
 
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Old 12-23-13, 11:32 AM
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I'd it caulking it on the outside, not the inside before priming and painting.
Foam on the insides not going to stop water from getting in or stopping the rot.
 
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Old 12-23-13, 11:36 AM
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the garage is unheated, i only have a space heater for when i'm in there doing something.
 
 

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