Exterior Wall Finish Advice

Afternoon All,

So, bought the house a few months back unseen. You might think that this was a crazy decision, but we work at sea and didn't have the option to wait until we got home on leave again. House is solid and is just in need of cosmetic work and bringing into the 21st Century (think 60's decor). It's a tri-level home with the bottom section being block and the top timber frame as far as we can see (at least that's what the inspection pulled, we don't know for sure).

One of the things we want to do is replace the crappy looking vinyl and wood siding (two different colors) with a single siding, preferably stucco. My wife is thinking of Hardie boards on the exterior, but I'm not a fan of the gaps between the boards.

Whatever we do, I'd like it all to match and have a single exterior finish on the house. Does anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking about Hardie board on the timber frame and then stucco over the block and the cement board, but don't know if this is actually possible or not. Would appreciate anyone's help or suggestions!

Thanks!

 

Hard to say without any photos. One single finish might make it look uniform but it doesn't always look aesthetically pleasing.

 

Yeah, should have thought to include photos from the beginning really. Might not be the greatest quality but they are off the website we found the house on.

The photo with the doors shows the siding a little better but the others give you an overview of what it's like now. I hear what your saying about the uniform look might not be aesthetically pleasing, but it's better than what's there now!

 

Nice looking place. I've worked on houses where they installed cement board over tar paper covered plywood and then applied stucco so that should be an option. I know there is software that allows you to digitally change the colors on your home - I wonder if there is one that would let you see how it would look if it was all stucco ??

 

The one thing I've got against the cement board though is the gaps you have to have between each panel. At least with the Hardie and American Cement Board products I've looked at. Also you need a gap at the bottom of the panel.
If you stucco over it are you able to stucco over the gaps as well or do you have to leave gaps?

You can kind of see on the first photo that the lawn runs right up against the garage wall so might have to do something about that, I don't know yet.

Wanting to do as much ourselves as possible as we paid more for the house than we wanted to spend initially! Haha!

 

It sounds like you want EIFS... which looks like stucco... it is not "siding". With EIFS you do need expansion (control) joints on large surfaces. Dryvit is one brand of EIFS. It is essentially what you see on most hotels nowadays. Acrylic modified stucco over styrofoam panels and fiberglass mesh. Not really something you could DIY as the learning curve is probably too great.

You don't stucco over cement siding.

If the brown part is what you find objectionable, why not just paint it for now so that it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb?

 

It's the brown wooden siding and the white vinyl siding that I object to! There's holes in the vinyl from stones being kicked out by the lawn mower and it has yellowed a little with age. Would prefer to remove the whole sodding lot!

Think in order to get the "seamless" look, I'm going to end up building something over the timber frame top half and then Stucco over the whole shebang.

 

I don't know why you think you would need to "build something over" but I don't know what your thinking.

1. The old siding comes off.

If you are dead set on stucco, you would put up 2 layers of felt (or stuccowrap) then your traditional 3 coats stucco over wire lathe.

Or- if you prefer using cement board as the "first layer" (this is not hardie siding) you would then cover it with fiberglass mesh embedded in a base coat followed by a finish coat of stucco.

If you want details, try contacting one of our members here- tightcoat - for specifics. If he does not see this message you can try private messaging him to get his attention.

 

Think "build over" was maybe the wrong phrase to use there. I was meaning that once we've got the old siding down, replace any wooden exterior wall and insulation as needed, then stucco over the whole lot including the block walls.

Think first things first we need to get the old siding off and see what's underneath it for sure!

 

Stucco is pretty intensive job!

Dont dismiss vinyl, there is a huge difference between cheap builders grade and top of the line Vinyl, that can be a DIY project!