Our historic Victorian house lies in tony neighborhood. The only reason we could afford to live in such an upscale neighborhood is because our house is pretty much the last Victorian in the area in dire need of rehab.
This summer we replaced the roof, and next summer (or the one after, depending on how things go) we will replace the siding. The siding that is currently there is cedar clapboard, but it hasn't been painted in at least 25 years and is horribly cracked and peeling such that the bare wood is showing in most places. Much of the clapboard is rotted out and our house looks pretty scaborous. The new colors I want to paint the house are dark and rich. In the picture below I have drawn in a brick pattern only because my drafting program doesn't have a clapboard fill pattern for some reason.
I am leaning towards not replacing the siding with new cedar clapboard, even though historic house purists would blanche at that very idea of using something other than wood. Wood has the problem that it needs constant upkeep. I looked into getting pre-stained wood siding, thinking that at least it would make the initial installation easier. But a sales-rep at Michigan PreStain tells me that they would sell siding in the dark blue color I want for the house with only one coat of stain on it, then we would have to apply another coat of stain and then sealer once we have it up. What then is the benefit of buying pre-stained clapboard if you have to do a couple of more coats when it is up? He also told me that a dark blue color would require painting every 5 years. Our house is 30 feet high...I really don't relish the thought of having to paint stuff 30 feet off of the ground every 5 years.
Luckily it turns out that our historic district doesn't have stringent rules regarding what kinds of siding you are allowed to use, and indeed there are many Victorians in the area that have not used wood to re-side their house. The only rule is that you have to maintain the historic trim details of the house. In our house it is easy to do that because all the window and door trim has squared off corners (ie; no round, hexagonal, or half round windows). Ours is a very simple Victorian house in fact, with very little detailing.
I took a look at fiber cement siding but it has many disadvantages; one being that it is extremely flexible and thus shows every little bit of uneveness in the walls. In an old Victorian house, there can be a significant amount of unevenness in the walls (what Victorian house have you seen that has perfect plaster inside, for instance?). Also, the sales-rep at Michigan Prestain told me that their company sells fiber cement siding, but they are increasinly unhappy with it because 4 to 6 years after installation customers are calling up to say their paint is flaking off. Apparently the siding absorbs water like a sponge and doesn't let it go that easily and the moisture build up results in paint failure.
So fiber cement siding is out.
I took a look at a brand new cellular PVC siding product. Supposedly it has great properties, but it just came out last year and dealers are almost non-existent.
So scrap that.
That leaves vinyl or metal siding. The problem with vinyl is its dazzling color array of beige, taupe, sand, buff, and cream. We didn't buy a historic Victorian house to turn it into a beige box McMansion.
That leaves metal. It turns out that metal siding is the most energy efficient choice of siding available. This interests me because I want to bring the Taylor-Schneider house (yes, our house came with a name) into the new millenium as far as energy efficiency goes, without sacrificing its historic character. Plus steel siding is very dent resistant and the paint lasts pretty much forever. But can steel siding be put on our house and still retain all the historic detailing?
I think, in the case of our particular house, with its simple detailing, the answer is Yes. The one thing that worries me is that the way steel siding is normally installed, you lose the waterline board between the foundation and where the clapboard begins (see the horizontal olive colored board in the picture above). In fact, this is how you can easily spot even the best imitators of wood clapboard siding. Before I realized this I had to look quite closely at some houses in the area to tell if they had real wood or steel (the other give away is narrow metal trim pieces where the siding meets window trim).
However, I don't think this is insurmountable. I think that with a properly flashed water line board and sill (see Figures 41 to 43 in this link), the first course of metal siding can be installed above a waterline board, thus keeping intact this important architectural design element.
I am thinking of trying solid cellular PVC for the new water line board and also for the exterior window trim (which is completely rotted out in various places). I am going to buy some this summer, paint it using recommended methods and materials, and then throw it onto the roof of our garage for a year, where the temperature and humidity ranges are very extreme. I will also keep a painted piece indoors. If the outside piece and the indoor piece are in similar condition next year, I know that I've got a good product on my hands.
You can get cellular PVC in boards, and also in a dazzling array of trim pieces. I hope this product is as good as it is touted to be.
