SIGNS YOU NEED TO REPLACE YOUR HOME’S SIDING
It’s no secret that our home’s siding is what guards it—and us—against the outside world. Protecting us from weather hazards and preventing interior damage, our siding puts our minds at ease when we’re within its walls. However, there are times when even these sturdy materials wear away and need to be replaced. Unfortunately, knowing when to do so isn’t always as obvious as we hope. To ensure that your home is safe for the foreseeable future, make sure you know the signs you need to replace your home’s siding.
Maintenance is Frequent
When your siding is actively deteriorating, any attempts at maintenance don’t typically last very long. Cracks that you recently repaired could reappear, and boards that you thought were secure may be looser than they were before. Eventually, you might even find that the time between repair attempts is progressively shortening. The same can become true for your paint jobs.
If you discover that you’re repainting your siding more often than once every eight to ten years, the siding itself isn’t holding the color the way it should. Since paint molds to the surface that it’s applied to, any siding that shifts cause the paint to crack and peel. This significantly reduces your paint job’s longevity and decreases the siding’s overall effectiveness. Be sure to track whenever you perform any siding maintenance to accurately judge whether your siding needs replacement.
Rot Running Rampant
Though wood rot can be contracted anywhere, it’s a particularly common problem in regions with high moisture levels in the air. As such, homeowners need to pay extra attention to the moisture levels within their homes to prevent contracting this fungus. While the most common type of wood rot can’t spread to dryer siding sections, other types can. If you contract this rarer type, it will begin spreading to every piece of adjacent wood until your entire home is affected. Therefore, it’s important to know how to identify wood rot and catch the problem early.
If you don’t discover the problem until it’s too late, wood rot can weaken the structural integrity of your siding. Over time, it will become weaker, discolored, and even give off a musty odor. All these symptoms demonstrate the deterioration process and only complete replacement can fully fix this condition once it has spread.
Visible Damage
Aside from the discolorations that wood rot exhibits, there are several other visible damages that prove your siding has weakened. For starters, peeling, chipping, or fading paint are all common signs that the siding is shifting and unsecured underneath—but this isn’t the only case. Fading paint is also a sign of potential sun damage or weathering that can eat away at the siding as well and rob it of its stability.
When allowed to persist, further symptoms can show up, such as cracking, loosening, and gaping of the siding itself. These damages aren’t just unpleasant to look at; they also make your home vulnerable to additional moisture and even pests. In fact, insects and rodents look for openings like these to begin chewing their way into your home. It’s for these reasons that you should take immediate action upon seeing these exposed areas.
Structural Damage
Other signs you need to replace your home’s siding might not be as clear upon a visual inspection. Situations where your siding is loose, bubbling, or softening can, unfortunately, only be properly identified by touch. Therefore, it’s in these cases where homeowners should practice regular structural inspections and test their siding for any such deformities. This will ensure that the problem doesn’t continue to worsen and that you can take preventative measures.
However, if your siding has weakened to the point of decay, it’s no longer able to be reliably fixed. Any efforts to do so will make additional areas susceptible to these problems and cause them to deteriorate faster. As such, it’s important that you take steps to get it replaced to maintain your home’s structure stability.
Interior Moisture and Mold
Sometimes, some of the most notable signs might not be on the siding at all. When your siding is damaged or weakened, your home becomes vulnerable to increased moisture within its walls. This moisture can work its way into the paint, furniture, and even your clothes, producing a musty and unpleasant odor. But these aren’t the only negative impacts. An increase in interior moisture can also facilitate the growth of mold along your walls.
While damaged siding isn’t the only cause of mold within a home, it’s certainly one option to consider when looking to eliminate mold. If the mold is a direct result of siding failure, it might also come with the additional sign of wet spots or crumbling woodwork on the infected surface.
Rising Monthly Expenses
Your siding, in combination with your insulation, traps your processed air within the home, creating a comfortable living environment for you and your family. However, openings in your siding allows this excess energy to escape during the warmer and colder months. Since this extra energy is freely being released from your home, you’ll often have to turn up the heat or air conditioning to compensate. Over time, you could see an increase in your energy bills, leading you to pay for more than what you’d typically need.
As with mold, faulty siding isn’t the only cause of raised energy bills. However, it’s among the most common reasons, as siding issues tend to grow if left unchecked—creating larger openings for you to lose energy through. To properly inspect your siding for leaks, be sure to check each siding seam for holes or cracks. Replacing the siding becomes a necessity when there are too many vulnerable areas to fix.
When the time comes to replace your current siding, you want to know that the job is in skilled and experienced hands. For these exact professionals and more, contact Bear Mountain Custom Painting. Our siding installation professionals in Cumming, Georgia, work hard to provide you the quality siding your home needs—without the added stress.