New Siding, 1914 Proportions

About This Project

This bungalow above Lake Whatcom has stood since 1914, and its siding was original enough to prove it — peeling paint, soft boards, and a dormer wearing shingles from another century. The owners didn't want a house that looked new. They wanted their house, kept.

Age set the ground rules. Any home built before 1978 falls under federal and Washington State lead-safety law: renovation must be performed by a lead-certified contractor with containment and cleanup procedures, whether or not lead is ultimately found. Siding Vault is Lead-Safe Certified by the State of Washington (Cert #R24-0173), so the tear-off ran by the book from the first board.

Proportions Are the Whole Point

Modern re-sides default to a 7-inch reveal — but a 1914 house never wore boards that wide, and swapping proportions is how old homes quietly lose their character. So we quoted this one differently: a 4-inch or 5-inch reveal, sized to the era. The owners chose 5 inches, and the difference is everything — the new HardiePlank reads like the original siding, just straight, sound, and sealed.

The details followed the same logic. The two dormers were re-clad in straight-edge HardieShingle, echoing what was there, with headwall and gable flashing tucked into every roof-to-wall intersection. The old window sills came off during the re-side, and we walked the owners through Craftsman-style sill options before landing on clean trim surrounds. Because the house went up primed rather than pre-finished, the color could be exactly what they wanted: Arctic White, sprayed in Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint across the siding, soffits, roof fascia, and the porch posts.

Working With What's There

A century-old house collects quirks, and this one had a modern quirk too: the windows had been recently replaced as pocket-style inserts, which can't tie into a weather barrier the way new-construction windows do. Instead of pretending otherwise, we engineered around it — the old wood trim and flashing came off, metal drip-cap flashing went on to steer water away from every window, and foam backer rod with fresh caulk closed the gaps. Metal doesn't rot; that's the point.

The gutters were failing too, quietly dumping water against the house. New white 6-inch K-style aluminum gutters and downspouts went up with the re-side, so the new walls drain the way they should. Underneath it all was the biggest surprise: a 1914 house is sheathed in old shiplap boards, not modern panels, and the tear-off found a lot of rot in them. All of it was repaired at no charge — that's our standard, and this house tested it harder than most. Then fresh Tyvek HomeWrap, a joint flashing behind every plank seam, and no caulk at the seams — James Hardie's instructions call for flashed joints that drain.

The Finished Look

From the street, the house looks like it always has — white lap, deep porch, cupola dormer — only crisp. That's the success condition for a project like this: a hundred-and-ten-year-old home that doesn't look renovated, just cared for.

Along the way there were the little asks — touch-ups the owner half-apologized for even mentioning. We were happy to do them; small things are cheap while the crew is on site and expensive forever after. Jill's review told the rest: the crew "worked all day replacing our 1914 siding" and "went above and beyond fixing parts of our house that weren't in the scope of the job to ensure the final project was stunning and would last for many more years to come."