The Re-Side That Solved a Moisture Mystery

About This Project

This project started with a mystery. The homeowner had moisture issues around his windows and knew something was wrong with the original siding — a window company had already been called out to investigate a leak, and the answers stopped short of a cause. Siding Vault came referred, and Kristina ran the on-site assessment in February.

What Michael found was a textbook case of builder-era shortcuts. The plank butt joints had been caulked shut — James Hardie's installation instructions say not to do that, because sealed joints trap water instead of draining it. Behind those joints, there was no flashing at all. Some planks were face-nailed outside the manufacturer's fastening zones. And at the entry, the band board sat too close to the concrete, wicking moisture up into the fiber cement. None of these problems show from the curb. All of them show up eventually.

From Two-Tone to One Deep Blue

The original exterior mixed lap siding below with board-and-batten above, split by a transition board. The homeowner wanted it gone — one siding, one color, the whole house. We priced the full-lap layout honestly: HardiePlank costs less than board-and-batten, so the redesign actually lowered the project cost. Board-and-batten is priced as an accent product, not a better one, and we told him so rather than letting the line item ride.

For color, we recommended staying in the blue family so the existing soffits and eaves wouldn't need repainting — a real saving, not a style opinion. He chose Evening Blue from the James Hardie Statement Collection, special-ordered in ColorPlus with its baked-on factory finish, set against Arctic White HardieTrim. A new 5/4 band board runs along the base of the home, the old corner caps gave way to full HardieTrim corners, and the dated window sills came off in favor of clean trim surrounds.

The Details Under the Paint

The tear-off took the exterior down to bare sheathing, and any rot we found was repaired at no charge — that's standard on every Siding Vault re-side. New Tyvek HomeWrap went up, and every window on the house was re-flashed and taped properly — the openings that had been letting water in now shed it instead. Every stud line was marked so each plank could be fastened where James Hardie says it should be — through the plank and into framing, never face-nailed across the field.

Then the part nobody sees: a joint flashing behind every single plank seam, metal z-flashing above windows and doors, custom Hardie blocks behind the light fixtures, and correct clearance restored between siding and concrete at the entry. OSI Quad Max sealed the windows, doors, and corners — but not the plank seams. Caulked seams are a common sight on this street and a common mistake; Hardie's own instructions call for flashed, uncaulked joints that can drain. The point of this project wasn't just a new color. It was making the water go where water is supposed to go.

The Finished Look

Four weeks after the deposit, the two-tone gray was gone and the house stood in a single, deep Evening Blue with crisp white lines — same footprint, completely different presence on the street. A few extras rode along at no charge: the entry soffit painted in the siding color, the entry door repainted by our crew while we were at it, and the cracked interior garage door trim replaced with a fresh weather seal — the little pieces nobody had gotten around to fixing.

The homeowner put it better than we could: "The before and after photos speak for themselves." They're all below — including the delivery-day shot with the Evening Blue planks still stacked in the driveway.