Mobile Wood Siding

Engineered Wood Siding

Engineered wood is what I hang on most houses down here when somebody wants the warmth of wood siding without babysitting it every spring. It's wood strands pressed with resin and treated with zinc borate, so Formosan termites and a July afternoon at ninety percent humidity don't get the easy meal they get off raw cedar siding. It comes primed, in lap boards and shake siding panels.

The install is where it lives or dies. Every cut end gets sealed, boards stay six inches off grade and an inch clear of the roof, and nails go snug rather than driven through the face. Skip that and you'll see swollen bottom edges inside two seasons. That sealing step is the one I check twice on any Mobile Siding Installation we run, because nobody can see it once the trim goes on.

Lp Smart Siding

LP Smart Siding shows up on more Midtown and Spring Hill jobs than anything else we hang, and the reason is our summers. It is engineered wood siding treated all the way through with zinc borate, so termites and rot have a much harder time than they do with plain pine.

Here is the part crews skip. The factory seal stops where the saw starts. Every cut end gets primed before it goes on the wall, or water wicks into that raw grain and the board swells like a bad shrimp boil.

We keep boards six inches off grade, an inch above roof shingles, and blind-nail into studs so the laps stay flat. On a typical cottage, LP SmartSide takes about four to seven working days once tear-off is done, longer if the sheathing underneath is soft.

Cedar Shake Siding

Shakes are where a house stops looking built and starts looking made. Most of the cedar shake siding I hang in Mobile goes on gable ends, dormers and porch aprons, on the Oakleigh and Old Dauphin Way houses where a full wall of it would be too much of a good thing.

The details matter more here than they would in a dry climate. Taper-sawn western red cedar, stainless ring-shank nails because plain galvanized bleeds rust streaks down a wall by the second summer, two nails per shake, and a quarter inch between them so they can swell in August without splitting each other apart. Every face gets sealed before it goes up.

A gable or two is a day. Book the crew for Mobile Siding Installation on a whole story of shake and you're looking at most of a week.

Clapboard

Clapboard is the old-school profile: beveled boards, thin edge up, each course lapping the one below by an inch or so. Simple to look at, unforgiving to hang. Let the exposure drift a quarter inch at the bottom and by the time you reach the soffit those courses are running downhill, and anybody walking past on Dauphin Street can see it.

So we snap lines, work off a story pole, and set one nail per stud just above the lap so each board can move when the humidity does what it does here in August.

The step crews skip is back-priming. Bare wood pulling moisture from behind will cup, split and spit nails inside a couple of seasons. Every stick of clapboard siding in a Mobile Siding Installation we run gets sealed on all six sides first.

Louisiana Pacific Smartside Siding

Louisiana Pacific SmartSide starts life as wood strands pressed with resin, wax and zinc borate, which is why Gulf Coast termites tend to go bother the neighbors instead. You can get it in lap, panel, trim and shake profiles, so a house can wear a clapboard body with shaker gables and still be one product top to bottom.

The install is where it lives or dies. Boards stay six inches off the dirt and an inch off any roof slope, joints get flashed, and nails go into framing hand tight, not driven through the face. Overdriven nails crush the substrate and let water sit in the dimple.

A good bit of the Mobile Siding Installation work we take on is lp smartside, and a straightforward single story usually runs four to six days.

Composite Siding

Composite siding is what I point people toward when they want the look of cedar clapboard siding without sanding and repainting it every few years. It's wood fiber and resin pressed into board, primed at the factory, and you can get it in lap, in shaker siding panels for a gable, and in vertical wood panel siding if you're after that board and batten line. The part that gets skipped is the cut ends.

Every field cut opens the core, and if it goes on the wall unsealed it drinks water at the joint and swells like a sponge. So we seal cuts, flash the butt joints, keep the bottom course up off grade away from splash, and set the nails snug rather than crushed so the board can move.

Corners, window count, two-story access and whether the old wood siding comes off first are what move the price.

Western Red Cedar Siding

Western red cedar siding is the one people ask for by name, usually after running a hand down a neighbor's wall and deciding vinyl isn't going to cut it. It sits at the premium end of wood siding, and grade is most of what moves the price: clear vertical grain with no knots is the expensive stuff, tight-knot runs friendlier, and rough sawn versus smooth changes the number again. Board width and how many windows we're cutting around count too.

Two things ruin cedar. Plain steel fasteners, because the tannins in the wood chew them and you get black streaks bleeding down your paint by the second year, so ours are stainless. And boards hung bare on the back, which cup and pull because they're only drinking from one face. We back-prime every piece, ends included, and seal fresh cuts on the ladder.

Wood Panel Siding

Wood panel siding is the sheet version of this job: four by eight or four by nine panels, grooved to read as vertical boards, fastened over the studs and trimmed at the corners. Done right it's tight and quiet for years. Done fast it lets go at the seams.

Every horizontal joint gets Z-flashing behind it, every cut edge gets primed before it ever touches the wall, and the panel ends want a little breathing room instead of being jammed tight, because a panel that has drunk two days of driving rain has to go somewhere. Panels come in cedar plywood or smartside siding, and either way the field nails stay flush, not sunk through the face.

What moves the price is corners and openings, wall height, and how much rot turns up once the old wood siding comes off.

Cedar Board And Batten Siding

Cedar board and batten siding is what people fall for on a cottage or barn-style front, and it lives or dies on how the battens get nailed. We hang wide vertical boards, usually a one-by-ten or one-by-twelve, then cover the joints with narrow battens. Every piece gets primed on all six faces first, ends and edges included, because cedar pulls moisture through its back side and cups on you if that step gets skipped.

The battens take a single line of fasteners through the gap between boards, never through both. Nail a wide board down at both edges and it will split itself the first time it swells. Run over furring strips, wood board and batten siding also gets a drainage space behind it, which matters a lot more on the coast than it does inland.

Gable height, how many openings need trim, and whether you want clear or knotty grade are what move the price.

Outdoor Wood Siding

Outdoor wood siding lives a hard life on this coast, so most of what matters happens before a board ever touches the wall. Every piece gets primed on all six faces, cut ends included, because raw end grain drinks water like a straw and cups the board by the second summer. We keep the bottom course well clear of grade, gap the butt joints, and fasten once per stud so a run of wood lap siding can move without splitting.

Face-nailing through two courses at once is the mistake I find most on older houses off Government Street. Looks fine for a year, then the boards check and the paint lets go in sheets.

What moves your price is wall height, how many corners and openings the trim has to wrap, whether you want cedar clapboard siding flat or shaker siding in the gables, and whether old wood panel siding comes off first.

Wood Lap Siding

Wood lap siding is the horizontal stuff most people picture on an older house off Old Shell Road: beveled boards, thick edge down, each course lapping the one below it. Before anything goes on the wall, we back-prime every board on all six sides, ends included. Skip that step and the board pulls moisture in from behind and cups like a potato chip inside two summers, which is the single most common reason a repaint fails early here.

We set one nail per course, just above the lap, so the board can move with the weather instead of splitting itself on a second fastener. Cedar lap siding also needs a clear gap at the bottom and proper head flashing over every window.

A second story adds staging. Tighter coursing means more boards per wall. Rot found after tear-off changes the plan.

Cedar Siding Installation

Cedar siding installation lives or dies on what happens to the back of the board. Cedar pulls in moisture from whichever face you leave bare, so every piece gets primed on all six sides, cut ends included, before it goes anywhere near a wall. Skip that step and the boards cup, the paint lets go in sheets, and you're looking at the tired shape of half the older houses on Government Street.

We hang cedar lap siding with one stainless fastener per course, set just above the lap, so the wood can move without splitting itself apart. Cheap galvanized nails bleed black streaks down a fresh wall inside a year, and no amount of paint hides that.

What moves your number is wall height, how many gables and dormers we're cutting around, the grade of board you pick, and whether the old outdoor wood siding comes off first.

What the job involves

A wood siding installation down here isn't the same animal it is in Denver, and every Mobile Siding Installation we take on starts with the tear-off, right down to the sheathing, so we can see what the Gulf has been doing behind your old walls. Soft plywood, rusted fasteners, the occasional wasp condo. That gets repaired first, then weather-resistant barrier, flashing at every window head, and furring strips so the wall can dry out after an August afternoon storm.

Then boards go on. Cedar shake siding, clapboard, or engineered wood siding, each piece gets primed on the face, the back, both edges and every cut end, and hung with hot dipped galvanized or stainless ring shank nails, because bay salt air chews up the cheap ones.

Figure one to two weeks on an average house, longer if paint has to cure between rains.

What it costs

Straight talk: wood costs more than vinyl, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling you something else. Vinyl around here lands near $3 to $4 a square foot installed. Siding as a whole averages closer to $10 once you're into real material, and that's roughly where engineered wood siding sits. Cedar shake runs higher, because coursing shakes by hand around windows eats days that lap siding never asks for.

What moves your number is corners, gables, and what we find when the old boards come off. Soft sheathing behind a south wall is common here after a few Gulf seasons, and it gets replaced, not covered.

Our Mobile Siding Installation numbers come off a tape measure, so ring us at (251) 551-3653 for yours.

Priced off a phone guess, that rot stays hidden and rots on.

When wood siding is the wrong fix

Sometimes wood siding is the wrong fix, and you should hear that from me before anybody starts pulling boards. If three courses at the bottom of one wall have gone soft and the rest is sound, that is siding repair, not a full re-side, and you keep the paint you already have. If the rot has traveled up into the fascia and soffit or back into the wall behind it, we chase the water path first.

New cedar lap siding over damp framing buys you two dry seasons and then the same phone call.

And if nobody in your house is ever going to repaint, real wood is the wrong siding for you. Outdoor wood siding wants paint on every edge and a maintenance cycle. Fiber cement composite siding or good vinyl siding holds color far longer with less of your weekends.

Why choose us for this

That shady north wall of wood siding has gone soft and chalky, the paint is lifting in sheets, and you'd like it handled once and then off your mind for years. Fair enough.

The difference here shows up on the estimate sheet, not in adjectives. A lower number on cedar lap siding almost always means the boards go up primed on the face only, raw on the back, and moisture in this town works into a board from behind faster than it ever does from the weather side. We back-prime all six sides of every board before it touches the wall.

That eats a day nobody ever sees and it's the reason your paint stays where you put it. Pull a board, find rot in the sheathing, and you see it before anything gets covered back up.

The walk-around costs you nothing, and nothing gets booked until you say so.

Frequently asked questions

Contact Mobile Siding Pros now

So, siding in Mobile: when you call, tell me which walls are bothering you and whether you're set on real wood or open to smartside siding or composite siding. Then we come out and measure. I pull a board near a corner and another at the bottom course, because that's where a soft wall shows itself first, and I count openings, since the trim and flashing around every window and door is where the hours actually go.

Bring photos if you've got them.

If you want cedar lap siding across the front and wood board and batten siding up in the gables, say so early. It changes the material order and how long we wait on it.

Reach us at (251) 551-3653. We work weekdays, nine to five, and a message left after that gets a call back the next morning.