Hi all,
The house re-siding continues on day 3 now and all is moving along nicely. The impetus for re-siding my house was a leak that appeared to be originating where the siding hit a roofline. But we couldn't be sure.
Well, tore off the area in question today myself. I have some pics I'll load later. Anyway, there was a huge gaping hole under the siding where the water was coming right in. The under-siding plywood house sheathing was rotted out, and the studs had surface rot on them (still good studs though). Insulation was mostly trashed.
When I pulled off the plywood sheathing, ants galore erupted. I'd estimate maybe ~200 total that I saw/killed. Probably more underneath but hard to tell.
So I'm letting it breath all day today (100 degree heat + direct sunlight + 6 hours of breathing). Then the siding guys are gonna nail up some sister studs just in case, re-insulate, put a new sheet of plywood up, then foam, tyvek, and put siding over top of it.
This seems like a good plan to me - my questions are this:
1. It hasn't rained in 3 weeks pretty much and it's dry and hot here. This wood was wet to the touch. How long will it stay ant fodder?
2. Do I have to worry about residual ant communities underneath this, or will they simply eat the wet wood and leave the dry alone - and eventually move on now that moisture isn't penetrating?
3. Water vapor will be able to move around and evacuate - I'm guessing the wood will also dry out in 1-2 years fully. Am I right?
This was a bugger of a leak in terms of amount of water coming in and in terms of tracking it down. I'm thrilled to have found it - and I'm happy i'm spending the money getting new siding done, as finding it involved removing one section of siding that was asbestos shingle and one section of siding that was painted plywood + faux tudor 1x4s. So we would have had to do substantial re-siding just to fix the leak in the first place.
Joe
The house re-siding continues on day 3 now and all is moving along nicely. The impetus for re-siding my house was a leak that appeared to be originating where the siding hit a roofline. But we couldn't be sure.
Well, tore off the area in question today myself. I have some pics I'll load later. Anyway, there was a huge gaping hole under the siding where the water was coming right in. The under-siding plywood house sheathing was rotted out, and the studs had surface rot on them (still good studs though). Insulation was mostly trashed.
When I pulled off the plywood sheathing, ants galore erupted. I'd estimate maybe ~200 total that I saw/killed. Probably more underneath but hard to tell.
So I'm letting it breath all day today (100 degree heat + direct sunlight + 6 hours of breathing). Then the siding guys are gonna nail up some sister studs just in case, re-insulate, put a new sheet of plywood up, then foam, tyvek, and put siding over top of it.
This seems like a good plan to me - my questions are this:
1. It hasn't rained in 3 weeks pretty much and it's dry and hot here. This wood was wet to the touch. How long will it stay ant fodder?
2. Do I have to worry about residual ant communities underneath this, or will they simply eat the wet wood and leave the dry alone - and eventually move on now that moisture isn't penetrating?
3. Water vapor will be able to move around and evacuate - I'm guessing the wood will also dry out in 1-2 years fully. Am I right?
This was a bugger of a leak in terms of amount of water coming in and in terms of tracking it down. I'm thrilled to have found it - and I'm happy i'm spending the money getting new siding done, as finding it involved removing one section of siding that was asbestos shingle and one section of siding that was painted plywood + faux tudor 1x4s. So we would have had to do substantial re-siding just to fix the leak in the first place.
Joe
