Strapped Out

I’d use something hardier and nicer looking than cedar. I used sapele mahogany on the huge overhangs I have at the back of my house above the huge balcony and on part of one of the vertical walls (which takes a lot of sun). 4 years later it looks like the day I put it in. (Yeah, did it myself!) I used 9 coats (yes, nine) of Epifanes varnish (http://www.epifanes.com/products.html), as recommended when I called the manufacturer, which may sound like overkill, but they said that this necessary for the extremes our climate goes through. This stuff is not cheap (about $45 a quart) but it is probably the best out there.

Cedar just doesn’t look very good after a while, although initially it looks great. And, it’s difficult to maintain it when it’s so high up. Better to do the work in the beginning and never have to worry about it. In any event, no matter what you do, don’t just put a couple of coats of varnish on it (even if that’s what your builder ‘always does’... yawn)

Why do you need the plywood on top of the strapping? As long as you attach the siding to the strapping (at the 16” OC already), that should be sufficient, no?

Oh, don’t worry – whatever we do, there will be many coats of stain/varnish on it. While the exterior aesthetic is very important, I’ll favour the durability any day… I’m not about to do this again anytime soon.

As for the additional plywood, I believe it’s sole purpose is to ensure everything is flush. Although, I could be wrong ;)

I believe they used cedar. In my humble opinion, it looks stunning….
http://www.denver-modern.com/d.....folio.html

Good luck!
J.

jeremy- i make a good part of my living as a painter and so have some opinions of my own. any time you put a shell over exterior wood in our climate it’ll need attention in due time. paints and varnishes tend to crack with our shifts in temperature and humidity and once they crack a bit they start to peel. then you are into scraping and sanding and your surface will never look as good as it once did again.

in my opinion, if you are dealing with difficult to reach or large areas stain is the only way to go. eventually you will have to re-apply the stain but you won’t have tons of prep work and your surface will still be clean and relatively defect free.

Janis – The cedar looks stunning when you install it. Come back and check it 5 years later, though and it no longer looks stunning.

Jeremy – All I know is that you need to go for more than ‘many’ coats. You need to use a top quality product (read: very expensive) and 3 coats isn’t going to do it.

Just a thought… From your description it sounds as if you’ve strapped off either your framing, or sheathing, put in a ‘near’ rigid foam thermal break between the straps, and then stuck possibly another layer of sheathing over the straps?
I would strongly recommend you look into the rain-screen concept and put another layer of strapping over your tyvek, this will significantly extend the life of your siding.

Happened across this web site today…strapping is all that is necessary for attaching your siding. Your “eco” design goes out the window very quickly when you add another layer of sheathing. You could have done without any sheathing if you had braced the walls with let-in bracing and only used sheathing to brace the corners. Strapping can be installed on top of insulation to have a complete thermal break giving you a rain screen at the same time…use structural screws if your contractor is that worried about the weight…an extreme of this is super insulated homes in Alaska which use at least 4” of foam board attached to the framing and strapped out for rainscreen. With weather barrier of foam properly taped and sealed why do you need Tyvek?

There really wasn’t another full layer of sheathing added… we’ve got the ply that’s affixed to the studs, then the strapping every 16” (I believe) with the rigid foam insulation in between. We simply added small strips of additional ply to keep the insulation in place.

This wasn’t my ideal approach as it required more material and doesn’t provide a continuous thermal break, but the installers strongly suggested this approach as it gives the siding nails more surface to dig into. Otherwise we would have needed to add strapping on top of the insulation, which would have pushed the siding even further away from the windows and foundation.

In situations like this, I’m somewhat held hostage to the installers… I have to trust them as I didn’t have enough knowledge at the time to suggest otherwise.

I realize this post probably comes a little late, but strapping isn’t required if you go with GemThane.