RE: [GBlist] siding

["Maine, Bruce" <bmaine@hdrinc.com>]

I know I can get in a lot of trouble for this post, but I just can't help
myself!  I think we often tend to confuse issues of durability with the
necessities of maintenance.  If I might be allowed to muse philosophical,
there are few things in this life where we aren't positively repaid for
investments in time and caring.   A family, a profession, the places we
live.  One of my biggest gripes doing Habitat houses was throwing up cheap
vinyl siding and deluding the future home owner that they had a maintenance
free cladding.  Even in the sophisticated structures we design and build
today we still face the challenge of explaining brick maintenance or roof
maintenance or HVAC maintenance to too many Owners and Facility Managers who
believe they have bought a monument that can go unattended.   I think stucco
along with Hardiboard, a reclaimed or sustainable wood siding or even metal
panels may be good choices based on your expectations of the total building
design.  But we can't delude ourselves into thinking that any of these are
permanent without the human touch.

bruce  

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Speireag Alden [SMTP:Joshua.M.Alden.91@alum.dartmouth.org]
	Sent:	Tuesday, July 24, 2001 8:55 PM
	To:	greenbuilding@crest.org
	Subject:	Re: [GBlist] siding

	Sgrìobh Alan Courtright:

	>One of the things I want in a home is absolutely minimum
maintenance.
	>OTOH, vinyl and aluminum siding make me cringe, and brick and other
such
	>faces are prohibitively expensive.  So what's left?  If Hardieboard
didn't
	>have to be painted, I'd be all for it.  Anyone know of something
along
	>those lines that does NOT have to be so treated?

	     If you do it yourself, stucco is one of the least expensive 
	sidings going.  By the time I finish my small house (estimated 
	exterior foot print of 800 feet, one story plus two gable ends) I 
	will have spent less than $750 on stucco materials.  It's just
taking 
	a long time.  If you want minimum maintenance and have decent 
	overhangs, you should look very closely at stucco.  Especially lime 
	stucco, which over time can patch its own hairline cracks.

	-Speireag.
	-- 
	Speireag Alden, aka Joshua Macdonald Alden

	If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like
but 
	do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly 
	useless parts?  To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution 
	of intelligent tinkering.   -- Aldo Leopold, _A Sand County Almanac_


	
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______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________
This greenbuilding dialogue is sponsored by REPP/CREST, creator of
Solstice http://www.crest.org, and BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of
Environmental Building News and GreenSpec http://www.BuildingGreen.com
______________________________________________________________________