Residing My Really Ugly Garage

[grattorney]

My 2-car, detached garage has a number of ailments. While the fact that it is painted pink and green (think "Miami Vice") is bad, what is even worse is that the paint is so alligatored that it comes off in the wind. Furthermore, it has sliding barn-style doors on the front, making it all but unusuable to put a car in (which is why my workshop is in it).

I am going to remove the barn doors and replace them with one standard 36" exterior door and a one-stall garage door. This means that I will have to do one of two things: (1) find carsiding that matches the rest of My Really Ugly Garage to fill in the new spaces and paint the whole thing; or (2) reside my entire garage.

My house if 50 years old and I have had no luck finding moldings that match what came with the house. So I am not confident that I will find carsiding that matches exactly. Even if I do, I am not crazy about scraping this whole garage to repaint it.

Can I simply place new siding directly over the old siding? I was thinking I might use fiber cement board or even aluminum siding. It seems to me that the 3/4 carsiding would act as a perfect substrate for something new.

All advice taken at this window. Thanks.

Grat.

[danny_aka_rudy]

I know I've heard of siding over old siding before. It's done alot with old Asbestos shingles for containment purposes. I'm sure there are lots of things to take into consideration while doing this... like making sure things are good and dry/clean etc so you wouldn't end up with mold/rot problems btw the layers... but I'm guessin here about the possible problems.


danny_aka_rudy

[deathwish2]

>My house if 50 years old and I have had no luck finding
>moldings that match what came with the house. So I am not
>confident that I will find carsiding that matches exactly.
>Even if I do, I am not crazy about scraping this whole
>garage to repaint it.
>
>Can I simply place new siding directly over the old siding?
>I was thinking I might use fiber cement board or even
>aluminum siding. It seems to me that the 3/4 carsiding
>would act as a perfect substrate for something new.

By carsiding, are you talking 1x6 or 1x8 T&G boards with a decorative V-groove up the middle? If so, they should be relatively easy to find or for that matter duplicate. Though you won't likely be able to get them at the 'Big Box' . . . try a local builders supply/Lumber Yard . . . or, if you have a shaper/router table, consider milling up your own from flat stock . . . the bits would cost you around $100 for the T&G set plus a Vee bit (for the router . . . figure another $20-30 if you have a shaper). . . so, see which way is more economical for you with the amount you need. There will be a lot of scraping/repainting to be done on the rest of the building though . . .

As to residing over it . . . a LOT of houses in my area get vinyl over the original siding . . . in the case of a house it gives the opportunity to add a little rigid foam insulation and/or tyvek to an older home . . . and it lasts a good 25 years or more. Aluminum dents too easy for my taste . . . If I were to reside over the T&G, I'd either cover it with cedar shingles (either natural or stained), or vinyl siding.

[bobleverton5]

Greetings,

You will have no problems siding over your tongue and groove car siding as it provides a satisfactory substrate to install new siding over. The only disadvantage you might find is that it is possible that the new siding might protrude beyond the trim around your garage doors and windows - depending upon what style of trim you have.

As far as repairing the car siding, you would have no problems at all finding carsiding at a local lumber yard, but it has been my experience that newly milled carsiding will seldom line up with older carsiding - especially if it is 50 years old. The older carsiding was often milled wider than the standard milling today. Years of expansion and contraction also leave rather wide spaces along the joints - which makes patching in new boards a tedious task. As someone suggested, carsiding is not difficult to mill - so if you were looking for a project...

Good luck

Bob

[randall]

Also, any new carsiding or clapboard installed will not have the same surface texture of the old cracked, scraped and painted multiple times original, so the new stuff will appear smoother, more even and "crisp" than the old, and will always stand out as "different" to a certain degree.