Siding....going up?...or down?

Mark440 · Wed Jun 05, 2013 11:57 am

Was outside working on a walkway project and just happened to notice a kind of weird 'movement' of the siding. Place is a double-wide, and the gabled end has the full sheet siding on the lower half, with the upper pieces to the soffits lapping over the lower siding.

The right half of the house is fine. But on the left side, the upper pieces of siding have now stair-stepped upwards from center line to outer edge. There are three pieces, and each piece steps about 1/4 to 3/8". Of course, once I noticed that, then I also noticed that the lower pieces of siding appear to bow outward at the center area of each piece.

The other end of the house is fine on both sides. While I am tempted to believe its just the clay expanding due to the rain we've had - well, we've had plenty of rain before and I've never noticed this.

Any ideas? The piers in this area that I can get to only have a single piece of 1-by on top of the pier - and I'm not sure it is ok to have the frame sitting directly on the 'brick' of the pier.

Greg · Wed Jun 05, 2013 6:26 pm

Can you post a few pictures? The thoughts I have is 1- improper siding install. 2- the home shifted, but you should see this in other areas such as floors, walls and ceilings.

Greg

JD · Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:37 pm

I am thinking the siding is stationary and the outside wall of that side is settling down. This would cause the siding on that side to raise at the joint. Might want to check for a relevel. When a double goes out of level, it is almost always the outside walls sinking a little compared to the marriage joint. I am thinking this is because there are two rows of piers in the center and only one row on the outside.

Mark440 · Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:08 am

I'll get a pic and try to capture the stepping.

JD - you may well be right. There are two rows in the center...and then only one on the perimeter. I've had problems in this particular area with the piers leaning...so I am a bit surprised that this corner would go "up".

In the grand scheme....is this corner going up possibly because an opposing corner going down?? I looked at the siding rest of the way around and couldn't see anything obvious.

Greg · Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:05 pm

Anyway you look at it you will need to go "Downstairs" and get a look.

Greg

Mark440 · Tue Jul 09, 2013 8:06 am

Of course I subscribe to the philosophy that if you wait long enough the source of any problem will make itself very known.

Stepped out of the shower - and the floor was floating. Noticed the water squirting out of a small surface hole in the vinyl paneling on the backside of the shower. It ran for a few seconds and then just kind of dribbled to a halt. I thought that was odd - so I turned the shower back on. Within seconds, the hole started squirting water again - and the vinyl on the drywall began to bulge outward from the area directly behind the shower head...all the way down the wall.

Tore out the center section of the drywall - and once again disappointment and disgust at the slip-shod building practices. Obviously, there wasn't a 'craftsman' within 40 miles of where ever this thing was built.

The portion of the plumbing to the shower head ( elbow shaped, accommodates 1/2" thread on one side and CPVC slip-on on the other) that allows for the structure to be anchored had two screws - one completely unscrewed and the other screwed in about 3/16". Of course, this allowed the whole thing to flop around. The constant twisting and torquing started a leak....that grew and grew - and then finally, it just snapped.

The plumbing repair is complete....and now....the floor squeak in the kitchen has stopped AND the siding has all moved back to its original position. The problem area kind of had a funky smell so I opened up the belly to pull out any wet or nasty looking insulation, and to let the area dry out. Then I can add some new insulation and close the belly back up again.

See??? If you wait long enough.......