We have a house from the early 1970s built of concrete with sections of wood below and above the windows.
Now the wooden sections are painted with a color that has caused the boards to become like tinder at the bottom edges in several places, so all the paneling will now be replaced.
When I removed the paneling, I discovered that there wasn't any air gap behind the paneling, and instead, they used paneling with a recessed air gap (unsure what these are called).
Today, there is only; paneling, wind barrier, and behind that, there is fiberglass insulation between the studs.
A silly question perhaps, but if I buy "regular" paneling without routing on the backside, should I then install an air gap before the paneling?
Now the wooden sections are painted with a color that has caused the boards to become like tinder at the bottom edges in several places, so all the paneling will now be replaced.
When I removed the paneling, I discovered that there wasn't any air gap behind the paneling, and instead, they used paneling with a recessed air gap (unsure what these are called).
Today, there is only; paneling, wind barrier, and behind that, there is fiberglass insulation between the studs.
A silly question perhaps, but if I buy "regular" paneling without routing on the backside, should I then install an air gap before the paneling?
Yes, it's not wrong to have an air gap, but I think you should try to keep the panel at the same level as the original. If it has worked since the 70s, then it's still pretty good. Wood is not perfectly straight, so there usually are small gaps here and there anyway. However, you can carve out "air gap grooves" on the back of the panel with a regular circular saw if you want.
An air gap is needed if you paint the panel with dense paint such as plastic or alkyd oil paint. Without an air gap, you should not use those types of paint.
An air gap is needed if you paint the panel with dense paint such as plastic or alkyd oil paint. Without an air gap, you should not use those types of paint.
With "like tinder" I guess you don't mean that it is like tinder, that's hard for me to see that wood can become. Do you mean that it is brittle and falls apart? Tinder resembles more like leather.
I agree that you should create some type of air gap behind.
I agree that you should create some type of air gap behind.
Would probably look strange if you moved the panel out to create an air gap there. As long as you treat it with methods that allow the wood to breathe, there will hardly be any problems. Many houses were built like that in the past and worked fine until the facade was repainted with a different color.