A colleague told me something today that I've been pondering since. His childhood home is an old house with clapboard siding. The panel on the gable side facing south was replaced 15-20 years ago. This was installed with an air gap, while the other sides lack an air gap. Initially, everything was painted with alkyd oil paint, but the latest painting was done with acrylic, I don't know when. Now the south side, meaning the newer panel with the air gap, has rotted while the older panel is still intact.
Does anyone have a good explanation?
Does anyone have a good explanation?
It could depend on the cardinal direction. A south-facing facade is always affected much more severely. Sunlight wears out just as much as rain.
A lot to guess on:
Wind direction, rain exposure?
Shading from trees, for example, that prevents the panel from warming up and drying out?
And perhaps the low-odds option:
The new south panel is made with inferior wood compared to the other sides.
Wind direction, rain exposure?
Shading from trees, for example, that prevents the panel from warming up and drying out?
And perhaps the low-odds option:
The new south panel is made with inferior wood compared to the other sides.
Were all of them painted with acrylic? Or just the newly installed one? Sad with all the houses being ruined by plastic paint...
First, everything was painted with alkyd oil, including the new panel with an air gap. The final painting 10 years later used acrylic on everything. And then the newer panel with the air gap rotted in just a few years in a typical plastic paint manner. But that gable should have the best conditions to work with acrylic with its air gap, I think. Sure, the south side is exposed, but more in terms of the paint wearing and cracking rather than the wood just rotting behind the paint. I think it's strange.
Sure, it's likely that the newer wood is of poorer quality. It might be as simple as, even though that side is ventilated, the wood is still of such poor quality that it rots faster.
Vertical paneling . horizontal nail battens directly against the substrate = no ventilation behind
If it is then paneling with cover/batten, the panels are probably tight against each other with no holes for air to travel through
Plastic paints are dense (let some through) and absorb water, the surface dries, the moisture should exit from the backside
There is an area with houses in central Sweden where the gable end was completely rotten after 3 years, it was the wrong paint and wrongly built inside, no vent
If it is then paneling with cover/batten, the panels are probably tight against each other with no holes for air to travel through
Plastic paints are dense (let some through) and absorb water, the surface dries, the moisture should exit from the backside
There is an area with houses in central Sweden where the gable end was completely rotten after 3 years, it was the wrong paint and wrongly built inside, no vent
There are many parameters to choose from. I guess that the timber quality in combination with the drying out of the three old facades is the most important. Then, it's true that if you plan to build with an air gap and don't add extra spacers, the ventilation behind the vertical paneling can become poor.
All pages should be dry if it has been 10 years since assembly (and painting with oil alkyd) before the acrylate was applied.
The design of the air gap doesn't need to be optimal, I don't know exactly how it's done, but it should be better than none at all.
The remaining culprit is the virkeskvalitet as the main villain.
Mostly a thought I got stuck in but I'll try to let it go now, I thought. Thank you for your commitment!
The design of the air gap doesn't need to be optimal, I don't know exactly how it's done, but it should be better than none at all.
The remaining culprit is the virkeskvalitet as the main villain.
Mostly a thought I got stuck in but I'll try to let it go now, I thought. Thank you for your commitment!