# Cardboard siding ???



## karma_carpentry (Aug 7, 2005)

A neighbor asked me to look at her siding yesterday. It's clapboard, coming up in some places... a close look reveals it's basically a paper product. It's fibers matted together, sort of like a thick solid cardboard. It's stamped with a woodgrain and it really looks good. I always thought it was cedar from a distance. But it's absorbing water in a few spots and as you would expect, buckling up.

House was built in the mid-80's, definitely a cheapo spec house.

It's not a cement-based clapboard product, as far as I can tell, it's just wood or paper fibers.

Has anyone ever seen this kind of crap? Can you give any brand names or any history of when it was used and/or how it fails?

I told her, aside from ripping and residing the house, she could havbe the buckled pieces face-nailed and then repaint and cross your fingers it will last another 15 years with no further deterioration.

For being cardboard, it's holding up surprisingly well after 20 years, except for a few spots.

Who knows what the sheathing is -- probably homosote judging by the cheapness of the siding.


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## skymaster (Oct 23, 2006)

Karma: I suspect it is a masonite product that was used for many years.My son's house in Fla had it and it did same thing.MASONITE has had some many problems they were PAYING to have it removed and replaced. If neighbor is real friend a phonecall may well be worth it :thumbsup:
JackM


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## Kent Whitten (Mar 24, 2006)

mmmmmmasonite! or the new stuff is sure lock from weyerhauser...of they still make it anymore. when I first moved to seattle, they were putting up LP siding, basically 3/8" osb with a stamped face of the same kind, rough sawn cedar. problem was it was wicking into the "end grain" and swelling it up. In severe cases people had mushrooms growing on their house. 

Billion dollar lawsuit. They back primed it and sold some more. Some companies are just spineless. 

I have a feeling we are going to be hearing soon about fiber cement. Already hear bad things coming from northern NH about it busting apart when it freezes.


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## Mrmac204 (Dec 27, 2006)

framerman said:


> mmmmmmasonite! or the new stuff is sure lock from weyerhauser...of they still make it anymore. when I first moved to seattle, they were putting up LP siding, basically 3/8" osb with a stamped face of the same kind, rough sawn cedar. problem was it was wicking into the "end grain" and swelling it up. In severe cases people had mushrooms growing on their house.
> 
> Billion dollar lawsuit. They back primed it and sold some more. Some companies are just spineless.
> 
> I have a feeling we are going to be hearing soon about fiber cement. Already hear bad things coming from northern NH about it busting apart when it freezes.


Framerman- is this hardy board? the fiber cement product that you mentioned? I hope hot- they are about to re-side the building that I live in with this stuff - fortunately it doesnt get that cold here on the coast, but you never know...


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## troubleseeker (Sep 24, 2006)

Definately sounds like the old Masonite brand siding to me, but I find it hard to believe that any of it has survived that long.This stuff was real garbage..exactly as you described it, cardboard, and usually falling apart at all the seams and ends within a couple years of instalation. As mentioned, MAsonite Corp paid mucho dinero to remove tons of this stuff from thousands of houses. Closer inspection where it butts to any window or door trim or corner boards will probably reveal that it is not in as good a shape as you think. There were, as mentioned, several similiar competing "second generation" versions of this product, which you could possibly have. No possibility of it surviving "another 15 Years", and the water it is letting into the structure is probably causing much damage to framing.


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## thom (Nov 3, 2006)

Hey, don't be so hard on the masonite. We still use it here (in Albuquerque) Of course we don't do siding (we do stucco around here) but we use it for fascia and soffits. It holds up really well. Wood, on the other hand, just falls apart in the dry sun. As for water infiltration, in a wet year we get 8" of rain. We have relative humidity below 10%, sometimes as low as 2%.


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## Dustball (Jul 7, 2006)

Yeah, I just tore off all the masonite siding on a garage I'm working on this week. I think it's pure junk.


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## Second Look (Jan 13, 2007)

thom said:


> Hey, don't be so hard on the masonite. We still use it here (in Albuquerque) Of course we don't do siding (we do stucco around here) but we use it for fascia and soffits. It holds up really well. Wood, on the other hand, just falls apart in the dry sun. As for water infiltration, in a wet year we get 8" of rain. We have relative humidity below 10%, sometimes as low as 2%.


Ahh, well. One's trash is another's treasure.


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## karma_carpentry (Aug 7, 2005)

well, thanks for the information, everyone. i didn't think it could be masonite because it doesn't have that dark brown color and it seemed to be not as hard. it's softer and grayer. you're right, it's "end grain" or butt-ends is where is shows some wicking and expansion the most, but in most places it's not very much.

i am surprised too, because this is boston, not new mexico. we get plenty of rain and snow all year round.

i'll check into that LP siding and see if it's that or some other similar product. probably missed the class-action laswsuit by 15 year.s


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## Cole (Aug 27, 2004)

thom said:


> Hey, don't be so hard on the masonite. We still use it here (in Albuquerque) Of course we don't do siding (we do stucco around here) but we use it for fascia and soffits.


We still use it here from time to time.


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## Kent Whitten (Mar 24, 2006)

yes, hardi board, plank, whatever you want to call the cement board. I have heard only problems in cold parts. When the sun hits the snow on the roof, it melts, drips down, then splashes onto the lower courses. Then it freezes and kaboom. The GC I worked for up in N. Conway, NH said they would never use it and same story with many up there. 

But, that's cold up there, very cold. Mt. Washington is right there.


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## fvmerl (Jan 24, 2007)

My house is 20 years old and it has masonite siding. It is smooth with the bead at the bottom. I have 2 places where I have some expansion from water infiltration and these will be replaced with new masonite (yes you can find it easily here in North Carolina) or hardiplank if it is near the bottom of the siding. I scrub and wash the house 1 or 2 times a year, check caulking and touch up paint. Still pretty much looks like new.


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## A W Smith (Oct 14, 2007)

it is the old Louisiana Pacific Masonite siding that was subject to a class action lawsuit years ago.


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## aWorkaHolic (Oct 1, 2007)

A W Smith said:


> it is the old Louisiana Pacific Masonite siding that was subject to a class action lawsuit years ago.


Oh ya, I remember that stuff, we sided plenty of homes back in the early 80's with that stuff. If I recall not a whole lot of HO's were given anything.


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## Driftwood (Feb 15, 2004)

*Hello Karma Boston is My old Home*

Here in Ca it's been used for years. Can't butt it to close ,or problems! GO SOX


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