Building a house is a complex process. Apart from making it aesthetically pleasing and ensuring it has the right number of rooms, one of the crucial aspects of building a house involves giving it sufficient external protection using siding. This is a process in which a protective material gets attached to the exterior of your home to save it from any outside disasters. Your house is vulnerable to external factors like weather changes, pests like termites, and harsh climatic conditions like intense UV radiation. These impact your house’s exterior, causing it to become weak and eventually erode.
Once this happens, your home is safe against leaks, insects, and UV rays that can cause cracks to form along the walls and disrupt the integrity of your infrastructure. This further reduces your resale value, which is a significant downgrade for any homeowner. So how do you save the siding from worsening with time? Here’s what you need to know:
Inspect Your Siding for Damage
Sidings gradually weaken with time. They may show signs of damage like cracks, dullness, or water retention. In extreme cases, some sidings may have a visible termite infestation that can destroy the siding. Places like Pittsburgh have a massive termite problem. Each year termites cause an estimated $5 billion of damage. Termites live in large colonies. So once they impact an area, they leave lasting damage that requires extensive repair work.
Therefore, contact a reliable siding company such as Resnick Roofing & Contracting and allow them to repair all the external damages on your siding. Once you get the structure fixed, you should periodically check for damage. Try inspecting the siding again every six months. The material of the siding also reflects the kind of damage you may see. For instance, if the siding is made of wood, you might find that the wood is rotting due to moisture and water damage. On the other hand, if you have stucco siding, it immediately starts chipping when damaged and breaks. In comparison, brick sidings will have visible damage around the mortar joints. Intense weather like hail, heavy rain, and snow can also rattle your sidings.
Clean the Sidings
Cleaning the sidings can help prolong its lifespan and ensure it doesn’t deteriorate fast. Wiping down the siding cleans away mildew and grime. These are known to rot sidings over time, so it’s best to clear them off immediately. A power wash can also help clean thoroughly. If you have vinyl or wood sidings, power wash them for faster and more effective cleaning. However, be careful when handling this powerful jet on a brick siding since it can damage the mortar.
You can also take your cleaning regime further by combining trisodium phosphate (TSP) and water. This makes the water slightly abrasive, which makes scrubbing easier. You’ll notice that changing the consistency of water makes it much more convenient to scrub with and removes most of the debris. You can also incorporate a squeegee, brush, or wiper into your cleaning regime.
Ensure The Landscape is Trimmed
Shrubbery, bushes, and trees can destroy your siding too. So if you want to prolong the lifespan of your siding, you should trim and take your plants. Keeping the prickling leaves away from the siding can save it from severe damage. Once you neatly trim down the landscape, you don’t have to touch it again for at least a few months, making it a manageable task.
Leaves also tend to fall, so if you don’t keep the branches under control, they may shed the leaves into the gutter directly. If the drain fills up, the water will continue pooling, eventually seeping through the sidings into your home. Hence, as you’re doing yard work, take some time to clean, and remove leaves so your property doesn’t get damaged.
Eliminate the Mildew on the Siding
Humidity and lack of sunlight can enable mildew to grow. This can damage your siding and cause moisture to sink into the panels. Mildew also makes your sidings look discolored, so when you see a noticeable growth, spray the affected area with mildew repellent and then use a power wash to clean off the residue. You may need to repeat this step several times since mildew can be stubborn. It would help if you sprayed the impacted region with a strong mildew repellent and let the chemical settle on the vegetation. This will gradually weaken the hold mildew has on your siding, causing it to fall off and clear from the siding.
You can also further cleanse the region by using household bleach and water. By creating a dilute solution, you can prevent the mildew from returning by spraying it on the surface of the siding. The highly alkaline pH discourages the mold from growing again, and you can wipe the area to clear up any droplets behind ahead. If you plan on doing a power wash after using bleach, set the power extremely low so it doesn’t damage the precious wood.
Paint the Siding
Paint does wonders for your house. If you apply a fresh coat of paint to your siding, you can make them look new. This boosts the aesthetic value of your home, and if you have vinyl siding, it will benefit from a fresh coat of paint. This is because paint helps the vinyl siding from cracking and peeling and increases its durability.
Certain vinyl siding companies don’t allow the paint to touch their siding, so before you begin, read about the siding product and don’t destroy your sidings. Wood sidings also need a fresh coat of paint every five years, which is why you need to paint it before signs of wood damage start appearing, along with chipping, if you want long-lasting siding in your hands.
Final thoughts
Sidings are an integral component of your house. These protect your house’s exterior needs from weather changes, natural calamities, and hazards. They work overtime to protect your home, so they’re susceptible to immense wear and tear. This is why to ensure that the siding your house is using is safe and authentic, there’s a list of things you should take care of.
These include ensuring the siding is not damaged from the start by inspecting it regularly and keeping them clean and mildew free while applying a fresh coat of paint. While it may not be much, these small measures will keep your current sidings in good shape until you’re ready to upgrade to a new piece.
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