Enduring Materials

By KEITH LIGGETT

Almost thirty years ago, I moved to an island off the east coast of the US. I’d left the mountains and made a serious stab at a RJ (Real Job in the City). Bruised, battered and wondering how I came to the expanse of asphalt known as Boston, I moved off-shore. Seemed appropriate at the time.

First settled in the 1700’s as a whaling port, the island homes mixed of classic New England and modern architecture. Returning to my mountain summer ways, I pounded nails for work.

One of the first jobs I worked on involved re-shingling a 150 year-old barn. As we stripped off the brittle shingles with pitchforks, I looked at the nails. They were square, cut nails. Well over 100 years old, we were stripping off the original shingles.

As I moved to other jobs, the longevity of materials became an interest to me. I looked at how they built houses so they would ‘breathe’. Not drafty, but so the wood and materials could vent in different situations. Instead of tarpaper under shingles, the old guys used red rosin paper. If something was eventually to be painted, the piece was back primed first to preserve the integrity of the wood. Modern carpenters on the island continued the traditions of the earlier carpenters. Every piece of exterior trim was back primed before it was installed.

The jobs continued. Replacing clapboards here and there on a home built in the late 1700’s. Not all the clapboards, just a few. The wood remained good. Rebuilding a deck on a Victorian gingerbread house two doors off the beach. Re-shingling home after home with the original shingles most often applied with square nails. On one house the shingles were so old, over the years, as they weathered, the shingles became deeply ridged with the grain raised like teeth on a comb. Again, square nails.

The remarkable fact remained. Most of the jobs were on homes standing well over 100 years without any major work except standard maintenance. The shingles were let weather. Clapboards were painted.

As a young carpenter, I marveled at fir and cedar’s longevity in the harsh maritime environment of the island. And the message stuck.

In a few years, when I moved back to the mountains, I refrained from building with newer materials and stayed with the wood, stone, glass and metal of traditional building. Careful to back prime and seal, I carried my learning from the ocean back to the mountains.

For a classic recent example of local problems with wood siding applied without back priming look to the Griz Inn. The original clapboard siding was not back primed. Over the last 30 plus years, the siding expanded and contracted, absorbing moisture through the unprimed backs. Finally the cupping and cracking became so extreme most of the building required re-siding this summer.

The crew applying the siding set up rows of saw horses and primed the wood front and back. Then they added a final coat once it was on the Griz. This batch ought to last 100 years. With the stain they used, maintenance will be minimal. Just driving by, the appearance upgrade is remarkable.

In recent years much has been made of “engineered materials”. There is a place for engineered materials. Not on the outside of buildings.

In the mid to late 80’s companies started looking for ways to use fast growing trees like aspens and poplar hybrids to replace the increasingly harder to find old growth they were accustomed to logging. The combination of environmental pressure and difficult access to the remaining stands initiated the look toward new “engineered” products.

LP’s Oriented Strand Board (OSB) became the poster child of this movement. The wood was cut into small wafers, soaked in resin and glue then pressure formed into panels or lap siding. The siding surface was sculpted to look like rough cedar and a final layer of resin paper was applied to protect the wood fibers from the weather. LP OSB siding was sold with a 25-year warrantee.

In short order, the siding started falling apart. The siding expanded in wet weather and basically fell apart as it dried. If it remained wet for any length of time, the nature of the wood chips was such that it fostered mushroom growth. Pictures were common of a piece of lap siding with two to three inches of fugal growth hanging off the bottom edge.

LP rejected most of the claims as being the result of improper installation.

The case moved into the courts in Florida, Washington, Oregon and other states. Eventually, there was a class action settlement. Inadequately funded, most claimants received under 40% of the amount originally determined their due. The settlement only covered the replacement siding material. Removal, new installation and final painting fell on the shoulders of the homeowner.

Over time, eight other similar siding products were subject to class action suits. All reached similar settlements.

It should be noted, that LP and the other manufactures were not trying to foist an inferior product on the market. To a company, they believed utilizing the fast growing trees would save trees, provide a viable alternative to old growth timber at a lesser cost to the consumer. The concept held merit. The fatal flaw fell from believing it was possible to replicate solid wood features in a re-manufactured product.

(For an evenhanded and detailed look at the issue, the Rand Corporation’s paper on the LP OSB settlement can be found at www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR969/MR969.ch13.pdf)

There are engineered products that work. TGI’s or engineered beams make great joists. Glu-lams offer a tremendous use of smaller pieces of wood to create a strong structural member.

The use of chipboard in place of plywood for exterior and roof sheeting is common today. It is fine if immediately after application the surface is covered. Left exposed, chipboard experiences the same issues as LP OSB siding. Degradation and disintegration follow in short order.

Engineered floors with particleboard backing and 1/4 inch of fine wood applied to the top are another not so hot idea. With heavy use, they quickly become worn and need to be refinished. With a minimal sanding, they can be refinished twice. One missed swipe and the surface can be dinged down to the underlying “engineered” particleboard and the piece must be replaced. After a couple sandings, the whole floor must be replaced.

Pergo and other laminate floors have even less longevity. Drop a cast iron skillet on a Pergo floor and you leave a ding that will not go away.

A solid wood floor lasts and lasts. I’ve seen 60 or 70-year-old wood floors with multiple re-finishings and plenty of meat left for the next couple of generations to continue to renew the floors at will.

Go with real wood.

The other day I walked over to talk to the crew stripping the vinyl siding off a four-plex near my house. I asked, “How old is the siding?”

The foreman laughed. “Maybe fifteen years.”

‘What are you replacing it with?”

“Cedar board and batten.”

Here’s an example of a false savings if there ever was one. Fifteen years ago the owner saved by going with vinyl siding. Now it is all being stripped off and the work starts from scratch. The initial installation goes in the dumpster. Along with the cost of the original installation and the cost of stripping the building. Today, wood is more expensive. The labor is higher. All this extra cost would have been saved if in the first case the owner used an enduring material and proper installation.

At least this time, the owner learned and is moving forward with a real concern for longevity and the real cost savings of using a quality product that will last for generations (vs. only one generation).

There is a saying in many trades—You can have it fast, cheap or good. Pick any two.

In the case of materials--you can have it cheap or lasting. One or the other. That’s it.

When you choose enduring materials you pay more in the short run, but you save huge in the long run. In making a measured choice to create a lasting and solid structure, you actually conserve resources. You’re making the statement that quality matters and this value carries to the next generation.