LESLIE: Now we’ve got Fred who needs some help with my favorite kind of house – a Tudor. What can we do for you?
FRED: Hi. Tudor is about 23 years old and I have, on the siding, masonite stucco boards which, over the last year or two, have started to bow out and need to be replaced. But I can’t seem to find these boards any longer since they’re not manufactured and I’m wondering what I could – since I don’t want to replace all of the panels, the stucco, I just want to replace those that are bowed out, I’m looking for some alternative for that particular product.
TOM: Yeah, it’s an interesting problem because you’re talking about the composite siding boards that sort of have the fake stucco look …
FRED: Right.
TOM: … and I’m surprised they lasted you 23 years, especially with that Tudor design, because there’s a lot of places that water sort of gets caught and causes the panels to swell and decay and deteriorate. And so, right now, you have to get those off of there because if you leave them, that can actually start to impact the structure as well. You don’t want to have that moisture getting into the framing because then you have the framing that can rot.
Now, in terms of what you can do about this, can we attack this one side of the house at a time? Is that possible?
FRED: Well, the only problem I had is that – I’ve looked at hardy planks, which make, I guess, a cement fiber board but the …
TOM: Yeah, and it’s extremely durable.
FRED: Yeah, the texture on it is so significantly different from the texture on the masonite boards that I think it would show up.
TOM: Because the masonite board has more of a – there’s more of a rough stucco finish to it?
FRED: Yeah, the one I have seems to be very rough and a lot of swirls in it.
TOM: Alright, so let me give you a suggestion. Let me give you a suggestion. One of the things that you could do is you could try using the hardy plank board and then on top of that you could use an epoxy patching compound and trowel it on and try to mimic the appearance of the masonite board. And then, if you paint it all the same color, it might actually blend in pretty nicely.
FRED: Very good.
LESLIE: Alright, good luck with your Tudor.
FRED: Thanks, I’m going to need it. (Leslie chuckles)
TOM: Alright, Fred.
FRED: Thanks for your help. I appreciate it.
TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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