Piece of Siding Fell Off of My House

[Mr. Freedom]

Hello,

I just realized a piece of siding fell off my house today.  There does not appear to be any water damage to any of the surrounding pieces of siding.  The fallen piece did break into two but it is not damaged beyond that.  I believe this is a fiber cement board type of siding.  It appears that the material around the nails at the top of the fallen siding piece gave out resulting in it falling off the house.  The siding pieces above and below where this one fell off seem to be securely in place.

I tried to pry the siding board above the one that had fallen off away from the house a little bit to get at the nails that were still underneath that piece in the hopes that I could remove them and then slide the same siding piece under there to reattach it to the house.  The nails appear to be quite long, however, and the further I pulled them out with a needle nose pliers, the more the siding piece above was needing to be pried forward as well and it was getting to the point where I was concerned that that siding it may break in the process so I stopped.  So all of the nails that were holding this fallen piece in place are still in there. 

I’m wondering if I can cut away at the areas on the piece that fell off where the nail was so the piece would slide back in without being obstructed by the nails still in there and then nail the piece back into place through the overlapping piece above that one and into the house.  All the other siding pieces were nailed in at the top of the siding board and then the board above it was installed and covered the area where the nails were installed.  I’m wondering if it would it be damaging in some way or cause problems later to nail through the top of the overlapping board above the fallen one to reattach it to the house.   I have a photo attached from an instructional repair video I've included where it appears that was done to attach a piece of siding.

The broken pieces of the fallen siding do fit together pretty snugly but it does have this crack in it (see photo).  I don’t know if that’s going to be an issue with water and so on if I did attach it this way.  Any guidance on this would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you!

[secondcor521]

I'm certainly no expert, but I do have similar siding on my house.

I think the thing I would worry about with your plan of nailing through the piece of siding above is weather intrusion.  In theory (I'm guessing here), rain could fall on the piece of siding above, trickle down to the nail, follow the nail through the upper piece of siding, the broken piece of siding, and into the sheetrock underneath.

The other thing to think about is that it just sort of looks ugly to do it that way.  If you later go to sell the house and someone notices your repair, the repair itself might not be a big deal but buyers often wonder, "If they did this one weird thing, what other weird things did they do to this house and what might be the feared consequences of those multiple weird things."  So it could damage your resale value.

I'm sure this has happened before.  I'd call a siding contractor and ask them how they normally fix it.  They might be willing to tell you over the phone.  Or you can also ask at Home Depot or Lowe's.

Good luck!

[Mr. Freedom]

Very good points, thanks for your input.  You've given me some things to consider, like how a possible home sale scenario may be affected by doing it the way I laid it out.  I'm leaning toward hiring someone for this one.

[geekette]

If you search for info on replacing pieces of lap siding, they seem to recommend face nailing the top most piece.  Random blog with step by step info for replacing a piece of fiber cement lap siding here.  You may have to cut nails that won't come out with a hack saw. 

[Mr. Freedom]

Thanks a lot geekette.  That's exactly the issue with the lap siding.  I was already able to clip the nails out underneath the piece above it.  Given that we're in fall now and it's been rainy and colder here, there may not be an opportunity yet to do this completely right and get the painting done on a newly cut piece after all the caulking with lower temperatures.  Given that some of these resources do seem to be recommending face nailing through the overlap, I'm thinking I might use the existing piece and and reattach it using a face nail on the actual piece itself on the studs, not through the overlap on the top piece, and then caulk over the exterior rated nails, the section where the piece broke into two and also perhaps caulk underneath the overlap area to have them hold together.  That at least would keep the existing piece in place now and through the winter and then I can deal with this properly in spring when the weather is warmer.  The existing piece already has damaged fiber cement around the sections where it was nailed into the stud area.

[DoNorth]

you can use window flashing tape over the tyvek; I like to use a hairdryer warm up the surface, then apply the tape.  the backing of the tape is made of a substance that naturally engulfs nail/screw holes and prevents water from coming through the penetration.  Then replace the siding.  if you wan't to put a little silicone where you nail, that's just some icing on the cake.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Typar-6-in-x-75-ft-Self-Adhering-Flashing-Roll-ATFLH-002/205056022?cm_mmc=Shopping%7CG%7CVF%7CD22%7C22-10_ROOFING%7CGeneric%7CPLA%7c71700000033102325%7c58700003867202175%7c92700031086627206&gclid=CjwKCAjwvNXeBRAjEiwAjqYhFtsqrCzMFHr4xdfMls_xXJwHVn18dwi_5iAs304hDxkH-nEVW_iF8xoCdnUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.dsI

[Mr. Freedom]

Excellent, thank you DoNorth.  I can see how critical the flashing tape is to prevent water damage over time.  That's what I will use.

[EricEng]

Face nailing is fine, albeit not recommended for standard installs.  However, in places with high wind (like CO plains) it is necessary to prevent siding pieces from flapping.  As long as the nail goes in firmly and flush with the surface, water penetration will be minimal.  Add some flashing behind the crack where the two are being reconnected like the flashing that 'should' be between the ends of each board (looks like it is present in your photo).

Any idea what caused the material to fail?  Did the siding show signs of movement from being lifted by the wind that eventually wore it out?  Water rot?

[lthenderson]

In a situation like that, when I nail up the replacement fibercement siding board, I will place the nail up next to the edge of the overhanging board above. By putting it up close, it is left noticeable than face nailing down in the middle of the board. Once it is nailed up, you can go over the nail heads with a putty that is formulated specially for filling holes in fibercement boards. If you do a good job with the putty, you won't see any of the nails after you repaint the area.

[TrMama]

We replaced a piece of our fibercement siding this summer because it was water damaged and was basically disintegrating due to crappy design of the part of the house it covers. Here's what I learned:

- Fibercement board is really, really hard to nail through. Strongly recommend using a nail gun.

- These boards are awful to cut. We used an angle grinder with a concrete blade. Cutting makes so much dust DH had to stop cutting several times because he couldn't see the penciled on cut line. Wear a mask. Very important. The hardware store won't cut it for you because of the dust and specialized blade.

- You must not put any nails closer than 1" to the edge or the board will crack. This is why your board fell off. It was originally nailed too close to the top edge. I'd replace your board with a new one that isn't already cracked in several places.

- Paintable silicone caulking is your friend. Use it to fill in the field joints between the boards and any exposed nail holes. Lots of your boards are probably face nailed at each end where they abut each other. Just make sure you fill them with silicone caulk.

- You can wait till spring to paint. Fibrecement is only painted to make it look nice, it doesn't do much to make it last longer like with wood.

[lthenderson]

- Fibercement board is really, really hard to nail through. Strongly recommend using a nail gun.

Or even better, pre-drill everything.