Cedar Siding: Clapboard and Shingles

We’re Cedar Siding Contractors in MA, RI, & NH

United Home Experts & United Painting Co. is your professional siding company. We offer cedar clapboards (also called beveled siding), cedar shingles, and cedar shakes (bigger, rough cut shingles). We also install many different styles and types of novelty wood siding. We believe that when maintained properly, it’s hard to beat the rich look of natural wood. A quality wood exterior should last as long as you own your home, and should improve your home’s appearance and value. We use many of the best grades of red or white cedar shingles or clapboards.

Did you know that cedar siding can last for hundreds of years? A recent siding project of ours in N. Andover, MA, built in the early 1800s, had only a few repairs required to the original clapboard siding. This damage was due mostly to extended snow build-up near the base of the house.

Reasons why some customers choose Cedar Siding

Cedar Siding is Beautiful

Cedar Siding is, above all, a wood of exceptional beauty. In its natural, unfinished state, it has a richly textured, tactile grain combined with a palette of warm, mellow tones ranging from light amber to deep honey brown. Cedar Siding also remains subtly aromatic, and the characteristic fragrance of cedar adds another dimension to Cedar Siding’s universal appeal.

Cedar Siding is Durable

Cedar Siding contains natural oils that act as preservatives to help the wood resist insect attack and decay. Cedar siding is also a dimensionally stable wood that lies flat and stays straight. Properly finished and maintained, cedar siding ages gracefully and endures for many years. When high quality cedar is chosen, it is free of pitch and resin and it finishes to a richly glowing surface that can be enhanced with transparent or full-bodied stains or with paints.

Visit SidingMagazine.com’s Siding Calculatorto get a range of how much it would cost to replace your home’s siding.

Board Available surfaced or saw textured. Recommended 1″ minimum overlap. Widths 8″ and over use 2 nails 3-4″ apart.	E.W.P – 18 Available in smooth face. Reversible pattern usually used for interior applications.	E.W.P – 11 Available in smooth face. Pattern used for interior ceilings or sidings.
Bevel (clapboard) Plain Bevel may be used with smooth face exposed or sawn face exposed for textured effect. Recommended 1″ minimum overlap on plain bevel siding	E.W.P – 2 & 4 Combination of #2 & #4 patterns. Can be used on either side.	E.W.P Channel Rustic 7/8″ reveal Available in saw face. Used as siding.
Dolly Varden Thicker than Bevel Siding. Rabbeted edge.	E.W.P – E & CB Available in smooth face. Reversible pattern. Usually used for porch ceilings.	E.W.P Channel Rustic 1/2″ reveal Available in saw face. Used as siding.
Log Cabin 1 1/2″ at thickest point. Nail 1 1/2″ up from lower edge of piece.	E.W.P 106 drop siding Available in smooth face. Used as siding, resembles clapboard from a distance.	E.W.P 105 drop siding Same as pattern 106 in appearance. Milled with a ship lap edge.
E.W.P – 2 Available in smooth face. Usually used in interior applications. Use single finish nail and angle into tongue.	E.W.P double clapboard T&G Available in smooth face. Looks like bevel when installed.	E.W.P double clapboard S/2 Available in smooth face. Looks like bevel when installed.
E.W.P – 4 Available in smooth face. Reversible pattern. Usually used for porch ceilings or interior applications	E.W.P 1″ center match Available in smooth face. Pattern used for flooring or siding applications.	E.W.P 1″ shiplap Available in saw or smooth face. Usually used as siding.

Terms & Terminology

Battens

narrow strips of wood placed over joints in vertical wood plank siding to seal the joints

Beveled

clapboards that are tapered rather than cut perfectly rectangular

Brick veneer

a wall construction method in which a layer of bricks is attached to the wood framework of a house using brick ties

Carpenter ants

large black ants that make may make their nests in walls, behind siding, or in insulation; carpenter ants don’t eat wood they excavate wood to build their homes in the cavities left behind

Caulking

waterproof material used to seal joints at intersections of building components, used with some types of siding

Checking

a crack or split along the grain in wood plank siding as a result of cupping

Clapboard

overlapping, horizontal wood plank siding made from either rectangular planks or taped planks

Composition board

planks or sheets of weather resistant compressed wood fibers used as siding

Course

each row of siding material

Cupping

a warp across the board in wood plank siding

Detachment

separation of the siding material-veneer or stucco- from its attachment to the house

Double course

an undercourse of shingles or shakes, not exposed to the weather, is covered completely by a top course

Dust mites

virtually walking stomachs

Flashing

a type of sheet metal used at intersections of building components to prevent water penetration, flashings are commonly used above doors and windows in exterior walls and are used under the siding to prohibit water penetration

Lintel

a steel angle iron or beam over window and door openings that spans the opening and transfers the weight of the masonry to the sides of the opening

Milled planks

various cuts of plank siding, including V-groove, channel, rabbeted bevel, shiplap and drop

Model Building Code

these building codes vary by area of the country and are considered the standard for that area

Moisture permeable

a surface that allows moisture to pass through it

Scarfed joint

joint used in plywood siding where edges of abutting sheets are angle cut to fit snugly and prevent water penetration

Shiplap

a style of milled plank, used in siding, that is laid close enough so as to appear to be butted

Single course

wood shingles or shakes applied where each course is exposed to the weather

Spalling

crumbling and falling away of bricks, concrete or blocks

Stucco

a type of water resistant, plaster like siding material made of cement, sand and water; it may have an acrylic finish

T & G

tongue and groove, a connection system between components, like wood, in which the tab or tongue of one board is placed into the grove at the end of another board

Termites

social insects that live either in the ground or in wood and eat wood, they can cause serious structural damage to a home

Veneer

veneer is one ply or one thickness of something; in siding there are brick and stone veneers; there are also veneers of one wood bonded to another

Wall cladding

another term for siding

Wall sheathing

sheets of plywood or wood planking used to cover the wall framework of the house

Windload Pressure

is a measurement of how well a panel might perform in high wind areas

Wire mesh

a mesh attached to the wall sheathing and studs used to anchor a stucco base coat to the wall

Wood plank siding

rectangular wood planks, installed horizontally or vertically

Wood shakes

thick, rough, uneven shingles that hand split, split and sawn on one side, or sawn on both sides, used as siding

Wood shingles

sawn shingles that are of uniform thickness