Judy Loumakis says her 8-year-old suburban Lawrenceville home is disintegrating. Actually, it’s her siding that’s falling apart. The wood-product exterior looks green and mossy and has rotted away in some places.
“I’ve been told it will cost between $8,000 and $10,000 to replace it,” Loumakis said. “I painted it to try to preserve it, but that didn’t help at all.”
Joann McDonald has a similar problem at her 5-year-old Austell home. She has removed some of the boards because they were crumbling. “It’s a little overwhelming,” she said. “Sometimes you just want to throw your hands up and let the whole house fall down around you.”
Hundreds of metro Atlanta homeowners have complained that home siding supposed to last 40 or 50 years has come apart in less than a decade.
Some of these popular, low-cost hardboard and composite wood sidings may be buckling and crumbling because they have absorbed an unusual amount of moisture from the summer’s heavy rains, according to builders and inspectors.
Manufacturers such as Georgia-Pacific Corp., Louisiana-Pacific Corp. and Masonite Corp., say poor installation and improper maintenance may have contributed to some decay.
“The builder has a responsibility, and the homeowner has a responsibility,” said Barry Lacter, spokesman for Louisiana-Pacific. “The siding must be painted really well to begin with to keep moisture out.”
Manufacturers add that they receive relatively few complaints considering the amount of siding they’ve sold. About 60 percent to 75 percent of homes built in metro Atlanta in the mid-1980s were constructed with hardboard and composite siding.
But some inspectors and builders say frustrated homeowners have bombarded them with calls, and the problem is a faulty product.
“What appears to be happening is that the material is inferior,” said Lamar Bagwell, president of the American Inspectors Society. “When water gets in touch with this fragile stuff, it just falls apart.”
Hardboard siding was introduced in the late 1950s, while composite siding made from processed wood entered the market in the mid-1980s. Until recently, when manufacturers started making these types of siding with sloped edges, most of the siding had square edges, which some experts say easily traps water.
“The material has been breaking down over the last eight or nine years,” said Mike Turner, a remodeler who said he has done more than 300 estimates in the past two years for Atlanta homeowners wanting to know the cost of replacing their siding.
“Homeowners haven’t really started noticing this until the last two years or so, and now the rain has exacerbated the problem, making it more noticeable,” he said, adding that improper maintenance is also to blame.
Homeowners who have a complaint about their siding should contact the manufacturer to get a claim form. If you’re unsure of the manufacturer’s name, ask the builder.
Most siding comes with a limited warranty, meaning the sooner you make a claim, the better. Although the cost to remove and replace siding usually runs about $10,000, manufacturers rarely settle claims for more than $5,000.
And not everyone with a problem needs to replace siding. This summer’s rain and humidity has caused a lot of siding to swell and buckle. If it is still solid, and the surface hasn’t deteriorated, the buckling may disappear when dry weather comes.
Damaged siding that might need to be replaced will have puffed marks that look like halos around the nail heads and ridges along the bottom.
