Fiber cement
James Hardie is the best-known make. It holds paint far longer than wood and will not rot, which counts on a big house with a lot of wall to repaint. It is heavy, so the crew’s precision matters as much as the product.
Siding · Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417
Siding installation in Franklin Lakes, NJ
Franklin Lakes houses are large, and many sit on wooded lots beside a lake or up a slope, so their walls are tall and slow to dry. We install fiber cement, cedar, wood clapboard, engineered composite and vinyl, strip each wall to the sheathing first, and re-side one elevation at a time.
The houses
Big walls, built in two waves.
Most of the borough went up in two bursts: colonials, split-levels and ranches after the 1959 extension of Route 208 to Oakland, then large custom colonials and estate houses once Interstate 287 was completed early in the 1990s.
Either way, that is a lot of wall. A two-story custom house with a full gable above the second floor carries far more siding than a tract house, and its gable ends are worked from scaffold, not ladders. Franklin Lakes is one of the least densely built towns in the county, and lakefront and hillside sites are common, so getting staging to every wall is planned at the estimate.
What a house is clad in varies, so the first visit establishes the cladding, what sits behind it and how the trim was made.
Twenty or thirty years on
When a 1990s wall starts to come due.
A custom house from the 1990s or early 2000s has had two or three decades of weather. The cladding may have years left; the joints and trim around it usually go first.
01
The sealant joints
Caulk at casings, corner boards and vents lasts a fraction as long as the cladding. Once it cracks, every rain runs behind the trim. Renewed over a backer rod, in a joint wide enough to flex, it is maintenance; neglected, it rots sheathing.
02
The trim
End grain takes water first: the foot of each corner board, the bottom of every casing. If the trim is finger-jointed or untreated pine, those ends soften while the paint still looks whole. We probe them before we price anything.
03
The flashing nobody sees
Head flashing over the windows, and kick-outs where a roof ends against a wall, were covered the day they went in. A stain spreading from a window corner, or a soft patch below a roof-to-wall junction, says one has failed.
04
The finish
Painted fiber cement and wood need repainting on a cycle; cedar needs re-treating, or leaving to weather on purpose. On a big house a missed cycle is often where a sound wall starts taking water.
Lakes, slopes and shade
Where the wall stands changes what goes on it.
Woods, a big Nature Preserve, the Ramapo foothills and a string of lakes, Shadow Lake and the Blauvelt Lakes among them, give a wall here one of three settings.
| Where it stands | What it does to the wall | What we specify |
|---|---|---|
| Under heavy trees | Shaded walls, north ones above all, stay damp for days. Mildew settles in, paint lifts and cedar never quite dries. | A ventilated gap behind cedar and on the dampest walls, stainless fasteners, and a finish chosen for little sun |
| Near a lake or creek | Low ground by the water is wet at grade, and the lowest courses sit in that damp longest. | Clearance between the bottom course and the ground, cut ends sealed, and roof water carried away; see gutters in Franklin Lakes |
| On a ridge or slope | Wind with nothing in front of it drives rain sideways, up under laps a sheltered wall never tests. | The manufacturer’s high-wind fastening, laps set for driven rain, and housewrap taped at every seam and opening |
Choosing the cladding
Which siding belongs on which house.
Cedar shingle and shake
Right where a house was designed around it, across a whole wall or only in the gables. On a shaded lot it is laid over a ventilated gap so each shingle dries from the back, and fixed with stainless steel that will not bleed.
Wood clapboard
The natural match for the old farmhouses and the houses of around 1900. Each board is primed front, back and ends before a nail goes in, and it can be mended one board at a time indefinitely.
Engineered composite
A sound, budget-minded choice for a garage, a rear wing or a wall the road never sees, if its corners and casings are fitted by hand rather than taken from a kit.
Vinyl is a fifth option: no painting, the least upkeep of the five, and a sensible choice where a house is already sided in it. On a big wall it is hung loose so it can move with heat, and the corners and casings are built to the house’s lines like any other cladding.
The oldest houses
Farmhouses and estates, repaired in their own materials.
Dutch farming families settled here after 1701, and about a dozen of their stone-and-frame farmhouses from the 1700s and 1800s survive on the National Register, along Ewing Avenue, Franklin Lake Road, Franklin Avenue and Woodside Avenue.
Around the turn of the century, estate houses and mansions began to appear in the area.
Borough of Franklin Lakes, historyWe name these as history, not as our work. On houses of this kind, frame walls are mended in kind: decayed boards come out to sound wood and are replaced in the same species, profile and exposure, with trim copied rather than swapped for stock sizes. Where frame meets stone, the junction is flashed and sealed so each can move. Re-siding is the last resort, and original windows deserve the same patience; see windows and doors.
A large re-side
One elevation at a time, closed every night.
1
Stage the house
Scaffold on the tall gables and any wall above a slope, on boards over lawn and planting, moving around the house with the work.
2
Strip only what can be closed
Each day strips only as much of one elevation as can be repaired, wrapped and flashed before the crew leaves. Nothing is left open overnight.
3
Sheathing, wrap, flashing
Soft sheathing is replaced and photographed, and billed only if it was there. The wrap is lapped to shed water, and every opening is flashed.
4
Trim, cladding, next wall
Trim, then cladding, then the next elevation. The last day ends with a walk around the whole house with you.
If any part of the job needs a permit, we tell you at the estimate and handle the filing.
Also in Franklin Lakes
The roof and gutters above the wall.
Franklin Lakes
The borough, its lakes and its two building booms.
The borough →Gutters
A spilling gutter soaks the wall under it; ours are sized for big roofs.
Franklin Lakes →Roof replacement
Roof-to-wall flashing done once, while both sides are open.
Franklin Lakes →All siding work
The wall layer by layer, and how the claddings compare.
Siding →Our Franklin Lakes re-roof → · Next door: siding in Wyckoff →
Questions
Do you install siding in Franklin Lakes?
Yes, anywhere in 07417. We install fiber cement, cedar shingle and shake, wood clapboard, engineered composite and vinyl, with the trim, weather barrier and flashing that go with them. The old cladding comes off rather than being covered over. The written estimate is free, names the cladding and its profile, and lists sheathing repair as a line of its own, charged only if the tear-off finds it.
Our house went up in the 1990s. Does it need new siding or just repairs?
Often just repairs, if they are done in time. At that age the cladding may have years left in it while the caulked joints, the bottom ends of the trim and the flashing over the windows are what let water in. We probe the trim, look at the wall under the worst window and, where it helps, open a small section. If the sheathing is sound, new sealant, trim repairs and a repaint can be the right answer, and we will put that in writing.
Which siding holds up best on a shaded, wooded lot?
Whatever goes on, the wall has to be able to dry. On walls that see little sun we favor fiber cement, which does not rot and holds paint longer than wood, or cedar laid over a ventilated gap with stainless fasteners. On a lot near one of the lakes or a creek, the lowest courses also need clearance from the ground and roof water carried away from the wall, so the gutters are part of the answer.
Will our house be open to the weather while the siding is replaced?
No. A large re-side is done one elevation at a time, and each day we strip only as much wall as can be repaired, wrapped and flashed before the crew leaves, so nothing stands open overnight. Scaffold moves around the house with the work, and the planting and paving under it are protected. The estimate sets out the order the walls will be done in.
Can you work on one of the old stone-and-frame farmhouses?
On the wood parts, yes. Clapboard, shingle and trim on a frame wall are repaired in kind, matched in species, profile and exposure, and re-siding is the last resort rather than the first. Where wood meets stone the joint is flashed and sealed so each can move on its own. The stonework itself is a mason’s job, and if the problem is in the stone we will tell you so rather than cover it.
Free written estimate
Siding built for a Franklin Lakes house and its lot.
A free written estimate naming the cladding, pricing sheathing only where it is found, and setting out the order of the walls.