A small heard of cattle watched us from nearby. This one needed it's breakfast brought to it as it could not get up off the ground. Concerned, we inquired about its condition. John speculated that it may be calving...or suffering from mad cow disease. I chuckled when he said this, thinking he was just joking about the mad cow thing. No joke, I guess it's still a problem. That was a depressing thought, but a reality of the farming life.
For $200 I was able to get enough siding to cover two walls measuring 8 x 8.
Back at home, we began the arduous task of cleaning and scraping years of accumulation of dried dirt and peeling paint. John had mentioned to us that it might be necessary to power wash the boards. As a woodworker, I know that water and wood don't mix so well. If not done properly, the wood can check, cup, bow, and twist as it dries. After several hours and progress that was slower than a heard of turtle stampeding through quicksand, I gave in against my better judgement and hosed the boards down with a garden hose and a high pressure nozzle. I then stacked the wood placing "stickers" or small blocks of wood in between each layer to allow air to circulate. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. The next day I found that most of the boards had cupped and twisted slightly. Just enough to make the project a little more of a challenge. Instead of being able to use long lengths, I would need to cut the siding into smaller sections which in turn would mean more seams. Smaller sections allowed me to keep the siding level during installation and flat against the wall. We finished up with a very light whitewash of paint so that the distressed look was still apparent but clean and bright looking.
This is absolutely gorgeous! Beautiful work, well done.
ReplyDeleteDid you simply nail the barn wood to the existing wall surface or use adhesive or something else? In other words, how can I do this myself?
This was a project that was relatively easy. It would have been much easier had I not soaked all the wood! To answer your question, I used both adhesive and nails to attach the siding. I might have been able to get away with just nails if my boards were long enough to span across all the wall's structural framing. However, since I used a variety of lengths and most board ends resulted in missing or overlapping the 2 x 4 framing behind the wall, I used liquid nails construction adhesive. I tried to have each piece of siding be long enough to at least cover two internal wall studs. I also used 8d 2 1/2" nails whenever possible. I counter sunk and filled these nails with wood filler later. To make things easy, make sure you use a level or plumb line to draw a pencil mark down your wall where the studs are located. The pencil line should be drawn from floor to ceiling. I used a stud finder to locate the studs but some people can tap on the wall with a hammer and listen for the right sounding thud. I was never able to do that! I've also used the method of hammering a nail hit and miss style until I find one and then measuring either 16" or 24" O.C. (on center) to find the next one.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing that is important to keep in mind is that you will want the siding to be applied level all the way up. Being that we are working with old recycled lumber that may not be perfectly straight, it is helpful to use a level to check each piece prior to attaching nails. I found it often necessary to keep the siding from being all the way locked into place in which you would normally do with tongue and groove siding. Being level is more important.
I hope you try this out! I was really pleased with the final results on my project. Also, some people are using siding with little or no paint remaining on it for a natural rustic wood look. I think that would look really good as well. Let me know if you are going to start the project and let me know if I can answer anymore questions!
Thanks for the question!
Victoria