Judgement call

[Dale 16]

A client wants me to bid on restaing a 3 yr. old cedar home. There is 0 caulking around windows, doors, up the rake of the roof etc. Its well built and there are really no bad cuts, but I'm still leary to spray chems and water around when nothing is caulked and I told her so..(of course I would do the caulking for a nominal fee)...one of the first things I picked up on when estimating the job is how picky about detail she was.. maybe I'm being too cautious here but I'd hate to leave the job and come back to a bunch of water stains that seeped thru after I left the job, or leakage to the inside of a picky clients home. The home is 3 yrs. old and the construction is well done...but I don't KNOW how it was constructed i.e. sheathing??..good vapor barrier installation??. It should be o.k. but in general when I'm pushing water from the outside towards the inside I'd like caulking around doors/windows/rakes. What do you all think?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

If there is no caulking, sounds like that it the first thing you need to do.

What is currently on the wood, and are you doing a maintenance wash and recoat, or are you stripping and putting on a new product? Is there much mildew, or not much? Lots of questions come to mind...did you by chance snap a pic? How heavily treed is the area surrounding the house, or it is in lots of sun?

Beth

[Dale 16]

Beth,

This will be the first maintenence coat, the home is only 3 yrs old. By the lack of stain on the nailheads you can tell it was stained before installation. Whats on it now is Olympic oil based in natural cedar. The mildew is very light, yet the client pointed out every spot. The environment has decent air movement and sunlight. I tend to take pics of everything but am not sure how to post them, so I've never bothered...me so lazy. My plan was just a simple wash/stain.

Thanks

Dale

[JFife 14]

Dale,

I prefer to caulk after cleaning, so the surface is better, sounder. An option if you up-sell the caulk job would be to go ahead and backer rod the areas, but don't caulk. If you are just doing a light wash, it shouldn't blow out and it will significantly reduce the amount of intrusion. And blow at an angle away from the window, this will help. All these things should prevent a problem. Being said, a cedar house probably won't have room for rod, so you may be stuck

Nonetheless, stipulate in the contract that someone needs to be around and watching for intrusion problems. Warn her that this is probable (you'll be the only guy that warns her) and rather than scare her off, you'll come off as cautious and detail-oriented, and probably close her. Good luck,

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Normally we caulk after cleaning as well, my concern was that the home had no caulking at this point. I like Jon's suggestion about using the backer rods, and I think it is the better way to go.

Beth

[Dale 16]

Thanks for the input!..Jons right about not enough room for backer rod. The siding contractors were good, still I think caulking is a good idea in general. I'll probably pass on this one. The woman is very anal and it has to be done before the 14th of Aug. when they leave for the season. I'm backed up the way it is. Told her I'd put in a bid for next spring but she thinks she can just call a contractor at this time of year and get it done "right now"...maybe she'll be able to but I doubt it.

Thanks again

Dale

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Run, dont walk from this one!

This person is a bit unreasonable and expects more than one can deliver in my opinion.

Rod~