For you smart creative types: Mounting something flat to cedar lap siding?

a_kelley said:
Circular saw and set depth. Wood chisel to finish out corners. Who doesn't own at least one circular saw?
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I've got two. They're probably a bit of a blunt object when doing depth controlled cuts on 8 inch lap siding though. Probably like a boat rocking on the waves....
Maybe if it was a track saw that could bridge across the gaps, or if the siding was smaller.

Hmm. I was wanting to buy a track saw for some other stuff...

Anyway, the cutting is the easy part.


The lights haven't arrived yet, so nothing is getting cut yet.
 
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Or just set it shallow and make a finish pass (probably how I'd do it, then I wouldn't need to set the 1x up). Watch knots, I've had them pop out half way through the cut.
 
While I wait for parts to arrive...

Anybody else doing anything with Dark Sky compliant lighting?

I figured I'd do my part, even though we don't generally keep our exterior lights on unless we're expecting someone. I'm really glad we don't have street lights in our neighborhood, even thought the adjacent neighborhoods light up the sky pretty well. It's ridiculous when it snowy or foggy, with so much reflected light.
Now if my neighbor would not keep his flood lights on all night....
 
I'm going to leave a LARGE space here for all of the cussing that I don't want to type. Just fill in the blanks yourself.
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So here's the deal. The fixtures came in. Super cool, love them.

Got everything I thought I needed, cedar for the mounting blocks, caulk, primer, etc. Took the old fixture off the siding, realized there was a flanged (surface mounted) round electrical box mounted to the siding. The new lights mount flat and need a flush box, no big deal. Need to go get a cheap new box.

Took the screws out of the flanged box, pulled it off the wall. I was looking at insulation through the hole. That caught me off guard. That's a problem, because no air barrier.

Then I realized that there was no sheathing, so no plywood or OSB, just a 1/8-3/16" thick (estimated) board of unknown material with foil on the outside surface. Looks like MDF or something similar.

WTF is going on with this house? This was built in 1990, was this actually a normal method of construction at that time?


I have nothing to mount the lights to now, because I have nothing to mount the mounting block to.......
 
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So no sheathing and just the siding nailed to the studs? I've only noticed that on pretty old houses, but I don't work in the building trades.

Who the fuck builds a 2x6 framed house and then doesn't put sheathing on for shear strength and racking prevention?

Maybe that's why it creaks and shifts so much in the wind.
 
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Mac5005 said:
It's common for the sheathing to be fiberboard sheathing for that time period with no house wrap type air infiltration barrier.
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Some of the cedar siding is getting pretty soft in some spots, so will likely need to be replaced. If we do a full re-siding of the house (likely with Hardi, which is much cheaper than cedar these days?), I imagine we'll have to bring everything up to code with sheathing, water resistant barrier, etc.? Well, at the minimum to satisfy warranty requirements for whatever gets installed. Don't know if Hardi is rated for install over anything but sheathing...
 
Fabrik8 said:
Some of the cedar siding is getting pretty soft in some spots, so will likely need to be replaced. If we do a full re-siding of the house (likely with Hardi, which is much cheaper than cedar these days?), I imagine we'll have to bring everything up to code with sheathing, water resistant barrier, etc.? Well, at the minimum to satisfy warranty requirements for whatever gets installed. Don't know if Hardi is rated for install over anything but sheathing...
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I have Masonite siding that the previous owner let the paint go bad, and was starting to rot when we purchased. I've been going through replacing the rotten areas, as it's only the north wall and found that there was no real sheathing, only crap fiberboard "insulation sheathing".

I'm installing house wrap in the areas I removed the siding.

My point is it may be cheaper to repair and replace the rotten pieces, and then stain and seal the rest, than to remove it all and go back with something else.

When I got quotes for vinyl, it included and was dependent on installing 1/4" foil insulation board everywhere.

I would shoot some great stuff around the new box when you install, and use silicone and the gaskets for the box making it all airtight. To me that's more cost effective than trying to bring it all up code.

That's a big job to remove all siding and sheathing, install new sheathing, insulation board and house wrap and new siding.
 
Didn't read all the post. But I've cut a 6" section of the siding and flipped it upside down.


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Sheathing is probably Thermoply. It is not all that bad. Because of the foil it reflects heat or cold but works better with an air space. When it is sandwiched R value goes down. It is recognized as structural serving as bracing in a wall instead of plywood , OSB or metal or wood bracing. I think it is better than the standard sheathing( black board) but not as good foam board. Foam board is not structural. I think it holds up better when wet but it shouldn't be wet back there.
 
josh m said:
Didn't read all the post. But I've cut a 6" section of the siding and flipped it upside down.
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If you take the extra siding and flip it over and mount it over the hole (may have to rip to get it to lay flat, caulk/liquid nail behind it to existing siding and nail. mount fixture and worry about tearing the side of the house off later. (not sure about just the foam board behind siding, i've removed cedar siding from a house from the same time period [maybe earlier even, 80s?] in lake lure and saw tar paper but there was plywood behind it..)
 
a_kelley said:
If you take the extra siding and flip it over and mount it over the hole (may have to rip to get it to lay flat, caulk/liquid nail behind it to existing siding and nail.
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I think that's the only thing I can do, there's nothing else to attach to behind the siding, so I can't make a flush mounting block. Now I have to find some taper cedar siding locally to cut up.. Maybe 84 Lumber carries some, I dunno.
 
If your fixture isn't to heavy, just throw a old work box in there and be done with it.


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I found some lap siding, and of course the angle isn't right because its not lapped if I glue it flat to a block. May still end up doing that if I can taper it a little with a sander. Otherwise the tapered gap is pretty huge in some areas, probably too big to comfortably caulk.. I also tried a test piece by notching along the angled line with the sliding miter saw and then knocking out the pieces between cuts with a chisel. That's a real pain in the ass, and takes a really long time, and is much easier on a flat mortise.

This would all be easier if the light wasn't 16 inches tall and vertically spanned 3 pieces of siding. Luckily only one of the lights is that large, and the other 4 are smaller. They're really cool lights though, so it will all be worth it in the end someday.

I did grab my plunge router with a circle jig, and recessed the lip of the electrical box into my experimental mounting plate. That part is flush mount perfection.


I'll post pictures sometime so everyone can laugh at my attempts at woodworking while trying to engineer something that works.

I'm not gonna lie, I was about to start making phone calls to find a machinist who wants some side money. I can whip this up in CAD very fast, and it's just begging to be milled out of PVC or epoxy block or Rohacell foam. I really hate wood, it's so..... inconsistent.

Or sign board, or exterior plywood. Anyone have a CNC router? I need 5 mounting blocks total, 3 different sizes. I want this shit done. I create CAD files.



Oh, and I forgot I invited someone for Thanksgiving (here from another country), and I got a phone call last night from my coworker who said "that's really nice of you to do that". Panic set in, because I hadn't mentioned Thanksgiving plans to said invitee in about 2 months. Basically, I completely forgot I invited someone, and found out from someone else. Good job, me... :D
 
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Lol. It's all good, just make sure the food is good. They might not notice your lights.


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Lol wood is inconsistent. Log finish.com sells color match caulk. 1/4" will be fine as long as you use elastomeric caulk. Make sure it takes stain if you have future plans for a restain. CNC routing a board to match siding would be cool though.
 
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