Lakeside Homestead : Back wall siding

So, we got hit with a crazy storm that had our neck of the woods flooded. My Mr and I are both solar powered so we were in a funk with the back to back gray days but to make matters worse we discovered a leak, eck!

Flash forward to this picture. That's Mr replacing the plywood. The leak, although small, had done some damage. I considered it salvageable but Mr pushed his desires and got new plywood. Better safe than sorry.

It was sad seeing our little home all opened up. We went on the side of caution and bleached the area to prevent anything from the moisture.

Next up was to get the wall covered with tar paper. We wrapped it over the sides so there will be overlap protection.

You start at the bottom and work your way up. Special nails are needed, they have a "washer" so they catch the paper.

... avoid staring at all our construction mess:/

Once the wall was covered with the tar paper we started putting up the hardiplank. Which, my neighbor informed me, got its names from the creator of the material, James Hardi.

The paper goes up quickly and it's even labeled with multiple level lines to help you with placement.

For the hardiplank we added chalk lines to keep everything even. That isn't just my first tip but a money saver too. You could buy the hardiplank that already has an edge but that's a lot more expensive and the hardiplank is already an upgrade to siding.

We used the small nails from the tar paper earlier but had to remove the green washers.

Another tip for this is the predrill. We used a small bit, one of the same or slightly smaller diameter of your nails.

We chalked the hardiplank while it's on the ground. You have too, if you try to chalk it while it's up the chalk will fall leaving your line faded. We did the predrill after we put it up with just edge support, but as we worked up we had to predrill on the ground.

This was kind of a challenge. If y'all also have plumbing to work around may I suggest what we did. Measure the placement for the piping and drill the appropriate sized hole. Then cut the hardiplank vertically down the center of the drilled hole. That way you can push the pieces together for a perfect seam. Then caulk that seam.

The plumbing had originally been on the other end. When we changed the studio into our home we moved the water intake and drain to the other side to take advantage of a better layout. The holes from the original plumbing ended up being the culprit to the leak.