Spot fix rotting wood siding or replace all of it?
Spot fixes cost thousands less upfront and preserve savings for other home projects, but full replacement prevents having to repeatedly fix failing boards. Deciding between them depends on whether the immediate expense of a total overhaul drains your emergency fund or if partial repairs are just a temporary fix.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Replacing only the worst boards and delaying the rest
- 2Getting multiple contractor quotes
- 3Hiring a handyman or independent carpenter instead of a siding company
- 4Getting multiple quotes for repair and staining before committing to a full replacement
- 5Switching to alternative materials like fiber cement or paint
- 6Getting multiple contractor estimates and weighing the cost difference between cleaning and full replacement
- 7patch the damaged areas until a full replacement can be done
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“So, what is the best and least expensive option: hiring someone to repair the cedar siding and then hiring someone else to re-stain it -- or completely covering it with vinyl siding?”source ↗
“Can I just do one side of the house now? Can you change siding types in stages?”source ↗
“I am leaning towards replacing the 16 shitty-est boards @ $250 per board or $4k total and worrying about the rest later as spending $17k would drain roughly half our savings fund and there are a few other things we would like to address.”source ↗
“Are these quotes reasonable? What would you do? Even if I replaced the 25 he points out that’s just under $7k all in…I think just looking for general advice, thanks!”source ↗
“The Roof siding is letting water in the house, leading to mold smell in the house.”source ↗
“So far I received 2 conflicting recommendations from contractors.”source ↗
“Can someone knowledgeable tell me what I truly need to do? Is the siding recoverable, despite the existence of mildew/mold?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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