A few months ago, my nephew, Josh Goodrich, and I completed work on a new library in my hometown of South Hero, Vt. We worked in collaboration with Hayward Design Build on the project. The building was designed by architect David Roy of Wiemann Lamphere Architects in Colchester, Vt., and his plans called for it to be clad with Boral TruExterior poly-ash siding—with vertical shiplap covering most of the building and horizontal Dutch lap (cove) on a small section on the front of the building.
I’ve installed Boral trim on a number of residential projects over the past five years, but this was my first time out with its siding. In the area I work, it’s not common to side homes with Boral, due to its price point. Lack of awareness about the product may also play into this (a number of local builders and homeowners dropped by the fairly high-profile site to ask about it—a few even took home offcut pieces to play with).
Key takeaways. Here are a few postmortem tips regarding installation:
- Use quality stainless steel fasteners that will last as long as the siding.
- Snap lines for all face-nailing to line up nail heads (for both the vertical and horizontal profiles).
- Use inexpensive tools for cutting, as grit from the Boral tends to get into motors and the sliding mechanisms of saws.
- Use quality blades and bits for cutting (coarse jigsaw blades lasted much longer than fine ones).
- Take care handling long lengths, supporting them as required.
Since the overall structure was built to be highly durable, the Boral siding plays a large role and is worth the investment. The factory-primed (or raw) vertical 1x6 shiplap siding cost around $5.00 per square foot, plus an additional $1.77 per square foot for painting. The horizontal 1x6 Dutch lap (cove) siding was a little less, at $4.80 per square foot, plus the $1.77 square-foot painting cost. Our town is excited about its new library; we expect it (and the Boral siding) to last long time.
Photos by Tim Healey
