We are buying a house. It has fiber cement sidings. The sidings are lose in many places with the house wrap damaged. There are also gaps between sidings with OSB exposed. Is this normal for a house built in 2007? What’s the best way to repair?
Unfortunately, this is not normal for any house built in the past 30 years. While we are aware that wear and tear exists, that seems like more damage than the usual wear and tear. Due to the house wrap being damaged and the OSB being exposed, it is likely that there is also damage under the siding that needs to be repaired before the new siding is installed, to ensure that there are no further problems. Also, there is no way to repair fiber cement as it is extremely brittle- which is it’s major flaw. Our recommendation would be to remove the siding, repair any damage underneath, and replace with siding that is expertly installed to avoid any problems in the future.