Fiberboard Siding (often referred to as Hardboard Planking) was manufactured by several companies including Louisiana-Pacific®, Masonite®, Weyerhaeuser® and Georgia Pacific®.

While this type of siding was made by numerous manufacturers, each company’s fiberboard siding is made in roughly the same manner and tends to have the same issues.

After this siding has been installed for some length of time, it tends to expand slightly. This causes the area around the nail heads to become damaged. This in turn allows moisture to penetrate into the siding and deteriorate it.

As the moisture level increases, the siding’s edges tend to expand. This expansion breaks the paint, which, in turn, allows rainwater to be absorbed by the siding causing a breakdown of the glue holding the wood fibers together. Deterioration of the siding increases as the moisture content of the siding rises.

Fiberboard siding also tends to expand and contract along its length, thus breaking the seal where the boards are joined together. This contraction breaks down the caulk that was applied during installation (hopefully), again leaving the siding vulnerable to water penetration.

It is critical that the caulking on this type siding be maintained in good condition. Also, regular repainting of the siding is an absolute must. Hand painting of the bottom of each course of the siding with a brush is the only way to ensure that the exposed fibers of the siding get sealed.

It may be possible to slow down the deterioration of fiberboard siding by regular painting and caulking; however, home owners should be aware that there will be problems with their siding in the future.

Ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCI’s) help to prevent electrical shocks by shutting off the current as soon as an imbalance in the hot & neutral is detected. Current codes require GFCI protection on all kitchen & bathroom outlets & in other potentially damp locations like basements & garages.

If you are building a new home or retrofitting an older one you can use either an outlet or circuit-breaker GFCI device.

A GFCI outlet, which costs 10-15 dollars, has it’s own built-in circuit breaker as well as a reset button. When installed properly, a GFCI outlet will protect all other outlets on the same circuit as long as the GFCI outlet is the first one on the circuit.

A GFCI circuit breaker, 30 + dollars, is an easier way to ensure that all the outlets & fixtures on any given branch circuit will be protected. GFCI breakers also function like standard breakers to protect against overloaded or short circuits.

At least once a week I will find a dryer vent that is torn or disconnected somewhere in the crawlspace. A dryer venting into the crawlspace will introduce a significant amount of moisture into this area & this is never a good thing. The quickest & easiest way to check to check to see if your dryer is venting to the outside is to turn your dryer on & go locate the vent termination on the outside of the house & verify that there is warm air coming out of it. If there is not it is time to crawl under the house & locate the problem. I also recommend getting rid of any flexible vinyl duct & replacing it with metal duct that has no fasteners penetrating the duct that can catch lint & the joints running in the direction of airflow.

Some manufacturers advise replacement after 5 years. If you don’t have the manufacturer’s information and your smoke alarms are 10 years old or older, it’s time to replace them with new ones. Since smoke alarms can become desensitized over time, replacement is highly recommended.

If possible, replace old smoke alarms with interconnected alarms. These alarms are linked together so if one alarm is activated, all alarms will sound. In the event of a fire, this gives you extra time to help get family members to safety. You may also want to consider a monitored smoke/heat detector installed by a home security company.

Install new batteries at move in, test smoke alarms once a month and change the batteries in your smoke alarm at least twice per year. Also, be sure there is at least one working smoke alarm on every level of your home and inside or near sleeping areas. In addition, only purchase alarms certified by Underwriters Laboratories (U.L.), an independent testing organization that sets quality and use standards for electronic and consumer products.

I did an inspection today on a home that had been dewinterized & had the utilities turned on the day before, problem was, the TPR valve on the water heater had been opened for winterizing & never closed, so when the water was turned on it continued to flow out of the TPR drain for approximately 24 hours until we showed up for the inspection. The good news is that this TPR drain was run into the crawlspace, the bad news is the crawlspace was flooded, a lot better than flooding the house, but still not something you want to have happen.

So please check all your plumbing fixtures, faucets, & valves (including TPR) when having your property dewinterized for inspection.