Natural wood siding from Marks Lumber is a beautiful, sustainable, and cost-effective solution for protecting your home or business from the elements. Wood sided buildings that are over 100 years old can be seen all over the Rocky Mountain region. This article describes the specific products manufactured here at Marks Lumber, and an overview of critical issues to take into consideration on your siding project.

Marks Lumber manufactures a variety of different sidings, and these products generally fall into three main types:

• Board-on-Board and Board-and-Batten Siding
• Lap Siding
• Chinked Siding

Board on Board Siding

The first type is Board-on-Board siding. Board-on-Board siding is any siding that utilizes standard square boards attached flat against a wall with all seams covered by another board. Traditionally, space between boards varied quite a bit; however, for consistent results, Marks Lumber does not recommend a gap of over ¾ inch without backing material. Board-and-Batten, the most popular type of Board-on-Board siding, is generally installed with a ¾ in gap between boards. Standard batten strips from Marks Lumber are just under 2 ¾ inches wide. Board-and-Batt is relatively easy to install and is also easily repairable if a single piece or small area is damaged.

Lap Siding

The second major category of siding manufactured at Marks Lumber is lap siding. The most basic lap sidings are just horizontal boards that are lapped over one another. These boards can be standard boards with a rectangular edge, or they may have a “live”, or more accurately, “waney” edge.

A more common type of lap siding for modern residences is shiplap siding. Shiplap siding is planed to uniform thickness, with dados to make installation easy. Shiplap siding can be installed either horizontally or vertically. Marks manufactures three basic types of shiplap siding. The Standard Shiplap has no reveal and looks essentially like boards. Marks Lumber also makes and stocks a shiplap with a 1 inch rounded reveal called “105” siding and a rough sawn version called Channel Rustic.

Besides lap sidings and shiplap sidings, wooden bevel sidings are relatively common. Marks Lumber does not produce any beveled siding products, and they haven’t been quite as popular the last few years as they used to be. Beveled sidings are still made in both rabbeted versions that come together like a shiplap, and non-rabbeted versions.

Chinked Siding

Chinked siding offers a unique and highly recognizable western look. Marks Lumber manufactures two different chinked siding. Double waney-edge siding is generally 1 inch thick and is log slices. The chink joints on waney edge siding are not uniform, creating a very natural effect.

Beveled edge siding is a planed product, offered with both a circle sawn face texture as well as hand-hewn. Beveled-edge siding approximates a very attractive square-log or timber stacked timber look.

Key Considerations for Wood Siding

Wood siding can provide a natural, renewable product that can provide excellent protection for your home or commercial building for many years. Like any product, there are some key considerations to maximize the beauty and life expectancy of your wood siding.

If the look of a natural wood-sided building is appealing to you, one of the first considerations for you to think about is the necessary maintenance. There are some treatments, like Valhalco’s Lifetime®, for wood sidings, that are very low maintenance and provide protection against rot. These treatments do not protect against UV damage at all. In our climate in the Northern Rocky Mountains, siding treated with these types of products can last a very long time.

Maintaining Your Wood Siding

The first type of UV damage is the visible darkening and greying of wood. Fresh cut lumber will sunburn and darken when left in the sun, even in a single, very sunny afternoon! If you like the look for fresh-cut boards, you are looking for a product that provides some UV protection. The good news is that there are some great product families out there to protect your investment. There is, unfortunately, some bad news. All of these products require significant maintenance.

Marks Lumber recommends the Perma-Chink System family of products for exterior applications where the desired outcome is a bright, clean, new appearance. Properly maintained, the Perma-Chink System will not need to be redone for many, many years. Proper maintenance primarily means washing your structure annually, and reapplying the protective clear-coat as needed.

In some cases, the clear-coat application may need to be redone annually. However, most of the time, it will last for two or more years. Also, you can just do exposed areas that are showing sun damage, not the entire building. There are many other types of products, and we will revisit and touch on these in a future blog. However, upfront, we prefer that you think about what level of maintenance you want to, and can, realistically commit to.

If you like a reclaimed, aged, or barn wood appearance—you are in luck, there are low maintenance approaches to wood siding that deliver the same high-quality look without the extra work. However, if you are really into the look of new wood, then you want to make sure you can commit to the maintenance required to maintain that look.

Once you understand the required level of maintenance and have found the right natural wood siding product, we will make sure that you are going to get this "just right" product appropriately installed.

Find Out More

For any further questions, please contact us at Marks Lumber. We have a wealth of experience and understanding that can help you get exactly what you want and bring that authentic Montana touch to your home.

Learn More About Our 105 Siding/Channel Rustic Products