Exterior Cladding Inspection Checklist: What to Look At and Photograph Before, During and After Siding, Stucco or Stone Goes On, While the Wall Is Still Open

The numbers to carry

The same transitions from the roofing side are on the roof installation inspection checklist and the wall side of the window is on the ICF window installation page, which applies to a frame house with one less layer.

Before: the day the material arrives

1. The product on the pallet is the product on the quote. Brand, line, thickness, colour name and lot number. Photograph the labels. Vinyl colour lots vary and fibre cement comes in two thicknesses that look the same stacked.
2. The quantity is close to the takeoff. Net wall plus 10% waste, 12% for board and batten. A pallet a lot bigger than the takeoff is going to another job on your invoice; a lot smaller means a colour lot change halfway up the wall.
3. The trim, flashing and membrane are on site too. If the sill pans and head flashings are not on the truck on day one, they are not going in on day three. The contract line for them is on the contract checklist.
4. Grade, decks and the garden. Mark where 6 in. above finished grade lands all the way around, because the crew will start the bottom course where the old siding was, and the old siding may have been buried for years.

During: the two days the wall is open

1. The sheathing, bare. Walk every wall when the old siding is off and before any membrane goes on. Press soft spots with a screwdriver. Dark and hard is old; soft is rot. Photograph each wall from two corners and any rot with a tape beside it. This is the photograph the $6.50 a square foot sheathing line is reconciled against.
2. The membrane laps the right way. Each sheet over the one below it, like shingles, so water running down is always on the outside. Seams taped. The bottom edge lapped over the foundation flashing, not tucked behind it. On an ICF wall there may be no membrane, because the foam is the plane; the ICF finishes article explains which systems need what.
3. Every window and door, in order. Sill pan first, side tapes over the pan, head flashing over the sides, membrane lapped over the head flashing. Photograph one opening at each stage; the sequence is the whole point and it cannot be checked once the trim is on. A pan with the side tapes under it is a funnel into the wall.
4. Step flashing and kick-outs. Where a roof ends against a wall, the step flashing goes under the membrane and the siding, and the bottom piece is a kick-out that throws the water into the eavestrough instead of behind the siding. A missing kick-out is the single commonest source of the stain inside, and it is a $15 piece of metal.
5. Rainscreen strapping, if the quote has it. Vertical furring at the studs, bug screen at the bottom, the cavity open at top and bottom. If the quote has a rainscreen line at $2.50 and the siding is going straight on the wrap, that is the conversation to have before lunch.
6. Penetrations. Hose bibs, vents, lights, the electrical mast: each one flashed or taped to the membrane, not just caulked to the siding later.
7. Fastening, on the first wall. Vinyl: nails loose, head off the panel, centred in the slot, so the panel slides when you push it. Fibre cement: nails at the right spacing, not overdriven, cut ends primed before they go up, a flashing tab behind every butt joint. Stone: lath, scratch coat, then stone, and the weep screed at the bottom. Check the first wall closely and the rest go faster.

After: before the final payment

1. Sight along every wall in low sun for waves and ripples. Vinyl that ripples is nailed tight; fibre cement that waves was not strapped over a wavy wall. Both are fixable now and expensive later.
2. The bottom course is 6 in. off the grade, straight, and the same height all the way around. Fibre cement is 2 in. off every roof surface, with the gap open, not caulked.
3. Caulking is where it belongs. At the sides of windows and at trim, not across the bottom of a head flashing, not at the laps of fibre cement, not across the bottom edge of anything that is supposed to drain.
4. Head flashing is visible above every window and door trim, with the siding lapped over it and a gap, not sealed to it.
5. Brick: weep holes open every 800 mm along the base and over the openings, and not full of mortar. Do not let anyone fill them later. The brick and stone hub explains what they are for.
6. Soffit, fascia and eaves are back on with the vented soffit where the attic needs it, the eaves sloped to the downspouts, and the downspouts discharging 6 ft from the wall. The eaves hub has the ventilation arithmetic.
7. The paper. The reconciled rot invoice against your photographs, the manufacturer’s warranty registered in your name, the written workmanship warranty, the final invoice with the HST number, and the 10% holdback noted as held for 60 days.

The twenty photographs

Labels on the pallet. Each wall bare, from two corners. Any rot with a tape. A membrane lap and a taped seam. One opening at each of the four stages, pan, sides, head, membrane over. A kick-out. The rainscreen strapping if there is one. A penetration. A loose vinyl nail with your finger showing the panel slides, or a primed fibre cement cut end. The first finished wall in low sun. The bottom course with a tape to grade. A head flashing above a window. A weep hole, on brick. The eaves and a downspout discharge. The last one is the invoice.

If there is ever a claim, against the installer, the manufacturer or under a new-home warranty, the question is always what was behind the siding before it was closed, and nobody can see it anymore. Those pictures are the only evidence that exists. The exterior renovation hub has the rest of the process, from the quotes to the contract.

Questions people ask

Sources and further reading

• Ontario’s Building Code, Section 9.27 Cladding: the first and second planes of protection, sheathing membrane, flashing at openings and transitions, and the clearances from grade and roofs that every siding and stucco job has to meet.
• James Hardie installation instructions: the clearances, fastening, flashing and primed-cut rules a fibre-cement warranty depends on; the installer is held to this sheet.
• Vinyl Siding Institute: the installation manual every vinyl warranty points to: loose nailing, expansion gaps, laps and the J-channel details.