Finding Physical Evidence: Original German Siding

With a 90-year-old house, even without all the historical research I have conducted, it would be clear to most anyone that the house has undergone physical and aesthetic changes over such a time period. Owners renovating historic and century-plus old homes find evidence of former floor plan configurations, old hardwood floors, and other old or original building materials all the time. One might think that the most likely time to find such physical evidence is during a significant renovation project. While that may indeed be true, sometimes finding a major score of an original building material is as simple as poking your head into an access panel in the attic...

The Current Asbestos Siding

As I have mentioned several times, my house is clad in asbestos-cement shingle siding. The word "asbestos" is a dirty word these days, as it should be since it is a well-known carcinogen. However, prior to this knowledge and up to the 1970s, asbestos fibers were used extensively in the 20th century as a major component in all sorts of building materials, touted for increasing durability and fire-resistance. In this type of exterior siding, asbestos fibers are embedded into a tile of portland cement. Since asbestos house siding is a non-friable ACM (asbestos-containing material), there is no great rush for homeowners to go to the expense of ripping old asbestos siding off of their homes. Left in tact, there is generally no hazard. Earlier asbestos siding can date back as early as the 1920s, with the material becoming more prevalent in the 1930s and hugely popular in the 1950s.

Asbestos-cement siding on the side of my house. At this area, a window had been covered over. The owner at the time mixed the wavy bottom style in, which is a mismatch to the earlier flat bottom shingles. This newer wavy bottom shingle may also be a more modern fiber cement product without asbestos.

Asbestos siding is also today seen by many as an unattractive siding material. It most often came in white or shades of grey (especially prior to WWII), with either a straight or wavy bottom profile, and many times has a faux wood-grain pattern on it. If painted to create a cohesive color scheme with the trim and other materials, asbestos siding can look just fine and even quite nice. I happen to think that the previous owners of my home did an admirable job with the previously-white siding, painting it an olive green and accenting with magenta shutters and a storm door.

Yet, I know for sure that this not the original siding to the house. Although asbestos siding was available in the 1920's when the house was built, wood siding still prevailed during that time period. My siding has the faux wood-grain pattern, which was not available until the late 1930's. This siding no doubt came sometime later on many years after the home's construction.

The Original Siding: Wood "German" Siding

Knowing that there was a major addition to this house, occurring no later than 1946 with the enclosure of a rear porch, it hit me like a lightning bolt one day a few months after moving in. Why not check the attic, in the unoccupied portion where the addition is? I have a walk-up attic housed above the original portion of the house, and there is an opening at the top of the attic steps, providing access above the ceiling at the addition. If I poke my head through the access opening and look back at the outside face of this wall, I would be looking at what was original the rear exterior facade of the house.

Looking up the attic steps, the exterior wall to the right was originally the backside of the house. The access opening is to the right of the window, sort of visible, with a board over it.

I grabbed my utility worklight and headed upstairs immediately, and found it:

Original German wood siding, on what used to be part of the exposed exterior rear wall of the house.

This is what is commonly known as German siding (also known as "cove lap" or "Dutch lap" siding). Whereas wood clapboards and beveled siding are installed by overlapping the upper course over a lower course and nailing through one or both boards, creating an angle to shed water, German siding is a type of "drop siding", milled from wood in a profile that gets nailed flat onto the exterior sheathing. German siding has a coved profile that creates an attractive relief pattern and locks adjacent courses together. It was widely popular in the late 19th-century, especially in the Northeast.

Diagram of German lap siding, courtesy of www.dictionaryofconstruction.com

Image of a building with German lap siding, courtesy of www.cranesiding.net

So now this has me excited. I now know what originally clad the exterior of the house. Don't forget, also, that the 1946 building permit for the rear porch enclosure indicated that this portion of the house too had German siding:

Clip from the 1946 permit application to enclose the rear porch-- notice the words "german siding" at bottom right under the section calling for building materials used.

Originally after making this discovery, but before I received the permit document, I assumed that the replacement to asbestos siding occurred on or around the time that the addition was built. However, the permit proves that this portion of the addition was also clad in German siding in 1946, and makes it highly probable that the earlier German siding was still extant at that time. Now it is more likely assumed that the asbestos was put on in the 1960s, giving it some temporal distance between the Cantlins' spending money on more new German siding in 1946. Asbestos began to become more regulated by the EPA in the 1970s, although sale of this type of siding did continue into that decade.

So, Is There More Underneath the Asbestos-Cement?

Short answer, I don't know, and won't unless I begin to take some of the asbestos siding off (safely and with proper precautions!) along with the building felt directly underneath it. I can, however, posit that it is likely that there is old wood siding there. First, removing an existing siding is an additional expense and was (and still is) often skipped when re-cladding a house. The Cantlin family probably did not go to this expense. Further, when vinyl siding is added over top of an existing siding, the additional depth it creates begins to cause window trim to become recessed within the vinyl trim (yuck). The same thing does not happen with asbestos-cement shingles, since they are only about 1/8" thick. Notice on pictures of my house that the original wood window trim still has a bit of dimension to it between the siding and the front face of the trim.

Window trim is not recessed as it is in vinyl cover-ups.

Diagram from Asphalt and Asbestos-Cement Shingle Residing, by James McCawley, published 1940.

Look also at this installation diagram above for this type of asbestos-cement siding from 1940. The likely method of installation included placing a building felt over top of existing wood siding, then nailing in the asbestos siding directly over that. Although this same method could easily be done over sheathing after wood siding is removed, it is quite possible that the wood siding remains. In areas on my house where asbestos siding has been chipped, cracked, or broken in a few areas, I see either black building felt or another asbestos shingle (i.e. at the bottom course). In a few areas, such as when i try to peek underneath the bottom course or look at gaps in these same locations, I do see wood, but this could easily be sheathing or a wood nailer.

Possibly some more older wood siding, exposed beneath the bottom course of asbestos shingle.

I THINK all or most of the original wood German siding lurks under there, but I can't be sure. Yet.

Read More »

Examining a 20-Year-Old Photograph of the House

Today, we examine a photograph of my house first presented in my post on Browsing On-line County Databases. The Montgomery County assessment office maintains a profile for each property on record, and most of those include a photograph of the house, if a house exists on the property. In my experience, most of these photographs are from the days before digital cameras, meaning by this point in 2015 they are at least 15-year-old photos, or older.

Circa 1990 Photograph of my house, courtesy of Montgomery County PA

This photograph of my home I have pegged to the early 1990's, based primarily on the car in the neighbor's driveway. I'm far, far from an expert on identifying cars, but I think this is a circa 1990 Ford Escort. Assuming that the car was a few years old when the photo was snapped and not brand new, the photo was likely taken somewhere between 1990 and 1995. Thus, I'll call this a 20-year-old photograph.

What can we learn from this Photograph?

Placing the 20-year-old photograph side-by-side with a current photo and looking for differences in details, however slight, can give us some clues about the physical history of the home.

The most obvious difference is the exterior paint color. In the early 90's, the asbestos siding was a white color. Now, it is an olive green. At the closing table, the previous owners of our house relayed an anecdote of them painting the house in their early years owning the home, while the wife was pregnant if my memory serves me well. This would have been the early 2000's. The current green is at least the third color the house has exhibited. We know this because the current asbestos siding is not the original siding to the house, having been installed perhaps when the rear addition was performed.

Landscaping

Probably the next most-noticeable difference is the landscaping, namely the hedge at the front of the yard, which no longer exists (although the 2014 is taken from a bit closer to the house, trust me, it's not there). Not a huge story-teller of a detail here, but in another conversation with my current neighbor, he relayed that the previous owner (2001-2014) had constructed a short berm (mound) against the street to prevent water from running off onto the front yard. For his part, this previous owner tells me that the hedge was not there when they bought the house. The planting bed in front of the porch is also more densely planted in the early 90's than it is now. Again, the prevous owner helps out by telling me they replanted some of the azaleas from that location to along the side of the house.

Windows

Now, I noticed this one pretty quickly and I hope you did too-- there is one less window on the side of the house now than there was in the 90's. If you look at the second window from the front, it is now covered over.

Interior side

Exterior side

This is located at what is currently a full bathroom. The previous owner tells me that this room was always a bathroom during their time here, and a look at the piping underneath the basement shows that it is certainly more than 15-20 years old. Further, you can see the stack vent coming on roof above this window even in the 90's photo, meaning this bathroom was not a recent addition. Most likely, the only significant change here was that the window was covered over when a plexiglass bath-fitter type shower enclosure was installed at some point. While not incredibly exciting, it is still part of the home's history!

The vinyl shutters on the front windows (and one side window facing the driveway) were added post-2001. Their reddish color compliments the overall olive green building color nicely, although shutters likely never existed here (one shutter had to have a large notch taken out of it to fit against the porch beam). When the time comes for me to do significant work to the outside of this house, I will wrestle with what exactly to do here. I rather like what they add to the curb appeal, yet they are historically inaccurate.

Other Tiny Differences

The downspout on the left-most porch pier has now been moved from the front face to the left side of the pier, a welcome change visually. You can also see in the current photograph that the incoming electrical service attaches to the house at a mast (pole) that was likely added to comply with current electrical code or after a service upgrade, possibly as part of the 2001 transaction.

Conclusion

Photographs preserve a moment in time. They can prove invaluable when other records exist, but they are even more helpful in enriching the story of the subject being captured. Any house history researcher would be grateful to score an old photograph of their subject home, especially one of vintage from the early years since its construction. Photos can potentially be found from a variety sources: old newspapers, historical societies, previous owners, and perhaps even insurance companies. My search for additional, and older, photographs of the home will continue, but even a relatively recent photograph can display a wide range and amount of changes that a house can experience over a 20+ year period.

Read More »