Siding and My Mentor Taking the Reigns

Spent a somewhat fruitful day with my Mentor actually doing work on the barn. Sure, we only accomplished about 10% of our goal, but that's 10% more than we'd done before. We had to squeeze in the work between him doing his real job and me doing mine, which meant making lunch, homeschooling, and taking the kids to assorted activities.

My Mentor came over around noon and there was no time to waste. We got to work and it was amazing to me how he just does it. I tend to ponder and torture myself over details, whereas he just does it. Chalk it up to experience.

Case in point, the sheathing. We went with Advantech, which is a relatively new product, and one which my Mentor did not have a huge amount of experience with. His first question to me - what side faces out? I think he rolled his eyes when he saw the clueless look on my face. You mean there are two different sides to this stuff?

I should have done my research properly. This is a classic example of a situation that would have paralyzed me. Upon learning that I needed to know which way to install the boards, I would have panicked and immediately called the experts, but my Mentor was up to the task. He looked over boards, read all the relevant information (it's all written on there), and came up with a plan. No need to waste time panicking. He figured it out and just dove in, head first. It was amazing.

It turns out that there is a recognizable waterproof side to Advantech, and we got it right, or should I say he got it right, I simply rode his coattails? The outer side appears waxy and has a definite coating on it. I learned later that if you put it on backwards, it wouldn't be the end of the world, especially after the Tyvek went on, but even still, it might get some rain exposure. We measured out the rough openings of the windows, cut the boards with a circular saw (actually, in the interest of time and accuracy, he did most of the cutting), and we nailed them in.

Two things came to light to me. First off, I need more nails (25 in/8d galvanized), a lot more. And secondly, putting up sheathing is a job for two people, at least. I toyed with the idea of doing it myself when my Mentor was not free, but I got over that one quickly. Those boards are heavy and cumbersome.

Either way, we got about a quarter of the exterior done. Not bad for a neophyte like myself. In fact, I feel so emboldened, I'm ready for more, except that we'll be away for a couple of days, and it's busy season for my Mentor, with foliage and all.

Oh well, I can always look forward to next week. Until the next time, thanks for reading.