Gluing cedar siding to furring strips: Good or bad idea?
peter_r
| Posted in General Questions on
I will soon be installing horizontal cedar siding over 3/4″ pressure-treated furring strips. The siding is clear vertical grain western red cedar with a tongue and groove profile. It has a 5″ wide face. The house is covered with 2.5″ of wood-fiber insulation, which means that any nails I use for the siding will only penetrate into the 3/4″ furring strips.
I’m leaning towards applying a strip of glue to the furring strips and then nailing on the siding. But I can’t find any examples online where this has been done. Is it a bad idea to glue the cedar (in addition to nailing)?
Thanks!
Peter
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Replies
Peter, I haven't heard of anyone doing that and it would make future repairs and renovations more challenging than they need to be. But if you are concerned about the siding falling off, using construction adhesive would help resist that action.
Bad idea. The wood needs to expand & contract (even if you seal all faces, which you should do). The nail holds the wood in despite the expansion & contraction because the nail hole gets slightly larger. If you glue them it can't expand & contract and the glue joint will just bust loose.
Install the nails in the groove of the tongue and groove like they are supposed to be installed.
Groove down, tongue up (because you don't want the tongue to hold water). You will have to start at the top. Nail into the furring stips.
Hopefully the furring strips are well attached.
"If you glue them it can't expand & contract and the glue joint will just bust loose"
Or if the adhesive is strong enough, the siding will split. Either way the outcome isn't good.
3/4" furring is fine as a substrate for cedar siding.
Thanks for the advice, everyone. Sounds like nails-only is the way to go.