[Robdude]

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask - but it seemed to fit here to me. Anyway....

I have some 'rotting' siding on my house. I'm not exactly sure what material it is, some type of wood?

Up close, it looks like this...

I don't know if you can tell from the picture - but it seems like the bottom sheet on the left face of the house and a few short pieces of the face the photo is pointing at needs to be fixed up. I'm thinking it should be 'too hard' to handle myself?

I have painters lined up for this summer. I looked into getting vinyl siding, but it was out of my price bracket, unfortunately.

What's the best approach here? Can I replace the old sheets with new stuff? Is there some sort of 'wood filler' I can use to fill in the bad/rotten sections?

 

[JohnCarpenter]

From the picture it looks like that old masonite siding they used in the eighties. Is this a rotten section or damage from a tree or something? If it is rotten then look at all the siding on the house. If it is damaged, you could try using rock-hard putty on it first and sanding it down. It would be cheap to at least try first.

If it is rotten it will have to be replaced.

_________________________
Johnny Jackson
http://www.jljacksonremodeling.com

 

[bjbatlanta]

The putty would be a temporary fix at best. It does look like masonite. You might be able to find some replacement pieces, but it may be difficult to find. If the offending pieces can be removed without damaging any of the rest of the siding, it can be pieced back in. You could use hardi-plank or similar siding if you can't find masonite. As stated above, do a close inspection on the rest of the house.....

 

[Chemist1961]

I don't know how that stuff ages but it was tough as nails. I built a house with it in the 80's. I think what we used was called Z90 or X 90 or something.
It looks like your culprit is the attached fence post creating a water channel onto the siding. I would seriously consider moving that post off the wall and examining behind it. Then anchor the post in the ground and brace it to the wall but not against the wall in this case

 

[VaViaCo]

The masonite will likely break if you try to remove one piece.
We used it a lot in Colorado in the early 90's and it wasn't real strong even new.
You could ask a contractor to look at the condition of it and the nail locations to see if he thinks he can get that piece out, but if you can't replace the whole house yet I'd scrape and clean that area then putty it and paint it a few times so the putty stays dry.

Think hardy plank. Vinyl isn't very good.