Gentek Smoked Timber Siding Renovation

Tough to decide what makes the bigger impact here - the beautiful new siding, the Lux Panel accents, or all that wonderful exterior insulation added…

When we put these project pages together for the website, it is easy to get distracted by the siding. Simply put, this house looks great. And as much as we like to take some credit for that - a lot of that comes down to the awesome selections made by the homeowners. But in doing so, we can forget that their original motivation for the renovation was as much about keeping the house warmer in the Winter as it was making the home beautiful.

So rather than starting with the siding here (which we will get to below), we’re going to talk exterior insulation and air sealing. 2×4 homes like this one (which make up about 50% of the homes in Edmonton) were built to an R12 on their main, above ground walls. It isn’t much by today’s standards (we’re currently building homes to an R22 in the Edmonton area), and to add to the lack of thermal value, that insulation sinks over time. Most of the energy audits we see would show homes from this era are performing at an R10 or R11.

So when we get to add a 1.625” layer of exterior insulation (like we did here), an approximate R7.6, we get to make a huge change in comfort and energy efficiency for our clients. That R7.6 is a roughly 70 or 76% increase in total R value on the walls. And furthermore, our insulation is installed in a continuous application (as opposed to the existing in-wall insulation on the home), meaning we get to wrap the house in a warm blanket, covering each stud and greatly reducing thermal breaks on the home.

And then……we do get to add the gorgeous new siding. Here, the homeowners selected Gentek’s Smoked Timber as the main siding colour. Dark, while still providing a lot of colour, it is a beautiful contrast to the white windows and soffit/fascia/eaves. Along with the Smoked Timber, we added Lux Panel accents in Fawn on the bow and bay windows - a standout feature that really pops! Fawn is part of Lux’s West Coast Natural series of colours - with digitally reproduced natural woodgrains, it’s as close to real cedar as you can get without having to deal with the maintenance!

Interested in your own siding renovation? Reach out to us today!