Care for Masonite Siding on Homes

Assessing Age

• The first step to determining proper care for masonite siding is to determine the age of your siding. Siding created prior to the 1980s is much more difficult to care for, prone to rot, deterioration and swelling. If your masonite siding is pre-1980s, take active steps, such as sealing it, if no rot has occurred. In many cases, when deterioration is severe--as is likely to happen on pre-1980s siding--you may need to replace your siding. In fact, in the early 1990s, a legal battle emerged based on this very premise.

  If your Masonite siding was made after 1980, fewer problems are liable to occur as the original company merged with a Canadian company and the production and quality of the product changed. Thus, if your siding is post-1980, you can create a care plan that involves taking preventative measures to ensure rot does not develop, but your care plan can be less intensive than the steps those with older siding must take.

Avoiding Rot

• One of the easy solutions to avoid potential rot and deterioration is to oil paint the hardboard on both sides. This acts as an important shield from many of the factors that cause the rot. This solution, which to an extent prevents leakage of wax and water-based resins which the company claimed as the reason for this deterioration, can act as a preventive measure to ensure your masonite siding remains in good condition.

Other Care Requirements

• Another component of proper care involves avoiding too much nailing into the hardboard. When you use too many nails in masonite, the walls of the hardboard develop leaks, which makes it easy for the wax and resin to seep out and causes the structure to weaken. Water and moisture can also get in when there are leaks, hastening the process of deterioration. You may be able to use a fiber cement lining as an additional coating.