THE EXTERIOR SIDING TO YOUR HOUSE IS LIKE SKIN TO YOUR BODY.

SIDING SERVICES IN OTTAWA

At FORLIFE home improvement, our professional installers understand the importance of both the functional but also aesthetic features of your building's or house roofing system. They put emphasis on bringing their skills, expertise to make sure your home looks great, and every piece will provide the function it was intended to

Soffits and fascia enclose the rafter ends at the roof overhang and may be made of several materials. You won't always find soffits and fascia. Some architectural styles have open rafters at the eaves and, consequently, no soffits. Across the ends of the rafters, there may or may not be fascia boards behind gutters.

Materials

Soffits and fascia may be wood, aluminum, fiber-cement, hardboard, OSB, plywood or vinyl, for example.

SOFFITS

The skin that covers your EAVES : 

Without it, you would have your rafter beams and joists fully exposed. Not only that, but since your roof needs to be ventilated, the soffit will give the option to provide natural ventilation in the attic.

The pre-finished aluminum soffit come in vented and non-vented sections; Vinyl soffit has the same characteristics as vinyl siding planks or board.

The Vented sections provide critical airflow from your eaves into your attic, whereas non-vented sections are installed when the roof has another ventilation system that does not require airflow inlets from the eaves.

Venting Roof Spaces : Many soffits have vents to allow air into the unconditioned roof spaces. Vents higher on the roof allow air to escape from the roof spaces.

Soffit Vents Ineffective : Roof space ventilation often looks great because the new soffit material has continuous louvered vents. However, the wood soffit that has been covered may have little or no venting, that’s why when we inspect the roof for the purpose of installing a new Roof we usually inspect the soffit and recommend to upgrade it to have an adequate vented roof.

FASCIA

The fascia of your home is the trim board that hangs down from the edge of your roofline. Fascia goes hand in hand with your Soffit. Right against the rafter’s extremities, it is the exposed board in front of your roof’s overhang.

Gutters will hang against it and that why protecting the fascia board is very important. Aluminum Fascia sheeting comes to protect from the elements and gives it curb appeal. The pre-finished aluminum fascia is installed over the wood trim.

Common BIG issue of Fascia and Soffit :

Wood and plywood soffits and fascia are susceptible to rot. The fascia is at the lower edge of the roof and, as a result, there may be large volumes of water that run across it. The soffit is a horizontal assembly, and any water that leaks or backs up through the lower edge of the roof is likely to collect on the top side of the soffit, which can't be seen. Staining, streaking and rusting on the soffits walls or metal vent materials are often the only early indication of water in the soffits.

Rot to soffits and fascia may be the result of :

• Roof leaks running down sheathing or rafters
• Ice dams
• Loose or missing pieces allowing water in
• Gutters that overflow, leak or are pulling away from the house
• Sloped roofs which intersect flat roofs or walls
• Leaking integral gutters

Implications: Rot to soffits and fascia means that these components have to be repaired or replaced. The more serious issue is the possibility of concealed damage to the structure.

When we inspect your Roof system we make sure we go through all these steps and recommend the appropriate and definite solution.

WALL SURFACES / SIDING

Where we recognize many type of Material for Siding, we specialize in two only : Vinyl ( RB Solutions) and Fiber Cement board (Hardie boards) for the following reasons they are the same for both:

• Weathertight (Water, Snow, Wind) : Good value
• Strength: Fair to high value (and not costly repairs)
• Cost : Medium
• Maintenance Requirement : Low
• Flexibility : paintable and large variety of patterns and colors.

Trim & Flashings : Trim on the exterior of a house may be composed of flashing details, or small pieces of siding or other materials such as wood, masonry or stone.Trim may:

• Create architectural detail
• Act as a transition between different materials
• Provide tight joints
• Provide control joints, drip screeds or other details on stucco

Flashings protect joints at changes in direction and between different materials. Missing or poor flashing details are often responsible for water damage to walls and floors.

The flashings we install are typically galvanized steel or aluminum.

Flashings may be one-part or two-part systems. Two-part flashings include step and counter flashings where walls meet roofs, for example. If the siding is masonry, a metal counter flashing protects the top of the step flashings. The siding material may act as a counter flashing. The only flashing in this case is the step flashing.

Common problems we find with flashings, caulking and trim :

1. Missing flashings
2. Ineffective or incomplete flashings
3. Loose
4. Rust
5. Rot
6. Caulking missing or ineffective

VINYL SIDING

Our Vinyl siding we install is strong enough and typically begins to soften at roughly 160 F (71°C ).

Vinyl siding is America's most popular siding material, accounting for more than one third of installations countrywide. It is inexpensive, relatively easy to install, and low maintenance. Vinyl siding has come a long way.

The siding is made from polyvinylchloride (PVC); a common plastic used in many building materials, but is often referred to as polymer or polymeric siding. It may contain a number of additives. The quality varies, with the premium products tending to be thicker. Our Better vinyl siding comes with a 50 year warranty or a lifetime pro-rated warranty.

Light colors are common because they stand up better to heat and sunlight. Darker colors typically have more additives to help stabilize the vinyl.

The colors go through the material so scratching the surface will not reveal a different color below. Also, the color cannot peel or chip off the surface. The material comes in boards. Most vinyl siding can't be repainted. Some of the newer products can be painted successfully.

Installation : Vinyl siding is hung in place with nailing patterns similar to wood board siding. Nails are installed at the top of horizontal siding pieces, and the bottom locks into the piece below.

Slots : Nails with large flat heads are driven through the center of manufactured slots into wood studs or strapping. Nails should not hold the siding tightly against the wall. Metal and vinyl siding expand and contract with changes in temperature. The siding will buckle if nailed too tightly.

Drainage Slots : Horizontal siding has drainage holes or slots in the bottom of each piece to allow any water that gets behind the siding to escape.

Building Paper : Building paper or housewrap is used behind vinyl siding as a backup, since wind-driven rain will get past the siding.

With our good installations of horizontal vinyl siding we guarantee the following characteristics:

• They aren't wavy. They are installed over a smooth wall or are furred out from an uneven wall.
• The lap joints are staggered, such that two joints don't line up unless they are separated by three courses.
• The butt end of lap joints face away from main traffic areas so they are less visible.
  The bottom of the siding protects the wall sill area.
• Details at doors, windows and other interruptions are well executed to prevent water entering the wall system.
  

FIBER CEMENT SIDING (HARDIE BOARD)

Description 

Asbestos cement siding is essentially a light concrete panel reinforced with asbestos fibers.

Asbestos cement siding typically comes in large shingles measuring 18 x 24 inches. Sometimes the surface is grooved or mildly corrugated. They are usually painted white or pastei colors but we can install wide range of colors . This siding is almost always installed horizontally, with consecutively higher rows overlapping the row below.

Durable

The siding we install is extremely durable and its only arguable weakness is that because it is brittle, it is susceptible to mechanical damage. However most other sidings are also susceptible to mechanical damage, and one has to hit an asbestos cement shingle pretty hard to break it.

Workmanship

No matter how good are the siding product installed, it will definitely fail if it is not installed properly.

Siding is not about rushing the installation, rather installing a product per manufacturer’s recommendation and taking enough time through the installation steps.

At FORLIFE Home Improvement, our siding installers stress rather on proper product application because every single job is important and our goal is to deliver long-term value.

Also, our employees not only have years of experience but we take them through the industry-related courses and guarantee they are installing the product and systems in accordance the manufacturer's warranty requirements.

This give us the confidence to offer our customers a new Siding with an industry leading 10 year workmanship warranty up to 20 and 50 years life time warranty.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

We genuinely care about our customers and the relationships we build with tem from the first call and we always value their trust.

That's why we have a process in place that puts our customers in control by giving them all the information they need

We have put a system in place where we provide our customers with the information they need and help them make informed decisions about their investment.

We also have a feedback system where our customers can share their experience and help people what they expect when they hire our company and work with us, this feedback system also helps us evaluate their satisfaction and keep it always at its highest level.