Verrell & Daughter Siding Co. · Carlow & the Millstone Valley · third generation, est. 1954
Hung to the gauge since 1954.
Fiber-cement lap at a true 7-1/4" exposure, engineered wood where the budget asks for it, cedar where the house deserves it — back-primed, blind-nailed, butt joints struck at 3/16" and sealed, every opening flashed into the barrier. Carlow has seventy years of our walls on its streets, and the newest ones are holding better than the first.
The shop letter
One family, one gauge, three streets of proof
My grandfather hung clapboard with a folding rule and a chalk line; my daughter hangs fiber cement with a laser and the same gauge card, laminated from his notes. What has not changed is the order of operations: the wall is made dry before it is made handsome. Drive Miller Street, Larch Row or the upper valley road — every fourth house is ours, and the oldest ones look the most settled. We quote from the measure, not from the doorstep, and the quote holds sixty days.
bench@verrellsiding.example · Carlow · Mon–Sat, seven to five
What we hang, and the exposure
The broadsheet rates
Fiber-cement lap — $8.90–11.60 / sq ft
5/16" board hung at a true 7-1/4" exposure, blind-nailed on the maker’s gauge, factory-finished or primed for two site coats. Non-combustible, dimensionally still, and unbothered by the woodpecker hours of August. The default wall of the valley, and the one three streets of Carlow are wearing.
01
Engineered-wood lap — $6.80–8.40 / sq ft
Treated strand core with a resin-bound face, primed, painted on site. It cuts and carries like lumber, spans a gentle wave in an old wall, and on a sheltered elevation it reads like anything else on the street. The honest budget wall — never sold as more than that.
02
Cedar accents & gables — from $13.50 / sq ft
Western red cedar shakes at the gables and dormers, back-primed on all six faces, stainless-fastened, breathed from behind on battens. Cedar is the one material we insist on doing exactly right or not at all — a cedar detail installed wrong is a compost project with a warranty.
03
The wall book
Carlow, re-sided
Six from last season’s book, photographed at the final walk with nothing staged and nothing colour-corrected. Ask us for the street — the owners of a Verrell wall like proving which decade it went up.
The Verrell order
Measure, tear, hang, walk
Measure & quote
Walls measured flat, openings counted, exposure matched or chosen. The quote is fixed to the square foot and holds sixty days.
Tear to the sheathing
Old siding off, sheathing repaired where forty years of weather got in, and the house wrapped and taped before the crew goes home.
Hang to gauge
Starter on a laser, board blind-nailed, butt joints at 3/16" and sealed. The gauge card from 1954 stays posted on the job wall.
Seal, paint & walk
Joints sealed, two site coats where the board came primed, magnet sweep, punch list walked twice — once with you, once without.
The shop, counted
They matched the 1920s clapboard on the front elevation so the street cannot tell where the old wall stops — we only know because we watched them hang it. The gauge card on the job box was older than the house.
Two coats, a walk-through with a magnet on a stick, and a punch list of three items that were fixed before the truck left. Our last siding crew mailed us a magnet. There is a difference.
Ten years, in writing
Fastening, flashing, sealing and every caulk joint — if a Verrell installation fails inside ten years, we return and re-hang it free. The card in the shop window has carried the same sentence since 1961; only the paper has changed.
The five we hear first
Can you match a 1920s clapboard?
Usually. The common exposures are still run, and where the profile has gone out of production we rack a small stock of reclaimed cedar and mill the odd profiles to pattern. When an honest match is not there, we say so and re-side the full elevation — a patch that reads like a patch is a discount you pay full price for.
How much of the old wall comes off?
All of it, every time. An overlay buries sheathing rot, halves the fastener schedule and puts the new board out of plane with the trim. We tear off to bare sheathing, repair and photograph what we find, and wrap the house before finish siding starts.
Fiber cement or engineered wood?
Fiber cement if the wall faces weather or the budget allows; engineered wood where the elevation is sheltered and the budget is honest about itself. We hang both and quote both — the house makes the call, not the margin.
What is back-priming, and does it matter?
Sealing the back face of the board before it is hung, so moisture moving outward through the wall does not blister the finish from behind. On cedar it is non-negotiable; on factory-finished fiber cement the work is done for you. It costs an afternoon and saves the paint cycle.
Spring booking opens in March · winter measures are free and unhurried · (555) 022-6175 · bench@verrellsiding.example
Send for the gauge measure
Tell us the street, the age of the walls and what they have been doing lately. The measure is free, the quote is fixed to the square foot, and it holds sixty days — long enough to think, which is the point of sixty days.