A wall that cannot dry is a wall that is dying.
What we do
The cladding menu
Fiber-cement lap, ColorPlus
James Hardie at a 7.25″ exposure, blind-nailed to the maker’s gauge, finished at the factory in four baked coats — thirty years against chalking and fading, and it does not swell when the fog sits on it for a week. Installed from $9.40 a square foot with tear-off, wrap and flashings inside the number.
Cedar & shake, salt spec
Western red cedar at the gables and dormers, stainless ring-shank fasteners and a six-face seal within a mile of the water — the Sound streaks anything less by year three. It is the material the shore was built in, hung the way it was then and wrapped the way it should have been. From $14.10 a square foot.
Insulation-backed panel
Cement panel laminated to a continuous insulating core — R-4 at the face of the stud, fastened on its own engineered track so the foam never carries the board. The quiet side of a Sound-facing bedroom, in one pass. From $11.80 a square foot, quoted only where the weather earns it.
Storm walk-offs inside 24 hours, shore-wide · the spring hanging calendar fills by March · (555) 041-3829 · crew@wrenhavencladding.example
How the fog coast gets sided
Four stations, one crew
Walk the wall
Measured flat, openings counted, sheathing probed where the fog has had forty years to work. The fixed quote is issued per square foot before a board is ordered.
Close it in
Tear-off wall by wall, repairs priced ahead, then wrap lapped shingle-style, taped, cap-nailed, flashed at every opening and kick-outs at the rakes. Watertight by nightfall, every night.
Hang the gauge
Starter to a laser, blind-nailed on gauge, 10 mm battens behind every course, butt joints cut clean and left at 3/16″ for the caulk that moves with the coast.
Walk it together
Magnet sweep, touch-up kit, and both warranties registered the same week — five years on our labor, thirty on the factory finish, both in your name.
Wrenhaven, in figures
2025 — 2026
Sound-side work
Six walls from Alder Gap to Piper Sound, photographed at the final walk with nothing staged. The fog does the softening; the finishes need none.
Before you call
Asked over the fence
The five the corner samples always raise on the shore. If yours is not here, the shop line at the bottom of the page runs seven to five, fog or no fog.
What does the salt actually do to a wall?
It finds the fastener first: a coated-steel nail within a mile of the water bleeds a rust tear-line down the board within a few seasons, and the manufacturer’s coastal spec says stainless for exactly that reason. We set stainless ring-shanks across the whole shore zone and standard galvanized only where the map says it is honest.
How long can a house stay wrapped?
As long as the job needs — the wrap is the weather skin, and a taped, cap-nailed envelope has ridden out whole Sound winters on our open houses without a drop inside. The finish siding is what the schedule is for; the dry house is what the wrap is for.
ColorPlus or painted on site?
On the shore, factory: four baked coats hold their color where salt spray and fog take site paint in five years. Two streets back from the water, two sprayed coats over primed board open up the whole color deck. We price both to the square foot and let the wall decide.
Can you match the profile on the old house?
Usually — the common exposures are still run and we keep a small rack of reclaimed cedar for the odd ones. When an honest match is not there we say so at the walk-off and quote the full elevation: a patch that reads like a patch costs you twice on the shore.
What does the fixed quote include?
Tear-off and dumpster on planks, sheathing repair priced before it surprises you, wrap, tape, flashings, fasteners, scaffolding, the magnet sweep and the touch-up kit. One number per square foot times the measured wall — the fog is not a line item.
Five and thirty, filed for you
The manufacturer carries the board — thirty years on ColorPlus, prorated, transferable once with the house. Wrenhaven carries the labor: fastening, flashing, sealing and every caulk joint, five years, re-done free. Both papers are registered the week of the walk, before the truck leaves the drive.
Why the gap comes first
The shop-door rule, kept
Everything on this coast is a drying problem wearing a siding problem’s clothes. The rain-screen gap — ten millimetres of air behind every course, screened at the weeps — is what lets the wall shed what beats the face and dry from both sides. It is in the install manual and skipped by half the crews on the shore; walk any Wrenhaven job and put a finger in it.
Two winters of Sound storms on the new Hardie and the neighbor’s overlay is peeling at the seams while ours reads painted yesterday. The crew set a corner sample in the yard for a week before we chose — the sage I liked at noon was wrong by four, and they let the light make the argument.
They found soft sheathing behind three layers of old clapboard and photographed every repair before the wrap went on. The house stopped smelling like a basement the month they finished. That was the year I understood what a wall was for.
The October gale took the west wall and the porch roof with it. Wrenhaven had the wrap on before the adjuster called back, wrote the scope in his own format, and hung the original profile before Thanksgiving. One conversation, no supplements.
Walk the wall with us
Town, wall age, and whether this is want, wear or weather. The walk-off is free, the storm scope is free, and the quote is fixed to the measured square foot before a board is ordered. crew@wrenhavencladding.example