Siding Contractors in Lake Oswego: Hardboard to Hardie
Much of Lake Oswego's housing dates from the 1980s and 1990s, the years of hardboard and OSB lap siding. Here is what that means for siding work in the city.
Siding contractors in Lake Oswego, Oregon are called most often to houses from the 1980s and 1990s. Half of Lake Oswego’s homes were built in 1982 or later (median year built, Census ACS 2020-2024), squarely in the years when hardboard lap siding, often sold as Masonite, and LP Inner-Seal OSB siding were common on new houses. Both swell at the lower edges once water gets past the paint, and both settlements closed to claims long ago.
Portland Siding Pros passes Lake Oswego siding requests (ZIP codes 97034 and 97035) to independent siding contractors who work in the city. They inspect and quote directly.
Lake Oswego’s 1980s housing and its siding
Lake Oswego’s housing is younger than Portland’s: only about 3.5 percent was built before 1940. That means fewer original-wood repairs on pre-war houses and more of the problems that come with late-twentieth-century materials:
- Swollen hardboard or LP siding, with mushroomed bottom edges and paint that will not stay on.
- T1-11 panels delaminating at the bottom edge, often on garages and lower walls.
- Cedar on custom and lakefront homes, which needs its finish kept up; see cedar siding.
Replacing 1980s siding
Where hardboard or OSB siding is failing on most walls, siding replacement is usually the long-term fix, and fiber cement is the most common replacement material. The tear-off is also the chance to check sheathing below windows, add a continuous water-resistive barrier and flash every opening, details many houses of that era were built without.
Landmark review in Lake Oswego
Lake Oswego protects historic properties through a Landmark Designation List of individually designated buildings, sites and structures, rather than historic districts. The City says exterior alterations to a listed landmark generally require review before the Development Review Commission. If your house is on the list, plan the siding choice with that review in mind; historic wood siding repair covers keeping original material.
Permits
Oregon’s baseline is that repairing or replacing siding not required to be fire-resistant needs no building permit. Lake Oswego has its own building division, so confirm the requirements for your property with the City, especially if sheathing or framing needs repair.
Owner-occupied homes and planning ahead
About 69 percent of Lake Oswego homes are owner-occupied. For a planned re-side rather than an emergency, the drier months (July and August average about half an inch of rain each at Portland’s airport station) are the easiest time to have walls open. You can request a quote well ahead of the work.
Requesting a quote for a Lake Oswego house
Have the age of the house, the siding type if you know it, and which walls are affected ready. The siding cost page lists published figures with sources. Nearby: Portland and Oregon City.
About Lake Oswego
- Half of Lake Oswego's homes were built in 1982 or later (median year built, Census ACS 2020-2024), which puts much of the city's housing in the years when hardboard and LP OSB lap siding were common on new houses.
- About 69 percent of Lake Oswego homes are owner-occupied, the highest share of the four cities with their own page on this site.
- Lake Oswego keeps a Landmark Designation List of individually designated historic properties rather than historic districts. Exterior alterations to a listed landmark generally go before the Development Review Commission, one step more than a typical remodel.
Covers Lake Oswego, OR and surrounding Clackamas County addresses (97034, 97035).
Available in Lake Oswego: Siding ReplacementSiding Repair
What we can help with
Siding Replacement
Tear-off to the sheathing and a complete new wall skin: rot repair, house wrap, flashed windows, a drainage gap where it is required, new trim and new siding.
Siding Repair
Targeted work on part of a wall: rotted boards and trim cut out, torn or missing flashing fixed, storm and ice damage patched, and matching boards woven in.
Fiber Cement (Hardie) Siding
James Hardie and other fiber cement lap, panel and shingle siding, primed or factory-finished, installed to the maker's clearance and fastening rules.
Vinyl Siding
Vinyl lap, board-and-batten and shake-profile siding, and repair of panels that have buckled, cracked, melted or slipped out of their channels.
Cedar Siding
Cedar bevel and lap boards, board-and-batten, and sawn shingles: replacing split or rotted pieces, re-siding in cedar, and keeping the finish ahead of the rain.
Historic Wood Siding Repair
Repairing original lap and shingle siding on older Portland-area houses: consolidating and patching sound boards, milling matches for missing ones, and working lead-safe.
Signs it is time to call someone
Soft, crumbly boards, sills or corner trim
Despite the name, dry rot is fungal decay in wood that stays wet: behind failed caulk, along the tops of trim with no drip cap, and where boards sit close to soil, decks or roofing. Portland averages about 37 inches of rain a year, most of it from November to January, so the same spots stay damp for months.
Siding RepairSiding ReplacementCedar SidingHistoric Wood Siding Repair
Grooved plywood panels peeling apart at the bottom
T1-11 is plywood with vertical grooves, and it lets water in through its edges: the bottom cut edge near grade, horizontal joints that lack Z-flashing, and panel corners at windows. The veneers then separate and the panel softens from the edge inward.
Lap boards swollen and mushroomed at the lower edge
Hardboard siding, much of it sold under the Masonite name, and LP Inner-Seal OSB siding are wood-fiber boards that swell once water gets past the paint at edges and nail holes. Both were installed widely in the 1980s and 1990s, and both class-action settlements have long since closed to claims.
Stains or soft wall below a roof corner or window
Siding sheds most rain, and the layers behind it deal with the rest. Water gets past them where a roof edge dies into a wall without a kickout flashing, where house wrap is torn or lapped the wrong way, and where windows were set without head or sill flashing.
Vinyl panels rippled, bowed, cracked or melted
Vinyl moves with temperature, so it is meant to hang loosely on its nails with room to slide at corner posts and J-channel. Panels nailed tight or butted hard into trim buckle when they heat up, and sunlight concentrated by a neighbour's low-emissivity window glass can soften them.
Boards cracked or knocked loose in a winter storm
Portland-area winter storms bring down trees and limbs onto houses: the February 2021 ice storm left about 420,000 PGE customers without power, the largest outage in the utility's history. A broken section of siding exposes the wrap and sheathing behind it, so it needs closing up before the next rain.
Paint peeling off the same boards after every repaint
Paint that fails in the same place is usually being pushed off by moisture from behind, or went on over end grain and replacement boards that were never primed. On a house built before 1978, scraping it counts as disturbing paint that may contain lead.
Common questions
Is a building permit needed to re-side in Lake Oswego?
Oregon's baseline is that repairing or replacing siding not required to be fire-resistant needs no building permit, but Lake Oswego runs its own building division. Confirm with the City for your property, particularly if sheathing or framing will be repaired or a wall is close to a property line.
My Lake Oswego home is a historic landmark. What changes?
Lake Oswego keeps a Landmark Designation List of individually designated historic properties. The City says exterior alterations to a listed landmark generally require review by the Development Review Commission, one step more than a typical remodel. Check whether your address is on the list before planning siding work.
Is hardboard siding common in Lake Oswego?
Lake Oswego's median home was built in 1982 (Census ACS 2020-2024), and hardboard and LP OSB lap siding were widely used on houses of that era. No count of Lake Oswego homes with hardboard siding exists, so have a contractor identify what is on your walls.
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