remove siding or do from inside

[dadof2nc]

hey everyone.. some advice needed here. I found some very bad rotted wood in the 89' saturn we just brought home. It is all due to the seal around the stink pipes(owner neglect). So now that I have ripped down all the walls to the studs and to the subfloor, do I really need to peel back the siding?

I am very very handy, but almost petrified to open the siding. I can replace the studs and tie into the old ones (all rotted wood is out) which are now dry and there is suprisingly no damage to the subfloor.. The only rotted wood is the vertical studs.. 2 of them...and the bottom 2x2 that runs along the base of the wall.

I know it is easier to see with pictures, but maybe you all know what I mean.
I can take out the screws in the lowest part from outside and put new screws in. I can remove the screws from the track that goes up along the corner and put new screws in there too. Thus I would be fastening all the siding up tight to the new 2x2's.

My question is this....do I really need to undo the siding? and If I put up new wood, should it be the bathroom wall panels they sell at Home Depot or use Luan and coat with water proof paint?

My fear is the wall panels will be slightly heaver than the Luan, but I am talking maybe ten pounds at the most.

Thanks,
you all are very very helpful
pics to come soon

[JohnB]

Hi

I myself have not been into the siding yet, but we have several here that have. I will get into the siding this spring as I have a slide floor rot issue in one corner as I need to take up about 1 section.

This much I know, the siding starts at the top when applied and works down, opposite of home siding.

I share some of your concerns however what I do not know is with 2 new studs not attached to the siding what will that do?

I believe they staple the siding to the studs. The question is what does 48" of siding length full top to bottom do if it is not attached to those 2 new studs? Will it warp out and then create a seam gap? I picked 48” assuming you are on 16” centers and that is 3 spaces. What is the space length that would be un-held? This may help in the thought process. Spanning 12 or 18” is a lot different then 48

Hopefully one of our members who have reconstructed can chime in.

John

[dadof2nc]

Thanks for reply.
I think its 16" but I dont have a problem with that so much as hopefully not un-doing the siding to fix the studs. I can access everything very well and yeah staple them just like factory.

I am more worried about weight of a 4x8 sheet of bathroom wall panel weight vs the cheap luan they use, I am not wallpapering anything.. so the luan would just get a coat of waterproof paint and I am using marine caulk as suggested in another post instead of silicone.

[Tweety]

Thinking of all the junk we all load into our trailers, I can't imagine that an extra 10 pounds on a piece of wall siding would make any difference at all.

[dadof2nc]

yeah, I dont think that sheet weighs all that much more than Luan. Plus the bath board is water resistant made for just that type of situation.. and if Sunline and other RV manufacturers use wallpaper coated Luan I think my step is one better by a longshot.

plus it looks really nice.

[pwb01]

I think the paneling weight is not important but rather function and fit. Waterproof would probably be best. As for the siding, any kinks would be permanent so I'd stay from it if at all possible.

[dadof2nc]

I managed to completely repair the wall and ceiling in the camper from the inside. All I did outside was remove 5 hex screws and replaced with deck screws from HD. I used pressure treated wood for the bottom only, guess would form bottom of the wall in a conventional house. then replaced the studs with furring strips. I made the shower area with bathroom wall board in the white tile pattern. I used Luan for the other 2.5 feet from the shower to the wall behind the toilet (window wall). I used Luan for the ceiling and decided to move the light a little bit from the mirror.

I cant wait to show some pics as soon as I find out how to post them.

I have before and during pics..will get some after pics when all done.