Episode 89 – Renovation Story – Removing vinyl siding, honoring history, using salvaged materials and Passive Survivability

Cover graphic for Talking Home Renovations. It has a picture of a house with some vinyl siding removed. The text overlay says "Episode 89 - Renovation Story - Removing vinyl siding, honoring history, using salvaged materials and Passive Survivability"

Vinyl siding. Do we love it? Does it make us sad? What is the problem with it? Should we be removing vinyl siding?

An exterior wall of a house. Vinyl siding has been removed, showing peeling old wood siding underneath.
The same exterior wall of a house. The peeling paint has been cleared and the old wood siding has been painted gray and looks much nicer.
A close-up of the layers of wood revealed after removing vinyl siding from an old house.

Architect Wendy Brown talks about her 1894 Italianate house in Western Massachusetts that she and her husband have been working on for 24 years. Should we remove vinyl siding from these old houses once they’ve been covered, and what are the challenges in doing so? What is Passive Survivability?

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