| Masonite Claim Question: HomeGuru...you out there??
What is the name of your state? Louisiana
My brother bought a home in Georgia a year or so ago. The house is no mansion, but it is pretty large, containing a total of about 4650 sq. ft. of Masonite hardboard crap...ooops, I mean siding. When I visited him I saw a few small places around the lower part of the house that were obviously bad, bad enough to push a hole through with my thumb. These areas were very few and were mostly obviously associated with areas that were low and behind hedges. These hedges were not in direct contact with the house and didn't seem to have ever been....they seem to have been kept about 6" from the actual siding, and no sprinklers hit the house anywhere. Obviously, these hedges may have at one time been in direct contact with the house, and there may have been sprinklers hitting the house at some point, too, but it did not seem to be that way to me.
Looking throughout the exterior of the house, the siding's integrity did not seem to be generally in bad shape, at this time, anyway. However, throughout the entire exterior of the house, which is 100% Masonite lap siding, I saw very extensive patchy "discoloration". I use that term pretty loosely here and only for lack of a better descriptive term, because it did NOT seem to be simple discoloration...it moreso seemed to me to be some sort of actual damage to or problem with portions of the exterior coating, and I could feel the difference between the norm and odd colored spots. On average, each joint of siding seemed to have a eighteen inches or so of siding that appeared normal, then it would have six inches or so of this defect, then a foot and a half or so of "normal" appearing siding followed by another six inches of bad, and so on. Again, this is merely an average, and the cumulative effect of this is that the house seems to have a "patchwork" appearance of about 3:1 "good":"bad".
We discussed the Masonite settlement, and he filed a claim a while back. An inspector came and inspected his house, and some weeks later a check came in the mail for about $35....I have to assume that this was for the very small amount of the siding that I saw that had these very obvious yet small rotten spots that I poked my thumb through....it amounted to about 8 square feet, I think. The thing that bothers me is that everywhere that I noticed these rotten spots, they were in one of these areas of odd coloration. This could have been coincidence, I guess, but I am wondering if this odd coloration is a precursor to rot.
I know that this is a legal forum, and not a building materials or remodeling site, so I am not asking if this odd coloration is indeed a precursor to rot (but if someone knows I'd definitely like to hear it!!). I did get glance briefly at the settlement and under the "Damages" section there is a covered damage referred to as "wax bleed". There are conditions of a "wax bleed" claim that the house needs to have been painted within 4 years of the inspection, that the defect needs to have affected more than 25% of the siding, and that simple discoloration does not equate to "wax bleed". I am not sure if the house has been painted and if so when, but I do feel that the odd coloration exceeds 25%, and I also do not think that it is simple discoloration because these spots feel different to the touch.
Obviously, the phenomenon I noticed may not at all be anything related to a Masonite defect. This may all be a done deal, and that may be that. However, I am wondering if anyone has any advice as to what, if anything, that we may need to check into concerning these spots. I am not trying to get blood out of a turnip here, but I would hate to hear later on that there was something that we could have/should have looked into. Any advice, comments and/or assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks..... | 
08-12-2005, 06:53 PM
Linear Mode
