As I was witnessing what was happening to my house I had a number of thoughts. Here are two.
Caulking technique
One thing that surprised me (at the time) was the technique for the application of caulk. (Or, as I I have learned, caulk is more properly called “sealant” in industry jargon.) Normally before caulk is applied to a surface that surface is cleaned, or at least wiped down somewhat. But not at my house. From my backyard I watched caulk being applied to two windows where the metal wrapping met the siding. The only towel involved was a dry paper towel for wiping excess caulk off fingers.
This photo of window 4 is a wonderful demonstration of the crap on my siding that no one bothered to wipe off:
(Ignore the tar paper at the top. I had pulled off a bit of mismatched siding in anticipation of the exterior trim being replaced.)
(Lack of) respect for siding
I anticipated that during removal of the exterior trim some of the siding would be damaged, because it is the original 1955 siding. Then I would jump in with a replacement piece and their work could proceed. But the installation was switched to an insert replacement so the exterior trim was not removed. (Except the partial removal of exterior trim on the upper story windows.)
Because I did not know what was happening to my house, I didn’t realize siding was damaged at one window until I was looking through my documentation photos:
You can see the tar paper behind the siding is exposed where the siding was broken off. No one told me. It rained that night. It wasn’t until several days later that I realized rain is running down behind the siding, so I put caulk over the damage to seal the area.
