M & M Construction and Siding Inc

We needed to have our one-story house and the detached garage re-sided and painted. The original siding on both buildings was T-111. The house is a Fleetwood, manufactured in 1986. Dave had built and remodeled houses in his past so he had an idea of what he wanted. I was a technical writer so I can research a subject until you beg me to stop. We were never going to use vinyl, aluminum, or T-111 so that narrowed our choices to James Hardie and LP® SmartSide®. Hardie installers must wear dust masks to protect them from the cement dust; Dave’s family has too much experience with COPD. In addition, Hardie is too heavy to put on a house with a crawl space. After LP went through the problems and lawsuits in the ‘80s and early ‘90s with their fiber product, Inner-Seal, they released SmartSide, a strand product. Wikipedia: “LP re-engineered the product, now marketed as LPSmartSide and since 1997 has sold approximately 3 billion square feet of SmartSide siding with no warranty claims for fungal decay.” This link is from part of our research (I have more): [*** Link removed ***] We decided to go with LP® SmartSide®. On February 10, 2019, LP announced that SmartSide now comes in SMOOTH! Now, all we had to do was find the right installer. We checked Angie’s List, Home Advisor, Houzz, and NextDoor and got bids from one siding installer each. I’m sure any of them would have done a fine job. They are all licensed and bonded and insured. We chose M & M Construction and Siding, out of Graham. Manuel Machuca’s bid wasn’t the lowest and it wasn’t the highest. When he came out to look at the job, he answered all of our questions correctly and without hesitation. When we walked around the house and garage, he asked US questions, too. A couple times, he wanted to know how we wanted something done because, had we given the “wrong” answer, it would have affected the warranty in a negative way. There were things we wanted to do ourselves before the installation began. For example, the siding would be painted black after installation so we wanted to paint the gutters, soffits, and downspouts black before the installation began. Manuel said that, as long as he was painting the siding, it was no big deal to paint those other items at the same time. And, he didn’t ding us extra for that. On Wednesday, June 12, we turned over a check for 50% and confirmed that we wanted the smooth (not cedar-textured) SmartSide. M & M uses Sherwin Williams paint so we headed to Lakewood on June 13 for samples of three different blacks. We chose Tricorn in the flat sheen. On Wednesday, June 19, the siding and trim were delivered. On Thursday, June 20, M & M’s five-man crew arrived. This was the only day there was a five-man crew. Manuel used six-man crews the other five days. The siding and painting were complete on Saturday, June 29. The garage and much of the house was Tyveked on the first day. Unfortunately, the LP provider had delivered cedar-textured trim when smooth was ordered. Manuel called the provider and, instead of waiting for the trim to be delivered, he picked up the correct trim the next morning so we didn’t lose a day. Or more. Things we noticed about the installation: 1. Using the correct nail gun depth adjustment (yes, Dave gave me the terminology), they blind-nailed so that no nail heads show anywhere on the siding. 2. There are no exposed cut ends. Instead of caulking where two factory ends meet, M & M used black joint flash. All cut ends are at outside or inside corners where they are caulked using black caulking. See photo. 3. Every tool was the appropriate tool, from the circular saws to the nailing guns to the pin-nailers to the airless paint sprayer. 4. I didn’t ask Manuel how long his crew had been working together but it was obvious each crew member knew what every other crew member was doing. It was a very efficient “assembly line.” 5. We really liked that the person getting the information for the bid was also a person who actually installs siding (that wasn’t the case with all the companies we talked to). Manuel isn’t a briefcase contractor; he wears a toolbelt and has for over twenty years. 6. Every day, Manuel brings a large cooler so the crew always has water. If requested, he’d bring in a porta-potty but we declined and had the crew use our guest bathroom. Three items were added to the final statement: 1. As we pulled off the belly-band, we saw that the T-111 under the belly-band had rotted on the weather-sides of the house. That was replaced. 2. Instead of J-metal or drip edge at the bottom of the siding, Dave wanted Z-metal but didn’t think to ask until after the bid. Manuel said that would probably be no more than $200. It turned out to be $150. 3. The two-car garage door jamb was replaced. We made disposal of all trash and leftover siding/trim our responsibility. If you ask Dave, it’s because it will save us a little money; we have a cube van and we make the trip to Hidden Valley a half dozen times a year, anyway. If you ask me, it’s because Dave wants to paw through the pile and look for enough siding to build a squirrel house. The house and garage look incredible. We still have to finish our part or I’d post photos now. We’re painting the garage door, the garage man door, the outside corners on both buildings, and a few other things in Perfetto’s copper. If you want to see the siding job in person, send me a message and we’ll set up a time (we’re off Highway 7, south of Spanaway). We also have about three hundred photos of the process.