Richard Serra - Storm King Art Center (Photo by Stephen M. Frey)
Weathering steel siding - 3/4” corrugations (Photo by Stephen M. Frey)
Natural inspiration for Siding
Rusting corrugated metal siding has a pleasant timeless appearance. You can often find it on exterior signs, buildings, bridge construction, storage tanks, and sculpture, or other works of art including residential design. A favorite artist, Richard Serra, used it in landwork sculptures at Storm King on a meandering steel wall through the landscape. Installed in the 1980s, its rugged appearance continues to age in place naturally to a dark brown timeless finish. We think residential architecture should be a work of art and be generational in its aspiration.
Weathering steel
Called Weathering Steel (ASTM A606), a type manufactured to naturally patina on the outside creating a layer of protection for the inner layers of steel below. This is a more natural finish as compared to color painted coatings on the metal siding which last for a number of years but degrade and fade in color over time. This fading is especially problematic and noticeable for darker or brighter colors such as reds, blues, greens, and yellows. Buildings constructed ten years ago or longer with such colored siding may no longer look so fresh and begin to have a tired appearance.
Siding selection factors
Depending on your time horizon and goals, using natural finishes such as Weathering Steel siding could look great on a new home or addition when selected for the proper reasons such as performance, durability, appearance, and climate/location. Care must be taken to provide an adequate drainage plane or rainscreen wall system behind the siding.
Also, its important to avoid rain or snow-produced drainage of rust material to cascade onto concrete or stone where it will stain. Whether as a field material covering a lot of surface area or in smaller locations as accents, rusted steel siding offers an attractive alternative. Be sure to take great care in use within 1,000 yards of the ocean or areas with high degrees of salinity in the air are recommended. The Weathering Steel may rust extremely quickly and perhaps not as consistently as desired.
Choices in weathering steel siding
Siding choices may range depending on the manufacturer such as 7/8”, 3/4”, and 1/4” as well as vertical flat sheeting with board and batten like patterns. The deeper corrugations closer to an inch will produce deeper shadows while the thinner ones such as 1/4” will form a more subtle appearance more suitable for high detail areas like entries, or outdoor backsplashes, or used as accents with other materials. Some manufacturers range from:
Bridger Steel
We believe naturally weathering choices like this can integrate well with Vermont’s rugged natural setting, as well as add a rugged authenticity to the exterior of a home. Imagine mixing this with cedar siding, cast-in-place concrete, heavy timber frames, steel or post, and beam framing.
Donald Judd - Storm King Art Center (photo by Stephen M. Frey
Artfulness in Home Design
What is your current favorite siding material? What attracts you and makes you think of a home as a work of art? We have a runner-up to share another time here. Meanwhile, if you’re curious about our residential architecture work and our materiality ideas like this one, click below to learn more. Let’s talk.
BACK TO OUR RESIDENTIAL PORTFOLIO
To see more examples of recent home design project work, go check out our project portfolio by clicking on the button below. There you will find a mix of recently completed built residential work, new builds, renovations, or home design projects now in progress. Here in this section of our site, you can also find examples of our growing collection of customizable net-zero ready prototype and spec houses. Our portfolio awaits your visit. Welcome home!