We had cypress on our house. Great qualities, bug resistant. The only draw back I know of is if you are using a transparent or semi transparent stain the wood has a reddish golden tint that is hard to disguise.

That is good to know- thanks!

We used cypress in a reverse board and batten recently on a project and I was impressed. We ordered ours T&G so we still had to add furring strips and Coravent to create a good rainscreen. I thought the raw wood was much more yellow and gold than red but we painted ours.

If you paint, start with an oil-based primer which is apparently very important for tannin rich woods. This makes me think there may not be much benefit with the Tyvek degradation concerns. We had ours prefinished by Delkote. They claimed that painted cypress is one of the longest lasting painted woods possible. I will try to add some pics later.

We're not finished, still under construction, but we did cypress B&B and we love it so far. We stained the main siding a lighter color and the trim work a darker tone. It was all rough sawn, everything on the exterior is cypress except the beadboard porch ceilings, they're pine. (Excuse the porch posts, they're not finished.)

One more pic different view.

Sweet tea your house is gorgeous!! Mind if I ask what stain you used? We want a natural look for the wood siding as well and will be painting the contrasting hardie board. Did you stain the backs of your boards as well?

Brian- I would love to see pics of that! Was the reverse B&B very labor intensive? Would it be possible to show the windows up close? I'm trying to figure out how to detail the windows if we create that much space behind the cladding. As you know, they have to reinstall the windows so I might as well take the opportunity to make sure we accommodate for the extra depth.

Depending on the width of the outer boards, "reverse board & batten" requires 2 or 3 times as many battens made of the same expensive material as the siding and twice the nailing and to avoid nailing half or two thirds of them to the sheathing (instead of studs) you would need to install horizontal blocking between the studs at 24" o.c. [this is true with any vertical siding] and the siding would be 3/8" to 1/2" proud of the window frames unless you shimmed them out the thickness of the battens. In short, this would be a far more expensive option than the rain screen option already discussed.

If your builder is not willing or able to help, you need to find an experienced designer to look at the existing conditions and design a wall system for you. Why is your architect not that person?

When I design a house the window flashing is carefully detailed in the documents and I'm on site when the first one goes in. Tyvek offers several different methods for flashing a window. Back when I used Tyvek, instead of the "I" cut and head flap, I used the installation method where the windows were flashed to the sheathing before the Tyvek was installed. This is a technique long recommended by other window manufacturers as well as Grace Products in order to avoid water traveling behind the Tyvek into the window opening and I agree that it is superior and easier to install.

Here is a link that might be useful: DuPont installation of flanged window before WRB is installed

This post was edited by Renovator8 on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 9:46

Thanks Reno8. The info on reverse B&B is exactly what I needed to know and will save valuable strategy time. Our architects are going to be getting involved, but I have found that our meetings are more productive if I am a little educated before we start. Also our architects are a little bit of an odd couple team. One is far more interested in and convinced of the importance of rainscreens and similar building practices than the other is. It helps to have a sense of what we want ahead of time so it doesn't become a discussion of "should we or shouldn't we..." as opposed to "how do we..."

This post was edited by Kiwigem on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 9:44

Reverse B&B would be easily executed on a post & beam structure where vertical studs are not required; "girts" could be run horizontally every so often (the 19.2" o.c. layout seems a good compromise) and no supplementary blocking needed. Finish the interior with vertical beadboard, and you're good to go!
Casey

Multiple threads and the absence of drawings and photos makes it difficult to know that the house is already conventionally framed and wrapped with Tyvek. The central issue is avoiding cedar against Tyvek.

A fair point, Reno8, thank you. I was inclined to avoid photos, because I feared observant souls would want to talk about the poor window flashing :-). Perhaps I should post photos and make a window disclaimer instead.

Thank you for the kind words! I'm so ready to done, I need any encouragement I can get! We're very pleased with the siding, we think it came out great.

I stained the main body boards SW Spice Chest and the trim work in SW Hawthorne. I did not stain the backs, it took me long enough to do the fronts! :-) At first, I was worried the Spice Chest to orange-y, but after 24 hours it mellowed out to a nice color on my sample board.

Just FYI, I had the hardest time deciding window color to match, and I went with clay colored vinyl, it ties in nicely with our rock and I couldn't be happier with it all.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

This is beveled lap cypress with a solid stain.

Oh , beautiful! Looks a little like my roof, too.

my kids are building a very basic starter house, so the windows have no frames. Is it possible to add them next year over the siding when it's in their budget. ? Not sure of all the terminology, hope this is clear. Thanks!

By "frames" I assume you mean window trim? If so no you really cannot as the siding butts up to the trim not the other way around. Also if you want better advice your more apt to get it starting a new thread rather than jumping on someone else's.

thanks millworkman. will do.