There are certain areas in the country, where the vapor barrier is opposite the conditioned side of the thermal envelope. Meaning the vapor barrier will be on the exterior of the stud wall. Unless you live in one of these areas, you should not see the vapor barrier from the exterior, but you should see the vapor barrier if you would remove drywall from the interior.

They do sell a "z" flashing strip for where T1-11 meets, however I'm familiar with the detail you speak of for the band. I sided an entire structure with T1-11, but canned the idea of the previous band details. What I did was overlap the siding by 2", the band pictures is not of cedar but cut from RB&B (12" O.C) fir T1-11, and ran horizontally. Where the horizontal pieces meet, all are mitered so they overlap, they are not butted together. The band is also overlapped 2" onto the T1-11, and the T1-11 is overlapped 2" on the band. You would think the siding would _kick_ out or slope from the overlap, but you really don't notice it. This makes for a far superior element intrusion design than using a 1"x band with caulking. The grooves of the 8" O.C. are caulked, so no bugs/wasps etc get in behind the siding. But it's not to keep the elements from getting in. All the T1-11 and RB&B pictured were from 5/8" fir.

This post was edited by Roof35 on Sat, Oct 18, 14 at 20:12