Advanced Home Exteriors

Aug 2014

Southwest of Houston along Hwy. 59 is Missouri City. This home is located in the Quail Valley subdivision, right off the Quail Valley Golf Course. The homes there were built between 1969-1972, so it is 40+ years old. The house still had its old cedar siding that needed to be replaced. Additionally, the original builders grade windows were letting air and temperatures leak through. So we installed HardiPlank Select Cedarmill horizontal lap siding in the 7-inch exposure, and 26 Simonton Profinish argon-filled, low-energy vinyl windows (with an interesting unique design that we will discuss in the captions). The homeowner also asked us to paint his old, stained brick, which requires the extra steps of power-washing, sealing, and priming before it is painted. Once everything was up and the house was painted, we even put in brand new 5-inch seamless gutters that we custom-fabricated right there on his property and installed. Be sure to follow the captions by each photo so you can compare the "before" and "after" shots of each part of the house

$32k

Missouri City, TX

Jul 2014

This homeowner has a small back porch with big windows that face the sun, and they needed just a little more extension on the roof to give them a little more shade. The pergola fit their needs perfectly. Take a look at the closeups... it looks like wood, doesn't it? But its not... it is aluminum with a wood-grain and baked-on painted finish (this particular color is called Spanish Brown). What makes these more cost-efficient is that you don't have to tear up your roof or your overhangs to install it. Because it is aluminum it is lighter than wood, so attaching it to the house only requires that it be bolted to the fascia. In this case, we were even able to leave the existing gutters intact by using a special bracket that extends around the gutter and attaches to the fascia. The outer back edge is being supported by two fiberglass columns that we painted to match, which is just one of several upgrades to choose from. These pergolas can be customized to almost any size and shape, and if you need to expand the size of your concrete patio or want to install stamped concrete, we can help you with that too.

$5k

Katy, TX

Jul 2014

Have you ever said to yourself, "Self... I sure would like to see what the wall that is under old vinyl siding looks like when the vinyl is torn off." Well, your dream is about to come true. This home is in the Nottingham area (Memorial @ Kirkwood) in SW Houston and was built in the 1960s. Originally it was built with wood "shake" siding, which ultimately began to rot. When it started looking real bad blue foam sheathing and vinyl siding were installed directly on top of that wood. A few years later, that vinyl siding is fading and getting brittle and warped all around the house. This is where we came in. It is commonly known that vinyl siding and blue foam sheathing are almost the equivalent of wrapping your walls with plastic wrap, trapping moisture inside the walls where it can do its worst and never dry out. Over the last decade or so we have had many opportunities to tear off old vinyl siding, and you never know what you will find. As you will see, there was a lot of water-related damage to the interior wall and load-bearing wood that we had to repair before installing the HardiPlank. In the fifth picture of this album, you will also see a room extension that had been added that was beginning to break away, so the customer had us remove it, reframe a new side wall, and make it look like the extension was never there. We also replaced the entire front porch and the porch columns. The siding we used is HardiPlank Select Cedarmill lap siding in the 7-inch exposure, which we painted similar to the former color of the old vinyl. We're going to jump around a little to show you a few important things in the tear-off and replacement, so be sure to follow the captions with each picture. The last few pictures will be different parts of the completed house.

$28k

Houston, TX

Jun 2014

Whenever we have the opportunity to make such a complete transformation of a home, we simply must show off the results. This home was built in the 1980s and still had its original pressboard and shingle-shake siding, builders-grade windows, front porch columns and surround, and roof... and we replaced every bit of it. As you flip through these pictures, you'll notice how the homeowners had needed to apply solar screens over their windows because so much heat was getting into the house from direct sunlight, and once all of the Simonton windows were installed the solar screens were no longer needed. Make sure to see how we were able to replace everything (load-bearing or not) on the front porch. The siding we used is HardiPlank Colonial Roughsawn, and we even had the opportunity to install the new Hardie Crown Molding. All of the windows were replaced with Simonton low-E, double-pane, argon-filled, double-hung windows. And the roof was replaced with GAF Timberline HD lifetime shingles in the color Weathered Wood. And then we capped the job off with brand new seamless gutters. The captions on each picture are especially important because they will tell you in more detail what you're looking at, and as usual, we're going to take you back and forth with "before" and "after" pictures of the same parts of the house.

$25k

Sugar Land, TX

Jun 2014

Often we meet customers who only want to replace some or most of the exterior wood on their home, and this is what happened with this home in Richmond. As you can see, this house still had its original "board & batten" design on the gables and rakes and old pressboard planks on the rest of the house. But if you'll look closely at the gables and rakes, you'll notice that the fascia sits directly on top of the siding, and there is no soffit behind it. So after the new siding was installed, what we were able to do is apply 8-inch Hardie Trim directly onto the top to serve as the first layer of fascia; then a 6-inch HardieTrim board was placed directly on top of the 8-inch, followed by the roof drip edge, which is now snug and secure over two layers of HardieTrim. In the first picture of this album, look at the fascia on the front porch... we did not change that because it has a special design that we call "dental fascia", which can be reproduced in Hardie but it is a slow, labor-intensive project that uses a lot of extra labor and adds to the cost of the job. Since the old dental fascia was not damaged, the customer chose to leave it in place and asked us to clean and paint it with the rest of the house. The siding we used is HardiPlank Select Cedarmill in the 7-inch exposure, which we then painted with Sherwin Williams Superpaint in the paint color chosen by the customer. We're going back and forth "before" and "after", so feel free to jump back and forth between pictures of the same part of the house so you can see the difference.

$14k

Richmond, TX

May 2014

The Woodlands is a small city of over 100,000 people north of Houston and is one of the fastest-growing suburban areas in the nation. It is experiencing amazing business growth and housing demand that is greater than the supply of homes, which has caused a sharp rise in home values. As a result, older homes are going through exterior and interior remodeling at a pace we have never seen before. This 1980s home has a detached garage with a breezeway and a covered gazebo in the back. The house still had its original clapboard and T1-11 siding, which was deteriorating at a rapid pace, as you'll see in these pictures. We replaced the siding with HardiPlank "Color Plus" Colonial Smooth lap siding in the 10-3/4" exposure in the color Cobble Stone, with a section of Hardie Shingle in the front in the Chestnut Brown color to match the color of the brown vinyl Window Mart Windows. We even did some special detail work in the gazebo that we hope you'll take a look at. Be sure to follow the captions for more details because we'll be going back and forth with "before" and "after" shots.

$45k

The Woodlands, TX

Feb 2014

Remember the pictures of that house in east Houston we posted on Feb. 15 that had been repeatedly battered and weathered over a lot of years? Well, the job is done, and if we do say so ourselves it looks spectacular! Following is a complete set of "before" and "after" pictures of this house with captions to point you to the details of the job that are not always easily seen. The new siding on this house is HardiPlank "ColorPlus" siding in the color Chestnut Brown, while the trim and soffit and fascia are in Cobblestone. The planks are Select Cedarmill style (with the light wood grain texture) in the 7-inch exposure. We also installed new low-energy, double-paned, double-hung, argon-filled windows made by Window Mart (their web link is http://windowmart.com/double-hung-windows/ if you want to get a better look), and the vinyl was given the color Desert Sand. Finally, we installed a new fiberglass french door in the back, which you'll see in the last pictures. The only thing we didn't fix is that broken fence... somebody else has been assigned that task. Please be sure to share this album (or anything on our page) with your friends.

$21k

Houston, TX

Feb 2014

From the Nottingham subdivision in Katy, west of Houston... a job we just completed with a little something extra we just HAD to show off. This home was built in the 1980s and still had its original pressboard siding and single-pane builders-grade windows. One of the things this customer wanted to do was to give the interior of the house a more open feel by increasing the window space. However, as you can see in the pictures, many of his original windows were small and positioned in bunches, so the framework in the wall limited their visibility. To resolve that specific issue, we recommended the Jeldwen low-energy double-pane windows, which are not only high quality and have an exceptional warranty, but also offer a model that has some of the narrowest frames among the window brands we carry. Also, wherever possible, we were able to reduce the number of windows by removing the vertical wood frame inside the window opening, allowing us to install one larger window to replace two or three smaller ones. These places will be pointed out in the captions with each picture. The siding was replaced with Hardie "Prime Plus" Select Cedarmill in the 7-inch exposure, and all of the overhead wood (soffit, fascia, frieze, and ceilings) were replaced with Hardie materials, then painted.

$35k

Katy, TX

Oct 2013

Look at the job we just finished... Houses with high walls and irregular slopes and angles create a special challenge to even the best crews because they have to measure and cut just a little more precisely. This home in Sugarland still had its original T1-11 plywood siding, which we replaced with HardiePlank Select Cedarmill "Prime Plus" horizontal lap siding in the 7-inch exposure. In addition to the soffit and fascia, you'll also notice in the "after" pictures that we replaced the old roof with a brand new one using GAF Timberline Lifetime shingles. The last step was to install brand new 5-inch seamless gutters on all of the horizontal fascia. Take a quick tour through these 15 "before" and "after" photos of this job and be sure to read the captions.

$35k

Sugar Land, TX