Siding and Insulation for Lustron

The owner made this alteration: (1) Primarily to reduce heating fuel consumption. (2) Appearance--joints between panels were opening up and the panel seals were leaking air. (3) Improve comfort -- eliminate cold walls on bitter cold winter nights. (4) Blend outside appearance with new addition.

The porcelain outside panels had been painted several times by previous owners. And a conventional wood and tab shingle roof was installed over the home's Lustron roof. This owner has preserved a pristine section of original Lustron exterior wall n his back room addition.

Several regular vinyl siding firms never called back when they heard it was a Lustron metal home. Finally a general construction contractor with metal bending machine did the job. It was necessary to use on-site bended white sheet metal around windows and trim areas.

Foil-faced isocyanate foam was put on first using self-drilling screws. The siding was also attached using self-drilling screws. The upper "gable" ends of the roof were not insulated because the added thickness would have exceeded the roof edge. Also, the attic is already insulated with cellulose

A previous owner had filled the walls with billions of tiny white insulation spheres. These spilled out of the walls through the tiniest of cracks and continue to be an annoyance whenever an electric outlet or wall is disturbed.

Insulation and Siding, First Day of Work
To attach insulation and siding to Lustron panels, they used a heavy duty self-tapping screw. Trim and special Lustron curved details were covered with custom-formed white aluminum sheet. This contractor did some pretty smart looking metal work in some tough areas. See photos that follow.

1" thick, Dow Tuff R isocyanate, foil faced insulating foam. R Value = 6.5.

It was easier to drill into the metal when foam is present. The rigid foam stabilizes the screw as it turns.

This contractor used a battery operated drill to drive sheet metal screws through white sheet metal into the Lustron metal shapes around windows.

TIPS: (1) Require that all insulation board joints be taped with an aluminum or other suitable sealing tape. (2) Also, for this foam, make sure all the shinier metal faces inward for reflectivity purposes. This Dow insulation has highly reflective metal foil on one side and dull metal foil on the other side. The highly reflective side always faces inward to reflect heat inward. In photo above, some of the boards are going in wrong.

Weather history in the making - Great Siding Weather
Upstate New York, January 6.
Temperature = 68 Degrees F

Why blue boards? Similar product, 1" but outer foil layer has blue coating on it. Don't know why. We had to buy these extra boards and this supplier had this style of essentially the same Dow product. It is isocyanate foam. Both sides are foil faced. However, inner layer of this foam was not that highly reflective, shiny foil used everywhere else.

Garage was insulated for future workshop plans. And boy did it help when driving self-drilling screws in when attaching vinyl siding. It helps hold the screw straight as it is driven in.

Here's a back room addition done with wood framing of course. It had been done in previous years. It has fiberglass wool in walls, 2x4 studs.

Nice Sheet Metal work on roof trim and around windows.

Nice Sheet Metal work on roof trim and around windows.
This was a very nasty, dilapidated area, now all cleaned up.

Still recognizable as a Lustron

Nice clean new vinyl.

Lustron Exterior Preserved For Future Generations
This owner has preserved in a new addition, a perfectly intact 11-Foot section of exterior wall shown above. It includes the rear doorway, Lustron doorbell button, kitchen window and "Surf Blue" square panels.

This newly exposed wall had just about 18 years of outdoor exposure. The blue and white porcelain finish is in shiny, undamaged condition.

Job Done
From porcelainized steel (painted over) to PVC siding in about 8 days. This contractor did a fine job on at least 90% of the home.