The reason for this clearance requirement is that while moisture will rot wood and damage other siding even if the ground isn t holding.
How much distance from siding to dirt.
James i had always understood the dew point in mass to be about 8 inches the distance to keep wood above grade but that s from instinct or common sense or experience.
02 15 2014 07 56 am 4.
This is heavy duty stuff.
Making the situation worse is a downspout pouring water right into the pile.
The exterior of the house is aluminum siding and brick.
No rolled plastic from a box store.
I recently bought a somewhat older home.
Code clearance between siding and patio.
I removed mulch touching the siding before installing the drip edge.
Any contact with any building siding material and the ground or even placing it too close to ground level invites damage from insects carpenter ants termits or from water and rot.
Use commercial grade metal edging for drip edges.
I ve already pulled all plants touching the siding.
Wood siding stucco vinyl brick.
Keep all building siding 6 8 above soil surface slope away don t trap water in mulch beds nor against foundation walls.
No code ref here but then again we just changed to the 2003 irc.
On 2 sides of the house the siding is touching the dirt which i know is a no no.
But if wood siding is too close even siding that has been primed and painted it is an invitation to trouble.
The dirt should never touch the siding a minimum of 2 of concrete between dirt and siding.
I cannot just arbitrarily say wood cannot be 6 inches from soil.
May 12 2018 at 3 14 pm.
You can see where the mulch touching the siding blocked the painters.
It comes in 1 8 and 3 16 widths that are 4 tall and 10 or 16 long.
To preserve your home s exterior siding and foundation you must ensure that dirt dense vegetation mulch or anything the can hold moisture against your home is properly cleared away.
Dirt and mulch are seen here piled against the structure.