Houses sheathed with asphalt board/cardboard

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RLyons

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This has stumped me for some time now.
Is there any way to secure a meter, service cable or just about anything to a house that has siding over asphalt board/cardboard? or even the newer houses that use high-R foam? You'd be lucky to get 1 of a 2-hole strap to hit a stud and a 16"+ length of strut would be ridiculous. Am I suppose to cut open finished walls to add blocking? :dunce:
 
ActionDave said:
If it's just a meter or breaker box I have no problem using quarter inch toggle bolts into the siding. If it needs to be more solid Unistrut on the surface, spanning the void and screwed into the studs works for me.
Click to expand...

to make it a bit less fugly, there are snap in covers for strut that are PVC, and give it
a bit more of a finished look. cut to fit, move on.
 
I always like to hit something solid like studs for support. If you don't you run the risk of the meter sagging from earth settling pulling down on the conduit over time.


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Good luck with this stuff. I have it on my house. It's called Celotex. It's a good insulation product but a horrible replacement for sheathing. It's strong enough to hold a cedar shake nail but that's about it. When I had the shakes ripped off and vinyl siding installed the contractor wrapped the house with Tyvec but I had him mark where the studs were so that the new siding would be secured.

In my case I mounted the meter enclosure and was lucky enough to hit a stud on one side of the meter. I like the toggle bolt idea but that puts a larger hole in the siding that can be subject to leaks. I also used 2" PVC for the service and spray painted it the color of the siding (yes, I'm married :p) Chances of hitting a stud are minimal. Use at least 2 1/2: galvanized screws, deck screws or stainless screws.

If you do some research on the web you'll find many sites regarding Celotex. This is one I found regarding lawsuits :

https://www.asbestos.com/companies/celotex.php

Again, good luck.
 
If it has vinyl siding, you might be able unzip a piece or two, while carefully prying/cutting out the nails, cut out the asphault board, put in blocking from the outside, and put it back together. You could also span stud to stud on the exterior I suppose. Only time I've run across this stuff, the siding was being replaced anyway.
 
If the location is near some through the wall object, like a window or vent, perhaps you could find the stud from the inside of the wall and measure.
 
The reason for revisiting this issue is I trying to strap 4/0 SEU to what I'm reading now is call homasote (which you can break apart with your hands).

Most of the times I've come across this specific issue the siding was old and faded and popping it and adding support behind risks cracking the siding.

The only thing about toggles that bothers me is the big hole you have to drill which usually means you have to put a large diameter washer behind the strap to cover the hole, silicone included of course.

Anyone try Togglers? Smaller hole than standard toggle and when you set them with the zip strips i't a perfect time to fill with silicone.
 
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" Am I suppose to cut open finished walls to add blocking? :dunce: "
Click to expand...
IMO, ...absolutely not !......Instead of mounting to the rickety wall, a type of
metal stand constructed of unistrut could be set in the ground, in to concrete,
close to the exterior wall, but yet, ...independent of the wall [ RE: Article 312.3,
`08 NEC ].


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