Siding, roofing and concrete problems were the questions of the day.

Let's start with the siding. All types of siding are fine when installed properly. With the properly installed drainage plane no water damage can occur even if the siding was to fall off.

Some siding may require a rough or crinkled surface type of house wrap so it won't trap water behind the siding like a Tyvek Drainwrap. http://www2.dupont.com/Tyvek_Weatherization/en_US/products/residential/resi_drainwrap.html  Most house wrap companies have a similar product just look for the product with an uneven surface. Once the house wrap is installed properly, any type of siding can be installed safely.

We had Paul Peterson on from CRC Concrete Raising and we had a lot of good questions about leveling the existing slabs. For more info go to www.WeCanRaiseIt.com

A flat roof always seams to leak and it takes a little extra care to get it to keep the water out. Here is a good site to show the different options from hot tar and gravel to the PVC and TPO roofing Rich was talking about.

Last up for to day is a common problem for people that have had siding problems and want to replace the OSB sheathing with something that will last in case the siding leaks and the wall sheathing gets wet. Rich talked about using SIS panels. Here are the specs for the Dow product. http://building.dow.com/na/en/products/insulation/sis.htm

Again, the Dow SIS panel is only one of many available on the market. If you are looking to replace the wall sheathing under your siding, this is the way to go. If you are building a new house or addition, there is no reason not to use it.

And one last thing, If you heard our rant on furnaces, here is what Consumer Reports has to say about furnaces:

THE BASIC CHOICES

How do most people go about buying a furnace? First, they contact contractors. To prepare this report, we did, too. More than 500 specialists in residential heating and air conditioning told us about their experiences in installing and maintaining heating equipment.

The two major manufacturers of gas furnaces are United Technology (Carrier, Bryant, Heil, Tempstar, and Comfortmaker brands) and Goodman (Janitrol and Amana). Other brands include Rheem (Ruud), American Standard (Trane), and Lennox (Armstrong). All offer furnaces in a range of capacities and efficiencies, and we think manufacturers generally deliver on those specifications. Each brand offers a generally similar array of key features.

The degree of similarity between manufacturers' offerings is one reason this report does not include Ratings of furnaces by brand. The most important steps in selecting a furnace, we think, are to ensure that the unit's specifications fit your needs, that it is bought from a contractor who installs it well, and that it's adequately maintained. Our survey results help confirm that view: When we asked about the most common reasons for service calls for furnaces, about twice as many contractors we surveyed cited human error—inadequate maintenance, for example, or improper installation—as cited defective equipment.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/appliances/heating-cooling-and-air/gas-furnaces-703/overview/index.htm