Trim is where most siding failures start. It’s also the part that gets caulked over instead of fixed.
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Siding is one continuous surface shedding water. Trim is a joint.Every corner board, every window casing, every band board is two pieces of material meeting at an edge. Edges are where water stops running down and starts sitting. Add end grain, which soaks up moisture like a straw, and you’ve got the most vulnerable wood on the house. That’s why we get so many calls where the siding is in decent shape and the trim around it has gone soft.
The other reason is what previous crews did about it. When trim starts opening up, the fast fix is a bead of caulk. It looks solved. Underneath, the joint is still moving with every temperature swing. The caulk cracks by the second winter. Now water is getting in through a gap you can’t see, because it’s hidden behind a paint line.
We’ve pulled window casings off homes in South Surrey and found three layers of caulk over a board that had been wet for a decade.
We handle all the exterior trim on a house except gutters, which we don’t sell or install. If you need roofline work, we also specialize in fascia and soffit repair and installation.
For material, we work with fibre cement trim, PVC and composite trim, and cedar, and we’ll tell you honestly which makes sense for your wall. Cedar looks best and costs the most to maintain in this climate. Fibre cement trim holds paint well and doesn’t rot. PVC never rots at all but moves more with temperature, so the joints have to be detailed for it.
We don’t push one product. That’s been the approach since Gus started the company.
Here’s the honest answer about why trim keeps failing on homes that have had it replaced before: the flashing behind it wasn’t touched.
A trim board is not a waterproofing layer. The flashing / weather barrier behind it is. If a crew pulls off a rotten casing, nails a new one in the same place, and caulks the perimeter, they’ve replaced a symptom.
When we replace trim, we look at what’s behind it. If the head flashing above a window is missing, wrong, or lapped over the building paper instead of under it, we fix that while the board is off. If the weather barrier is torn, we patch it properly with a self-adhered membrane.
Then the joints get sealed. We use the LePage QUAD sealant system for exterior joints, and our LePage Certified Installer credential is currently in process.
Sealant is the last layer, not the plan.
A lot of the homes we work on in Cloverdale, Newton, Fleetwood and Guildford went up between 1980 and 2000. Same story across older parts of Langley.
Those homes were built before the BC Building Code required rainscreen construction in coastal regions, which happened in 2006. The siding is typically fastened flat to the sheathing, and the trim sits right on top of it with nothing behind but building paper, if that.
What it means in practice: when we open a trim board on a house from that era, we expect to find something. Usually it’s contained. Sometimes the wall behind it has been quietly wet for years and the trim was the only thing telling you.
We check before we quote. If the damage runs past the trim into the sheathing, that’s wood rot repair territory and we’ll show you what we found before we do anything about it.
Newer builds in Clayton Heights and East Clayton are a different conversation. Those have proper drainage cavities, and trim failure there is usually a detail issue at one opening rather than a whole-wall problem.
Trim replacement is quoted per job because there’s no useful average. Replacing the casing on one window is an afternoon. Replacing every corner board and band board on a two-storey house is a week.
We come out and look, by appointment, for free. We don’t take a deposit. You don’t pay the final invoice until the work is finished and you’ve walked it with us. The workmanship carries our 25-year warranty, signed by the company and by the installer who did the job.
Every crew is in-house. We don’t subcontract trim work, which matters, because trim is fiddly, slow work and it’s the first thing that gets rushed when someone’s being paid by the piece.
We’re WorkSafeBC registered, clearance number C136733062, carry $2,000,000 in general liability insurance, and we’re BBB Accredited.
We cover Surrey, White Rock, South Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows out of our Cloverdale shop at 19340 65 Ave.
Late spring through early fall is the right window for exterior trim work in the Lower Mainland. Call 604-603-0257 or email info@micasaexteriors.ca to book a free look while the weather is on your side.
Yes, in most cases. Trim usually comes off and goes back on without disturbing the field siding, as long as the siding itself is sound. If the siding around the trim is brittle or already failing, we’ll tell you before we start rather than after we’ve cracked three panels.
No. We don’t sell or install gutters. We can remove and reinstall existing gutters so the fascia behind them can be replaced properly, and we’ll coordinate around your gutter installer’s schedule. Everything else on the roofline we handle.
All three work if they’re installed right. PVC won’t rot but expands and contracts more, so the joints need proper detailing. Fibre cement holds paint for a long time and resists moisture. Cedar looks the best and needs the most upkeep. We’ll walk you through the trade-offs on site rather than steering you to one.
If the board is sound and only the joint has opened up, resealing is a legitimate fix and we’ll say so. If the board is soft, stained at the end grain, or the flashing behind it has failed, caulk just hides it. We’d rather turn down small work than sell you a repair that fails in two winters.
Yes. Our service area covers Surrey, White Rock, South Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Our shop is in Cloverdale on 65 Ave, so East Surrey and Langley addresses are close by. Call 604-603-0257 to check scheduling.
Late May through September is the most reliable window in the Fraser Valley, because the wall needs to be dry when it’s opened and sealants cure best above 10°C. We do trim work outside that window when it’s urgent, and we plan around dry stretches when we do.
Yes. Trim work carries the same 25-year workmanship warranty as our siding, signed by both the company and the installer who did your job.
