I have vertical redwood siding on one side of my house and I've found that there's a sizeable gap between the bottom edge and the wall that mice have been using to get into my house.
The gap was large enough (1") that I wonder if it's supposed to be there for ventilation.
Here's a pic, but you can hardly tell that there's a gap between the siding and the wall (and, yes, the previous owner painted over beautiful redwood):
Ventiliation behind siding is good, particularly if you get a lot of wind driven rain. The free space provides a capillary break so any water that penetrates the siding can drain down instead of wetting the weather barrier. If you need to fill the gap at the bottom, there are various products available, like those at
Cheers, Wayne
No, Mike, the gap is *not* supposed to be there. My home is sided with T1-11 (35 years old) and there are only occassional gaps at the bottom. When when I ignore this bit of maintenance the mice and crickets get into the basement and the air ducting. I tried one of the expanding urethane foams but the mice didn't mind gnawing it away. I swithched to silicone caulk and it has done the trick. It's not always easy to get the caulking gun into postion because the siding is close to the soil so I've had to get inventive with some small diameter vinyl tubing. I force it (tubing) down onto an opened caulking tube's nozzle. This is retained in place with a 4d nail which is pushed through, bent over and snipped off to keep it out of the way. Once, I had one that wanted to leak at the nozzle/ tubing interface so I smeared it with caulk and waited an hour while it cured enough to allow me to continue. If the void is big you may have to plug it enough for the caulking to grab onto. I haven't had this problem so I don't know what to suggest. Off hand I would try either a bit of nylon netting like you see in decorations at weddings - the rice is usually wrapped in it. I'm sure there are better but I don't have it for you. Best of luck, Chuck
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