What is a drainage plane?

It is the continuous surface behind the cladding that water runs down and off, usually a building paper or a housewrap over the sheathing. It only works if it is continuous and if it is lapped in the direction water travels, which is why the detailing at the openings matters more than the brand on the wrap.

Does the gap behind the siding actually matter?

Yes. Water needs somewhere to go and the assembly needs air to dry. Cladding fitted tight against the barrier gives it neither, so anything that gets past stays in contact with the wall. The gap is part of the design rather than a tolerance in the workmanship.

Do I need a permit for siding in Harahan?

That question goes to the office that covers the address, and we ask it rather than guess. The Louisiana rule we cite on our roofing pages, La. R.S. 37:3737(I), is written about roof construction and reroofing, so it does not settle anything about wall cladding. Inside the city limits the City of Harahan Regulatory Department is on (504) 737-6765.

What will the permit cost?

Nobody can tell you up front, because the City of Harahan publishes no fee schedule. Its own guidance is that an invoice is emailed once the application has been reviewed. If a contractor quotes you a firm Harahan permit fee before any review has happened, the number did not come from the City.

What does siding cost in Harahan?

Estimated at $3 to $18 per square foot installed. The spread is mostly the material, with access, the amount of trim work and the condition of what is behind the old cladding moving it. Every figure here is an estimate and a written price follows a proper look at the wall.

My interior wall is damp. Do I need new siding?

Probably not, and it is worth finding out before spending anything. Water gets in at the roof to wall junction as often as through a wall, then travels down inside the assembly and shows up well below and to one side of where it entered. Detection answers that first.

Can you side over stucco or damaged masonry?

We will not do that as a way of hiding a problem. Where the failure is in render, mortar or the structure behind the wall, cladding over the top of it changes nothing and removes the evidence. That is a different trade and we will say so rather than take the job.

Home/Service Areas/Louisiana/Harahan/Siding Installation

Siding Installation in Harahan, LA

Big Easy Roofing installs siding across Harahan and east bank Jefferson Parish. A wall is a set of layers rather than a skin, and the layer that keeps it dry is the one behind the cladding. That is the part nobody is shown at the quoting stage and the part that decides how the wall performs.

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Service

City

$3 to $18 /sq ftEstimated installed

5 to 10 daysTypical whole home

The barrier behind itWhat keeps the wall dry

Drainage gapWhere water gets back out

Harahan siding installation at a glance

Siding is estimated at $3 to $18 per square foot installed, and the spread is mostly the material. The part that decides how the wall performs is not on that list. It is the water resistive barrier behind the cladding and the gap that lets water drain back out again.

Estimated installed

$3 to $18 /sq ft

The band is wide because it spans the whole material range. Access, the amount of trim work and whatever is found once the old cladding is off all move it. Every figure here is an estimate, not a quote.

The siding is not the waterproofing

It is the first of several layers

Cladding sheds the bulk of the rain and takes the sunlight. It is not expected to be watertight, and no siding product is. What keeps the wall dry is the continuous barrier behind it doing its job.

The gap is not a gap in the work

It is part of the design

Water that gets past the cladding needs somewhere to run down and out, and the assembly needs air to dry. A drainage space behind the cladding is the normal way to provide both. Cladding fitted tight against the barrier, with no drainage designed into it, gives water no way out and the wall no room to dry.

Openings are where walls fail

Heads, sills and penetrations

Windows, doors and anything cut through the wall are where the barrier has to be interrupted and then made continuous again. Lapped in the direction water travels, the detail works. Sealed instead of lapped, it has a shelf life.

Typical whole home

5 to 10 days

Longer where trim is being rebuilt or where the sheathing underneath turns out to have taken water. That is a scope change found on the day rather than something visible from a kerbside estimate.

The permit question is a different one here

Ask the office, not this page

The state rule that settles the permit question on our roofing pages is written about roofs. Siding is wall cladding, so it does not carry over and we do not pretend it does. Inside the city limits that question goes to the City of Harahan.

Every figure on this page is an estimate, not a quote, and is subject to Big Easy Roofing sign off. Cost and timescale depend on size, pitch, access, weather, materials and whatever is found once work starts, so call Big Easy Roofing on (504) 800-8196 and we will come out and give you an estimate for your own roof.

Every figure on this page is an estimate, not a quote, and is subject to Big Easy Roofing sign off. Call Big Easy Roofing on (504) 800-8196 about siding on a Harahan home.

A wall in layers, and what each one is actually for

Rain control on a wall is three jobs done by different layers: deflect most of the water, drain whatever gets past, and let the assembly dry. Read that way, the siding is doing the first job only, and the two that matter most happen behind it.

Layer	Where it sits	What it actually does	How it goes wrong
Cladding, the siding itself	Outermost	Deflects the bulk of the rain and takes the sun off everything behind it	Treated as the waterproofing, so nothing behind it is ever checked
Drainage gap	Directly behind the cladding	Gives water a path back out and gives the assembly a way to dry	Left out, so the barrier and the cladding sit wet against each other
Water resistive barrier	On the face of the sheathing	The actual drainage plane. This is the layer keeping the wall dry	Torn during work, or lapped the wrong way so it directs water inward
Flashing at every opening	Heads, sills and penetrations	Carries water out onto the face of the cladding instead of behind it	Sealed rather than lapped, which is the same failure as on a roof
Sheathing and framing	Structural, behind it all	Carries the load and stays sound as long as the four layers above work	Only ever found once the old cladding comes off

This is the published building science view of rain control as deflection, drainage and drying, not a house theory. Every figure on this page is an estimate and none of it is a quote.

Why the permit answer here is not the one on our roofing pages

Every other service page in this cluster answers the permit question with the same state rule, because that rule is written about roofs. It does not reach wall cladding. Rather than let it look as though it carries over, this page says plainly that it does not.

The state rule we cite elsewhere is roof specific

R.S. 37:3737(I)

Louisiana requires any municipality or parish that issues construction permits to permit and inspect roof construction and reroofing. That is the sentence our roofing pages rely on, and siding is not roof construction, so it does not settle anything here. Borrowing it would be the same mistake as borrowing a neighbouring parish rule.

So the answer comes from the office, not from us

(504) 737-6765

Inside the city limits it is the City of Harahan Regulatory Department on (504) 737-6765. We ask before the work is scoped rather than after, and we tell you what they said.

The City publishes no fee schedule

An invoice follows the review

Harahan does not post a price list for permits. Its own guidance is that once an application has been reviewed an invoice is sent by email. So nobody can tell you the permit cost up front, and any contractor who quotes you one has made it up.

Which office depends on the boundary, not the address

70123 is three places

The City of Harahan, River Ridge and Elmwood all share postal code 70123, and only the first is inside the city limits. A Harahan mailing address does not establish which authority covers the property. We settle that before the paperwork starts.

Where siding stops being our trade

Siding abuts stucco, masonry and structural framing. Where water is getting in through failed mortar, a cracked render or a structural problem behind the wall, new cladding over the top of it changes nothing and hides the evidence.

We will tell you that is what you have and what kind of trade handles it. We would rather lose the job than wrap a problem in new siding.

If the wall is wet and you do not know why yet

Water showing on an interior wall has not necessarily come through the wall. It gets in at the roof to wall junction as often as anywhere, travels down inside the assembly and appears well below and to one side of the entry point.

That is what leak detection is for, and the junction itself is flashing work rather than cladding work. Neither is a reason to re side a house.

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What a Climate Zone 2A wall has to be able to do

The Louisiana Energy Code puts every parish in the state in Climate Zone 2A, the hot and humid band. For a wall that is not a detail. It sets which way moisture tends to move through the assembly for most of the year, and therefore what the layers have to allow.

For most of the year the drive runs inward

Outdoor air here is usually hotter and wetter than the conditioned air inside, so moisture tends to move from outside toward the cooled interior rather than outward. That is the reverse of the cold climate case most generic siding advice is written for.

The practical consequence is that a wall here needs to be able to dry, and the permeability of the layers is a climate decision rather than a preference. Published building papers and housewraps are generally vapour permeable; fully adhered sheet membranes and trowel applied coatings generally are not.

Wind driven rain attacks the openings first

Rain arriving sideways gets behind details that shed vertical rain perfectly well. On a wall those details are the window heads, the sills and anything penetrating the cladding, which is why the lapping at the openings matters more than the material choice.

If your wall only wets in particular weather, that is worth telling us. It points at the openings rather than at the field of the wall and narrows the search a great deal.

Sunlight is what ages the cladding itself

The siding takes sustained ultraviolet light and daily heat cycling all year. That is what fades it, moves it and opens the joints between boards or panels over time.

It also means fixings and joints need room to move. Cladding installed with no allowance for that will telegraph every seasonal cycle back at you.

Big Easy Roofing Process

Four steps. Two of them are about the layers behind the cladding, which is where the money either does something useful or does not.

Exterior wall with siding removed showing the water resistive barrier over the sheathing

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01 Settle which authority covers the address

City of Harahan inside the limits, Jefferson Parish outside them, decided on the boundary rather than on the postal code, and confirmed with the office before scoping.

02 Open up and look at the barrier and the sheathing

The condition of what is behind the old cladding is not knowable from the kerb. It is the single largest source of scope change on a siding job and we would rather find it early.

03 Make the drainage plane continuous again

Barrier lapped in the direction water travels, flashing at every head, sill and penetration carrying water out onto the face rather than behind it.

04 Fit the cladding over a drainage gap

So anything that gets past the siding has a path down and out, and the assembly can dry rather than holding water against the sheathing.

Everything else we do in Harahan

The rest of the Big Easy Roofing services available in Harahan, each with its own page, crew and written scope. Siding meets the roof at the wall junction, which is a detail that has to shed water correctly from both sides, so the two jobs are worth scoping together rather than one at a time.

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Harahan Siding Installation FAQs

What the layers behind the cladding actually do, why the openings are where walls fail, and why the permit answer here is not the one on our roofing pages.

Topic

Question not here?

Ask us about the siding on your Harahan home. No charge and no obligation.

Call (504) 800-8196

Is siding waterproof

No, and it is not designed t