Removal of external cladding sheet overhang

MHOS73

Hi team - we bought our house 6 months ago. It was a near new build (~2 years old). Down one side of the house there appears to be overhang of the sheeting that goes between the external cladding and the internal walls. As you can see from the photos is hangs down quite significantly covering most of the slab and in some cases touching the ground.

Should it be like this? Can I trim the sheeting so that it doesn't hand as low? Or should there be some sort of capping or cover on it?

JacobZ

Hi @MHOS73,

This is the building wrap, which acts as a moisture barrier behind your cladding to prevent any moisture from touching the framing and entering the wall cavity.

The plastic sheeting you can see -

looks like it is either packaging from the materials that wasn't removed during installation, or it is somehow related to the windows and junctions. Does the location of this plastic sheeting follow a pattern such as being below windows and near corners?

At this point in time, I wouldn't touch anything, just to err on the safe side.

Considering the age of the house, do you have access to the original construction plans? If so, does it identify the specific cladding that was used on your home?

If so, then your best bet would be to either look up the cladding installation guide or contact the manufacturer of the cladding for guidance.

It looks to be vinyl cladding, which to my knowledge generally has a strip at the bottom called a starter strip or J channel, which the cladding terminates into. In your situation this doesn't appear to be present. I would be checking to see what the cladding system calls for and looking at what products are specified beneath the cladding. The building wrap is standard and should be left alone, but I am not certain what the reason for the plastic is.

Allow me to tag @Nailbag and @Dave-1 to see if they have any thoughts.

Jacob