Squirrel Hole Visible on this Eldorado Heights Home

Wood siding and overhangs on a North Texas home face two kinds of pressure simultaneously — the weather working from the outside in, and in this case, wildlife working from the outside in as well. Squirrels and other animals had identified the wood siding and overhangs on this Eldorado Heights home as accessible entry points, chewing through sections that years of sun and seasonal storms had already begun to soften. The damage wasn’t cosmetic. Entry points that let animals in also let moisture in, and once water is getting behind the siding regularly, the wood underneath deteriorates faster than normal weathering alone would cause.

The homeowner’s priority was practical rather than wholesale: replace what was actually damaged rather than the entire exterior, and replace it with something that wouldn’t give squirrels the same foothold the original wood had. A targeted, material-specific repair followed by a complete exterior repaint was the right answer — addressing the actual problem without treating every surface on the home as if it had failed.

The Discovery: More Damage Than the Ground-Level View Suggested

The full extent of the damage became clear during inspection and preparation. The second-story chimney elevation and the rear walls had sustained the most significant damage — multiple sections of siding had lost structural integrity entirely, not just surface wear but through-and-through compromise that made replacement the only viable option. The fascia boards told a similar story along the roofline.

Beyond the animal damage specifically, the inspection mapped out what thirteen years of North Texas weather had done to the rest of the exterior. Thirteen windows — three set in siding and ten set in brick — had sealant that had failed or gone missing. The 428 linear feet of eaves across the property needed comprehensive attention before any paint could go on. The scope that emerged from the inspection was larger than the visible animal damage alone, which is typically the case: animals find weak points, and weak points on a home’s exterior rarely exist in isolation.

The Solution: Fiber-Cement Where Wood Failed, Then a Complete Exterior Reset

The damaged sections came out and were replaced with James Hardie® fiber-cement — a material animals can’t chew through the way they worked through the original wood. Six soffit panels in 12-inch, 16-inch, and 24-inch profiles went in to address the overhead damage. Twenty-five Hardie® Trim boards replaced the compromised fascia and trim lines. Thirteen sheets of James Hardie® HardiePanel® Sierra 8 siding panels addressed the vertical surface damage, and 23 pieces of James Hardie® HardiePlank® Select CedarMill lap siding completed the chimney and rear elevation work. Two Southern Yellow Pine door jambs with PVC composite stops were rebuilt with the lower section primed on all sides before installation.

With the structure repaired, twelve tubes of Sherwin-Williams® Powerhouse siliconized sealant went across every seam, joint, and all thirteen window perimeters — a complete pass rather than spot caulking. Then seven gallons of Sherwin-Williams® Emerald Exterior Satin in Westchester Gray (SW2849) went on at full strength across the siding, trim, fascia, and eaves. The pool system was shut down and the pool surface fully covered with protective sheeting before any pressure washing or paint application began.

The Results: A Home That Animals Can’t Get Back Into

The most meaningful change on this project isn’t the color — it’s the material. Every section that squirrels and wildlife had worked through has been replaced with fiber-cement that doesn’t give them the same purchase. The entry points are closed permanently rather than patched with a material that will soften again under the same conditions that made the original wood vulnerable.

The color shift is noticeable. Westchester Gray against the home’s original white reads as a completely different exterior — darker, sharper, more deliberate. What was a weathered white home is now a deep charcoal gray that looks like a considered update rather than a maintenance repair. The Sherwin-Williams® Emerald formula holds that color through North Texas UV exposure without the fading that would undermine the contrast over time. The three-year workmanship warranty and manufacturer’s limited lifetime product warranty on the fiber-cement components mean the homeowner isn’t just getting a better-looking home — they’re getting one that’s been rebuilt where it was actually failing.

Materials Specification

Why Proper Preparation Matters

On a project where damage was present on multiple elevations, preparation was doing structural work before the carpentry crews even arrived. TSP pressure washing stripped away the failing paint layer that had been masking the full extent of the damage — revealing the compromised siding sections that needed replacement rather than just cleaning. With the damaged material removed and fiber-cement installed in its place, the sealing pass covered every joint, seam, and all thirteen window perimeters with Sherwin-Williams® Powerhouse siliconized sealant before any paint was applied. Covering the pool and shutting down the filtration system before pressure washing began protected an outdoor feature that would otherwise have collected debris and overspray throughout the project.

Materials Selected for Long-Term Performance

The material choice on this project was driven by one specific failure mode: animals chewing through wood. James Hardie® fiber-cement doesn’t give wildlife the same purchase that wood does — its dense cement and cellulose fiber composition resists the kind of sustained gnawing that compromised the original siding and soffits. It also handles the moisture exposure that North Texas weather delivers without the absorption cycle that softened the original wood and made it more vulnerable to animal damage in the first place. Sherwin-Williams® Emerald Exterior Satin was specified for the painted surfaces because its advanced acrylic formula holds color through sustained UV exposure — important for a deep charcoal like Westchester Gray, where color depth is what makes the finish work visually.

The Phillips Approach

The homeowner’s instinct on this project was sound: replace what’s actually damaged, not the entire exterior. That’s a more disciplined approach than many contractors encourage, because a targeted repair requires accurate diagnosis of exactly which sections have failed and which haven’t — work that takes more time upfront than recommending a full replacement. The inspection confirmed which siding sections, soffit panels, and trim boards had been compromised and which were still sound. Only the failed sections came out. Everything that was structurally intact got sealed and painted rather than replaced unnecessarily. The result is a home where the repair scope matched the actual damage rather than a more convenient estimate of it.

Questions Related to this Exterior Painting & Siding Project

Q: Why does fiber-cement siding resist animal damage better than traditional wood or composite materials?

Squirrels and other wildlife chew through wood exterior components for two reasons: the material is soft enough to work through, and the entry points it creates lead somewhere useful — attic space, wall cavities, or sheltered overhangs. Traditional wood siding softens further as it absorbs moisture, which makes it progressively easier for animals to damage over time. Composite materials vary in density but generally don’t offer significantly better resistance than wood once they’ve been exposed to sustained moisture. James Hardie® fiber-cement is manufactured from cement, sand, and cellulose fibers — a composition dense enough that animals can’t work through it the way they can through wood. On this Eldorado Heights home, the sections that squirrels had compromised were replaced with HardiePanel® and HardiePlank® fiber-cement specifically because the replacement material needed to be something that wouldn’t present the same vulnerability as what it was replacing.

Q: How does the decision to replace only damaged sections rather than the full exterior affect the quality and appearance of the finished result?

A targeted replacement done correctly is indistinguishable from a full replacement in the finished result — provided the new material matches the profile of the existing material and the paint system covers both old and new surfaces uniformly. On this property, the fiber-cement profiles were selected to match the existing siding dimensions, and the full exterior paint application in Westchester Gray covered every surface — repaired and original alike — in the same coat. The color shift from the home’s original white to a deep charcoal gray actually makes the repair integration easier to achieve, since a new color applied at full strength over the entire exterior reads as a single unified finish rather than revealing the boundary between old and new material. The homeowner received a complete exterior reset visually while only replacing the sections that had actually failed structurally.

Q: What specific steps were taken to protect the pool area during exterior painting and pressure washing?

Pressure washing and exterior spray painting both generate airborne material — water carrying paint residue, loose debris, and cleaning solution — that travels further than most homeowners expect, particularly under the wind conditions common in McKinney. Before any work began on this property, the pool filtration system was shut down to prevent protective sheeting from being drawn into the intake, and the entire pool surface was covered with heavy plastic sheeting to block overspray, debris, and cleaning solution from entering the water. Drop cloths and masking paper extended to the surrounding deck and landscaping. When the project was complete, the sheeting was removed, the pool area was cleaned, and the filtration system was restarted. The pool came through the project without contamination — which is the standard, not the exception, on properties where outdoor water features are part of the scope.

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