Do I Need Felt Paper Under Siding. The short answer is that felt paper is fine as a weather resistant barrier behind vinyl siding and will not cause a problem if the siding is installed correctly. Should any water get past the siding properly installed felt paper. Siding applied directly over tar paper creates a sandwich effect and can trap water between the siding material and the tar paper.
I ll stick with tried and true felt paper. I have seen literally hundreds of houses stripped of asbestos siding that had 15 felt under it.
They were built in the 1950s and 60s the felt was in perfect condition.
In fact many builders disagree on the effectiveness of house wraps altogether and while some builders will only install 15 pound asphalt saturated felt paper underneath exterior siding others swear by plastic fabric house wraps such as typar or tyvek. Should any water get past the siding properly installed felt paper. I ve opened up houses built less than 5 years previous and the tyvek was shreaded like old newspaper. They were built in the 1950s and 60s the felt was in perfect condition.
