I have a house built in 1940 which still has the original clapboard under the cedar siding. When the cedar was installed there was no barrier installed. Therefore, it is directly on top of the clapboard. Some sections have come down and we would now like to remove all of the cedar to get the house back to its original appearance. Is it possible to remove the cedar and salvage the clapboard or will we have to replace the clapboard? What would we have to do to the clapboard if it is salvagable? We have a 7 inch exposure on the clapboard with a very thick board which has a very distinctive look as opposed to most "sidings" available today. I have been told by carpenters that the wood would have to be custom made, that a traditional siding is not as thick as what we have. Any help would be appreciated.

SRM: Yes it is possible to remove cedar siding. If after you have removed all of it, hoping you find no rot on the original siding, you will need to "plug up" all the nail holes from the cedar siding nails with wood putty, make sure siding is clean, may need to sand in spots, prime and then paint with a good ext. paint. If you should run into some rot it will be less expensive to have small sections reproduced than to think of replacing all of the siding. Let us know what you decide to do and how it goes.