I have a nice wooden house, and I also have ivy. The ivy has started climbing up the side of the house- I think it looks nice, but a couple of friends who have been here recently have expressed concern. They think that the ivy can actually pull the wood off of the house. Although this sounds bit unlikely, the fact that a few unrelated people had the same idea worries me. Any truth to this?
We had ivy climbing up the clapboard side of our house for over 20 years. Never had a problem with bits gettuing pulled off. However, should you one day choose to remove it, it can be something of a chore, since the runners stick to surfaces like crazy. Cut it off, don’t pull it off, or you might really pull pieces of your house off. But simply allowing it to grow is genereally harmless.
Ivy hangs on by…well, you can see how it hangs on. These little grabbers will dig into the wood siding somewhat and may send rootlets up under the siding as well. From my experience this is the only damage that the ivy does. The REAL damage comes from someone pulling the ivy off the side of the house. Because the stems get pretty woody they are fairly strong and can yank a board or two off if they (and you) have a good grip. Once the ivy has been torn off there may be some surface damage to the boards, but they are not really compromised. they will have to be replaced, however, if you decide you don’t want the ivy there and you don’t want scuzzy-looking siding.
One thing to worry about in GA and other warm areas: Ivy is a great hiding place for bitey bugs (black widows come to mind).
I’d be more afraid of the damage ivy could do to masonry–the roots can actually dig into that, and the vegetation holds water against the mortar leeching the lime out & leaving you with sand.
My experience is different than the other two posters here. YMMV.
I thought it wouldn’t hurt so I left it alone for several years.
Then I saw that the ivy had been tearing the actual siding and walls of the house apart. It wormed its way an incredible length inside, opening gaps for moisture, ants, rhinoceros beetles, etc. In fact, it’s now going to result in a very expensive repair.
Cut it down, unless you are 100% certain it is not in a position to harm your house.
Ditto Una Persson
I have ivy in the back - I try to keep it down, but - one time I found it had gotten under the neighbor’s siding - had I not gotten rid of the stalk…
Well, I have cut through ivy about 1.5" in diameter - think of it a a wedge which will get into any opening and grow - don’t let it near your house!
Kill it today. It’s very damaging and expensive to repair.
Given enough time for growth, ivy can be very damaging to wood siding. It’s not nearly as bad on brick or rock (note the hundreds of years old buildings at some universities or even old castles) but it still causes maintenance problems.
Some of the problems on wood:
It holds moisture, promoting wood rot.
It grows in between seams, sometimes loosening boards and growing on into the inside. Strange, but true.
Bugs love it.
Beleive me, I’ve made many thousands of dollars repairing the damage that some plants do to structures. 
It pulled the siding off my mom’s garage. The walls were plywood on both sides with no insulation and the stuff grew up inside the walls. Between a couple of studs one vine was over 5 inches thick. It even got inside of an electrical outlet box and was coming out between the plug and the cover. I have ivy all over my back fence and it can stay there.
Not only will ivy damage wood/composite siding, it really will damage brick and stucco. It is very costly for colleges to maintain that “ivy covered” look. The rootlets tear out the mortar. So every few years (and I mean few), the ivy has to be torn out, new mortar put in, etc. Over decades, it will even cause the bricks to crumble.
Do not let ivy grow on anything unless you actually want it destroyed.
When I look at something ivy covered, I view it in the same way as a building with a rusted out tin roof. A sign of a poorly maintained structure. Not positive at all.
Hey, I learned something! Masonry is one of the areas I’m weak in. Thanks for the heads up.
Play it safe. Get rid of clinging plants on permanent structures.
Fences are another story. I like the look of honeysuckle covering a fence. It’s easy to replace a stockade fence, though.
We had what some call “algerian ivy”, which is actually from the canary islands growing along a fence in our backyard. It had grown through the knot holes, pushed boards out and loosened them, and also added weight which helped the posts break which had rotted due to moisture against the fence and attracting vermin which you couldn’t easily see. It actually became the thing that held the fence up (but kept it in poor shape). Its stems were so old that they were as thick as a three inch thick tree trunk.
It gets everywhere and outside of its natural area, it can even strangle trees, and take light away from trees like palms so they decline.
I’ve seen how messy a house with ivy looks when you take it off. Rootlets stuck to the paint in the siding. As others have said it will worm its way into the gaps and expand them. Cut it down and keep it as a ground cover. Never let it grow up onto things or into things. It may look pretty but it really is damaging.
Geez, I had no idea. The ivy has just started to climb, so I’m going to get rid of it TODAY. Thanks!
The house I bought has two chimneys; one of flat rocks, and the other finished in round river rocks. The latter had a vine growing on it. When my friend bought the house two years ago, he cut off as much of the ivy as he could, that was growing on the latter chimney. It had been there a long time, and had worked its way into the masonry. A couple of the vines are two inches thick! I fear that the river rock will need to be taken off, and that the inner brick core is also damaged. This will be an expensive repair!
I only use the big bedroom for storage, until my friend moves out and I can make it into a library; so I don’t need to use the fireplace there. But it will eventually have to be fixed, and I’m not looking forward to the expense. Better to not let the ivy grow.
For the life of me, I can’t think of one good reason for planting ivy anywhere ever. . .
OK -
Let’s make this a 2-parter:
How do you kill ivy? It seems to survive if there is even so much as a sprig remaining.
If there’s anything else living nearby that you don’t want to kill, about the only way to get rid of the ivy would be to get every last sprig.
If you don’t mind killing everything in the vicinity, and you believe in better living through chemistry, a weedkiller like Roundup would probably work. Napalm’s an option, too. . .