Help me figure out how to do Vinyl Siding !

[Williy]

IMHO vinyl siding isn't worth the money, it fades, cracks,
mold, bugs etc.

Engineered wood siding is a lot more durable will last
longer will not rot and termites don't like it and it comes
in 4x8 sheets so will install faster less work
Had vinyl siding on my dad's house looked terrible hada
whitish hue to it.

willy

 

[KennyG]

IMHO vinyl siding isn't worth the money, it fades, cracks,
mold, bugs etc.

Engineered wood siding is a lot more durable will last
longer will not rot and termites don't like it and it comes
in 4x8 sheets so will install faster less work
Had vinyl siding on my dad's house looked terrible hada
whitish hue to it.

willy

Maybe the sun is particularly hard on vinyl in Texas but up here we figure on at least a 50 year life span on good siding. I know you can find claims on line that the life is only 20 to 40 years, but around here we consider it semi-permanent.

 

[MossRoad]

Maybe the sun is particularly hard on vinyl in Texas but up here we figure on at least a 50 year life span on good siding. I know you can find claims on line that the life is only 20 to 40 years, but around here we consider it semi-permanent.

Same here. Had ours done in 89. Still looks fine.

 

[lostcause]

My motto has always been

"Vinyl siding is hiding"!

Around here the saying is: "vinyl is final".

It is ideally the easiest, cheapest, and most maintenance free siding option out there for the homeowner. Given all the money in the world, along with time to re-coat every few years, I prefer the appearance of a semi-transparent stained wood clapboard, but that's not always in the cards.

It looks like the house originally had a decent job on the vinyl, but whoever did the 3 season room did it no justice. If it were me, I'd strip the room down and rebuild from the deck up so that ll the walls are in a single plane. It looks like the gable end of the porch already has vinyl, so you want that wall to have the sheathing to be flush with the sheathing under the siding. Sure, it's slightly forgiving and will hide some stuff, but you can only polish it so much...

There's also a couple schools of thought on vinyl installation. I've seen people who just cut & silicone all the gaps, but you can actually install it so that you don't need to goop it all together to seal it. google & you tube it and I'm sure you can find everything you need. I just finished vinyl on my new 16x26 shed and i think it came out really good. Going to contemplate replacing the 30+ year old vinyl on my house & garage next so they all match.

 

[yomax4]

You can take your dimensions to a big box store or where ever you plan to get the siding. They can give you a print out of everything you need. You can then sort out the terminology of all the components. They will help you get an idea how to get started and some cheap siding tools that really help.

 

[Williy]

My dad's house was in Wisconsin and the color was a light
blue when it was first put on.

willy

 

[MoArk Willy]

This should help.....it helped me.

https://polymericexteriors.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/2018-Vinyl-Siding-Installation-Manual-.pdf

 

[airbiscuit]

That was just excellent! Thank you.

 

[Rockbadchild]

There's good video's on youtube for the how too... siding has a high expansion and retractions proprety so each piece should be able to slide left to right by pulling or pushing on it, so all nails need to be loose to snug (don't pound your nails tight), (thats for the siding it doesn't apply for the trims) starter strip to start, J trims around windows, drip edge on top of windows and doors, inside corner for inside corner and corner for corners... stagger your joints, keep your cuts hidden inside the corners and don't put joints directly above or below windows or doors... I would add sheet of wood above that ledge to hide it and make it flush.

Keep in mind the temperture when you are doing it, if its relatively hot you want to install it with less gape in the joints and at the ends because when its cold it will retract and if too loose you will see gaps, if its cold you want to leave more of a gap because it will expand and buckle once it warm up of not enough of a gap. If its too cold it's hard the siding gets brittle and will break while you are trying to cut it.

For cutting I used a grinder with a thin cut off disk or tin snips for vertical cuts and a utility retractable knife for longitudinal cuts, and I just do a score and you simply fold it. There is also all kinds of way to make the corners for the perimeter around the windows with the J trims, cuts at 45 degrees, squares, my preferred method is one square and the other one cut at 45, it's easier then both at 45 and loots better then squares. There are pliers to make the J trims

but again check on youtube for siding video.