The Perambulator

This is a six year old article I wrote for a college class. The writing is not perfectly clear. If you intend to use it for a guide, please ask questions. I will answer them promptly.

Siding a house with Vinyl Siding

When an old house has been painted, weathered, and repainted repeatedly for ninety years it may be time to dispense with the paintbrushes, peel off the old wood siding, and install easy-to-maintain vinyl siding.

First you will have to measure the building so you will know what quantity of materials to purchase. Measure the area of the walls that will be sided first. Measure the length and the height and multiply. Now measure the area of all the windows and doors and subtract that number from the first measurement. This will give the area in square feet. Most siding is sold in square yards so divide the total square footage by nine to convert it. On a house with fourteen-hundred square feet of living space, you will need about ten square yards of siding. You will also need enough Trifold house wrap insulation to cover the same area.

Now you need to measure for the siding accessories. First measure for the starter strips. These are the pieces that clip the bottom edge of the first piece of siding at the bottom of each wall. Next, you will measure for the corners. These are vertical pieces that hide the ends of the siding at the edge of each wall. There are two kinds of corners, inside corners and outside corners; you will need separate measurements for each. The next measurement will be for undersill. You need undersill anywhere the nailing strip at the top edge of a piece of vinyl siding will be cut away. This includes underneath of all of the windows, underneath any doors below which you will install siding, and at the top of each of the walls. You will need J-channel for around windows and door frames, for wherever a wall is angling up towards a peak, and anywhere else that objects such as electric meters, dryer vents, and air conditioners may cause a break in the siding. Take into consideration that you might have to increase the total length of the materials you purchase in order to trim the house with as many unbroken pieces as possible.

Now you can start removing the old siding. It is the easiest to remove if you work from the top down. If the old siding is really tight to the house you may have to tap a flat pry bar up under the first piece. Once the first piece is off, the remaining pieces come off easily. You should have a refuse trailer available to load each piece of old siding into as you remove it. Hammer in or remove any nails that remain in the wall.

You will want to install the siding as near to level around the house as you can. You may encounter a situation, such as an addition, where some walls are lower than the rest of the house. In that case, side the house in sections. Use a string level or a water level to find the lowest wall of each section. Snap a level chalk line one and a half inches above that lowest point. That should be enough room to correct for any walls that are not level.

Now you are ready to apply the Plyfold insulation. Put the insulation up level one inch below the chalk line and cover all of the areas that you intend to side. You can buy nails already fitted with vinyl caps specially designed for this type of insulation or you can attach it with ring-shank nails driven through one-inch-square pieces of vinyl siding.

A word about nailing, vinyl expands and contracts depending on the temperature. Each piece of vinyl has a nailing strip with two-inch-long by one-half-inch-wide oval cutouts spaced one half inch apart. The nail goes as near to the center of that cutout as you can get. On a vertical piece you will need to drive one nail all the way in to hold the piece up. All of the other nails you use on accessory pieces need to be driven in a little less than snug. When you nail down the siding, the nail heads are left a full quarter of an inch out.

Now you are ready to trim for the siding. Start nailing the first piece of starter strip with the bottom of it level with the bottom of the insulation. The end of the starter strip should be three inches in from each corner. Use a four-foot level to guide you and tack the piece up with one-and-a-half inch galvanized roofing nails at about every three feet. After the piece is tacked up, recheck the level, if it is right, nail it up at about every eight inches. Take your time and make sure this piece is put up right.

Now you can put on the corners. Install the corners one half inch below the bottom of the insulation. Vinyl corners are flexible so be sure that you have both faces of the corner piece parallel with the walls of the house corner. Start nailing it at the top with one nail on each side. When it is square and level, nail it down at about every eight inches, alternating between the sides.

Now you put the J-channel around the windows. Measure the first piece equal to the width of the bottom of the window frame. Measure the sides from the top of the window to the bottom of the first piece so that the side pieces will overlap the bottom piece. The top piece will be equal to the width of the window plus the width of the two pieces of J-channel on the sides. It must have two flaps cut into it at its ends equal to the width of the J channel so they can be folded down into the side pieces. This will prevent rain from getting between the J channel and the window frame from the top. Use the same techniques to trim around any doors. Next, install J-channel on any angled edges at the tops of the walls. Finally, install a piece of undersill under the window inside the piece of J-channel and also under any level edges at the tops of each of the walls.

Now you are ready to put the siding on. The first thing you have to do is determine the viewing angle for each wall. If the predominant view of a wall is from the west, start putting the siding up on the east end of the wall. That way when you overlap pieces of siding, the lap will barely be visible from the dominant view. This is somewhat subjective but important for enhancing the house’s curb appeal.

The first piece of siding clips onto the previously applied starter strip and is nailed at the top. Vinyl siding has to have room to expand both vertically and horizontally. The bottom has room inside of the clip, the ends have room because you leave them one half inch back from the back edge of the channel in the corner, and the top is designed so you can nail it up with room for the whole piece to expand and contract.

Each piece clips to the previous one. Make sure the entire bottom edge is securely clipped. Use a four-foot-level held underneath the top strip on the siding piece to pull the piece up level. When it is level, put a couple nails in it about two feet apart. Then recheck the level and tightness. If it checks out, nail it down at about every eight inches. Applied correctly, it will be snug but not tight. It is designed to hang from the nails so do not drive them all the way in! The siding has to have one quarter inch available to expand away from the wall.

Continue up the wall with the siding. When you get to a window you will need to cut a piece of siding to fit and insert it into the previously applied undersill at the bottom of the window. Plan the course at that level so that the piece of siding will completely bridge the window. You may use a crimping tool to make crimps every four inches to secure it in the undersill but you don’t have to. When you get to the piece at the top of the wall, you absolutely have to crimp the top edge before inserting it into the undersill.

The piece you cut to bridge the top of the window has to securely clip into the pieces below it. If the pieces at the same level on either side of a window are put up just a little bit off on each course, they could be off by a considerable amount at the top of the window and the bridge piece would not fit. You can measure the distance up to each piece from the last continuous piece of siding below each window and apply them at exactly the same height as the pieces on the other side of the window to avoid that problem.

When you get to pieces that angle into J-channel, cut a template for the angle. Remember that it is easier to trim a piece that is a little too long than it is to get down off a ladder and cut another piece. If the wall ends in a peak, your last piece of siding will be a triangle. You will need to have undersill inside the J-channel at the peak for the top of the triangular piece to clip into.

When you get the last piece installed on every side, stand back and appreciate a job well done. Then head over to the bank and cash in on the home’s increased value.