Unzipping vinyl siding

[go4donuts]

Next question about my garage:

My garage is 24x24 with 8' walls, and detached, sided with vinyl (yuk) which was installed a couple of years ago by the previous owner. He wasn't thinking when he installed it and on one of the two sides that I can see from my kitchen window, the siding is overlapped so that all the laps (seams?) are visible from the house. I know t's just a garage...but it irritates me. I'm thinking of removing the siding and reversing the laps. I've seen some Youtube videos and it doesn't seem like a difficult job, but I've never worked with vinyl siding.

Another partial justification for removing it is that I'd kinda like to make a few holes in the wall...a additional motion sensor yard light, an exhaust fan, a window. It would make sense to do it all as one project.

Am I crazy?

 

[dlenkewich]

Vinyl is pretty easy to work with, also pretty easy to make it look like ****.

Since you want to add a few things in you've got a pretty good case for bringing it down, but I wouldn't expect putting back previously installed pieces to be a very fun game. Tearing it off without wrecking it will take patience aswell.

I'd suggest making sure you're nailing into studs when re-installing as well.

 

[IHI]

How old is the siding? Once you change the overlap your going to have 1-2" stripes of darker colored vinyl at every overlap you change since it was protected from UV rays by being covered...so now you will have a zig zag of "original color" vinyl against all the faded stuff.

You can buy a "zipper tool" from a home center, you just slide it up, slide it over to hook the bottom J of the panel, and pull down and back, slide your hand along it to loosen the panel.

Me personally, when I bid jobs people wanted opening cut into existing, like your project, I would strip the panels back enough to do the work that needed to be done, and when we removed them they got labeled and stacked so they went back in the same spot to make sure the fade/mold/algea, etc...went back to looking original like nobody did anything. Tearing it all down and putting it all back up can be done, but it turns into a very serious case of labeling every piece of that puzzle so it goes back the same way, otherwise your going to have a mess on your hands.

 

[Gary S]

How old is the siding? Once you change the overlap your going to have 1-2" stripes of darker colored vinyl at every overlap you change since it was protected from UV rays by being covered...so now you will have a zig zag of "original color" vinyl against all the faded stuff.
.

Yep, most vinyl fades fast and bad. I had to replace a few pieces on my garage after a hail storm when it was 3 years old. The new pieces I had stored inside didn't match the color of the 3 year old sun faded stuff outside.

 

[IHI]

Yep, most vinyl fades fast and bad. I had to replace a few pieces on my garage after a hail storm when it was 3 years old. The new pieces I had stored inside didn't match the color of the 3 year old sun faded stuff outside.

It's tough matching any material of siding weather it be vinyl, aluminum, steel that's been installed for 1yr or more. We did a lot of additions, attached garages, removing windows from bathrooms during a reno project and typically we tried to remove siding from a "often not seen" side of the house or garage and use that to put on the side that will be seen often so it blended in, that way we could put the new shiney, stick out like a sore thumb siding back on the walls nobody would typically see but the homeowner when mowing the grass.

Othertimes there wouldn't be enough and we'd have to strip an entire side of a home to use on the new addition part to blend in, and ended up residing with new on that other wall we stole from so there weren't tell tale patch panels. That was what I loved about doing reno's/additions was melding new into old and making it seemless, that takes creativity and skill whereas building new anything be it a garage, house...a blind retarded monkey can do (no offense to new home builders) but that's childs play since your starting with nothing and can build to suite, which was one of the reason's I directed my company away from new homes, too boring and no challenge.

 

[spotco2]

Siding is not expensive to replace if you do it yourself and it's rather simple once you figure out how it works.

If it is installed properly, you should be able to pop a piece out at the overlap and see how much overlap is there and if it has faded. If it is faded, you're going to see those different color spots every time you look out your window.

Just replace that side with a matching color. You should be able to do it for under $500. Make sure you nail into studs and don't set the nails tight and lock the siding down against the wall. It should be a little lose and have some wiggle room for expansion and contraction.

 

[go4donuts]

... when I bid jobs people wanted opening cut into existing, like your project, I would strip the panels back enough to do the work that needed to be done...

I think you answered another question about working with vinyl siding. I was wondering about when you do a cut-in installation of, say, a window. How would you install the J-channel since the nailing strip would be covered by the siding. I assume you must remove the siding around the cut hole in order to install the J-channel. It probably makes the cutting and window install easier too, I bet.

 

[go4donuts]

Thanks for the information, gentlemen.

Also, I just found out that my procrastination sometimes pays off. I was at Home Depot and Lowes today and noticed that drywall (as we call it here, 'sheet rock' in the US) is almost half the price that it was when I initially planned to start this project. Yay! That'll cover the cost of extra insulation.

 

[fireguy]

We keep a zip tool in the sprinkler tool box. Sometimse we need to remove siding to get at drain pipes. I have learned to let the customer know that in the cold season, the vinyl can crack when we remove it. And not always is the original vinyl available.