I have a small rental property that a contractor installed Owens Corning ~5yrs ago. It has held up very well. They also installed insulation board behind it that had vapor barrier on it. The house was built in 1950 so it helped with heating & a/c cost also very low maint. for me. I could have installed, looked very easy to do, just did not have the time.

Good luck

 

Im not sure if the days I am installing it will be the hottest, coldest or average. Its Texas, you never can tell, but the hottest parts of the year here are June-August and Im starting next week. So if its hotter, then the ends on seperate pieces (we can call it the Y axis) need to be as close as possible? And if its a colder day I should be able to see about an 1/8-1/4 inch b/t each one?
Also what about steel siding? I just heard from my step dad that its better than vinyl, but do you have to paint it afterwards?

 

If its to hot and the siding bends easily just put in in the garage or use cold tap water to cool it before cutting and handling. Anything rated at 85+ miles per hour is good enough but remember you get what you pay for.

 

Just a word of warning...Any schmuck can hang vinyl...what's important is that it doesn't allow any water infiltration behind it. Apply 15lb felt or Tyvek behind it and make shure you know the proper way to flash around windows and doors. If you don't, you could wind up with an application that looks OK from the outside, but the house you just 'covered-up' could rot-away without you seeing it happen. Depending on what type of siding is on the house now will determine if you need firring strips or foam board as an underlayment. If you use foam, remember not to overdrive the nails or you'll compress the foam.
Here's some tips...
*Vinyl is thermoscopic and can expand up to 1/2" over it's length. As someone above mentioned, be sure you overlap and gap properly.
*Vinyl comes in different calipers...buy the thick stuff.
*Apply the siding so that you don't see the 'fish mouth' overlap from the street-side. In other words...start your application from the back of the house, and work toward the street.
*Make yourself a 'story-board' so that the courses all line-up all the way around the house.
*When it comes to siding or roofing and flashing, remember this...the application should be like a fish standing on it's tail. Everything should overlap all the way down to properly shed water. Think real hard about this, and you should be OK.

Good luck.

MR

 

I have done alot of siding and would suggest that you stay away from depot and lowes for your siding needs. They only have a very limited supply and only white and almond in stock at all times. Most of the material they do have in stock have mis- matched lot/production numbers. This means that the siding was produced at different times and the colors WILL vary. That being said I would definitely go to a roofing and siding supply house. They will have lots of colors to choose from. The numbers will all match and be in stock. There are many things to know about the process of installing siding, although it "looks easy" it can easily be done very wrong. I would suggest that if she is not in an extreme hurry that maybe you should see about getting a job as a helper with a siding contractor and learning the ropes first. I have torn the siding off of entire houses that were less than 2 years old due to rotting issues, leaky windows and poor ventillation in the soffits.

 

Allow me to clarify. In the "field" of the siding, ends should be overlapped by 3-4" or so. Ends that butt up to an inside or outside corner trim piece, or a window J-channel piece need to have spacing based on the temp. If you're in Texas, you're probably getting close to the hottest time of the year, so you want the vinyl to be close to tight, so that there's more room to contract, and a little room to expand when you do reach the hottest time of the year.

Jason

P.S. I wouldn't mess with steel siding....that's a whole different animal and learning curve.

 

I also have a little warning for you. Be careful on the length of screws or nails you use, if you go to long you run the risk of hitting the electrical wires running through the walls or even into the panel if mounted on an exterior wall. I am an electrician and Ive been on a few trouble calls where parts of the house wouldn't have power because a screw went through a wire. On one house they went into the back of the panel. Troubleshooting these problems can very difficult and expensive if you need to hire an electrician. The possibility of this happening to you is remote. Good luck.

 

Do a quick search on here about that. I asked a month or so ago and I got some great replies about the product and installation.

 

Well thanks for all of your help, but she decided not to do it once she found out it was $6000 for the kind she wanted (the one that look like cedar shakes). So Im just gonna fix and replace all the spots on her house that have been rotted out and replace the cedar shakes that need to be replaced and then paint her house. She does have siding on the east and west sides of her house, and whoever did it did a TERRIBLE job, I coulda done better. Its all buckling out and the places where its supposed to over lap, it doesnt in some spots. But thanks for the advice and maybe she'll change her mind a few years down the road.

 

Now this is gonna sound like a really stupid question, so sorry !!!
In this neck of the woods we use concrete block's , i am building a house that has a timber frame , but the outside leaf will be concrete block, plaster render . That's not the norm , normally it's all concrete blocks ...

The reason for this is pretty simple, the climate is different.
In our climate your house would last a few years and then rot !!
It's a damp climate .
But that's not the point .
Point is , is it not a "tad dodgy" putting a "vinyl" siding as the external leaf on a timber frame house in terms of security????

You could have double glazed windows with lots of locks and alarm sensors , and all you have to do is cut through a bit of "plastic" knock a hole in the plaster board and you in !!!


Just askin ?

 

Nahh, the vinyl siding isnt the only thing between your insulation and the outdoors. It nails to heavy duty plywood or in some cases I think they just nail it to whatever you already have (brick, wood ect) on the house to begin with. Its just something that requires VERY low maintenence and looks pretty good too.

 

OK , i was thinkin you could "break in" with a pad saw !!!!!!

 

Whatever a pad saw is, unless it involves a really big blad and a strong motor and your better off just bustin a window lol. Whats a pad saw?

 

A pretty small saw !!! Used for cuttin say a hole in a plaster board wall for a wall outlet , and the like !!!

You guys have them , you obviously call them by a different name .. OK so the pad saw is out , how about a sledge hammer :-)

 

You can get through just about anything with a big enough sledge hammer and enough work lol.