Doing home projects yourself can save time and money, and also give you a good feeling of accomplishment. A lot of home owners are simply scared off by the fact of doing large projects themselves. With the right tips and advice, you can do-it-yourself and save big.
Vinyl siding is one of those projects. It looks harder than it really is. Follow these basic steps, and you can refinish that ugly or neglected exterior on your home.
First of all, you need to know what needs to be done to the exterior for vinyl preparation. Is your home already covered with siding? Is it stucco? These are important questions you need to address. If it’s siding already, a simple tear off is all you need to do. If the underlayment is tar paper, then you probably need to redo it. Your best bet is to buy Tyvec. It’s a product by DuPont that has excellent waterproof qualities. It’s not very expensive, around $100 a roll and depending on the size of your home, usually one or two rolls will do it.
If your home has stucco or block, then you need to fur out the walls with 1×2 furring strips. You can buy these bundled in 8, 10, or 12 foot lengths. They are pressure treated to resist rot. You attach them with an air gun, and use hard cut nails. Your local hardware, or home improvement store should be able to point you in the right direction. Simply cut the strips to length vertically, and attach with the nail gun. Don’t forget safety goggles! Place them on a 16 inch layout. Make sure to attach them on the corners, but, bring it off the wall around 4 inches or so, or you’ll blow out the concrete.
Vinyl comes in a variety of colors and designs. You can buy Dutch lap, or traditional lap, and several other designs are offered now, as well. You need to purchase outside corners, inside corners, and trim for the windows and doors, so measure all your windows and doors to find out how much you will need. Buy a stick or two more, just incase you make a mistake. Count all your outside and inside corners and make sure you know the length. Measure the width of each wall and height, and multiply these together and you have your square footage. Add up all your wall square footage measurements, and you will have the outside square footage of your home. A good idea is to round those numbers up to the nearest foot, just to make sure you have plenty.
After a trip to the local home improvement center, you can ask the salesperson, how much coverage you will get from the particular product you buy. Typically, each piece of vinyl siding will cover 7 inches up and around 16 to 20 feet in length. Products vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so make sure you ask a reliable salesperson.
Time to start siding! First off, you need to measure down around you home from the soffit of rafters, to the center of your sill plate of your walls. Find the mean measurement. Now you snap lines around the home, at the mean measurement. This is where you begin your starter strip. Basically, your starter strip, should hand down below your sill plate at least an inch, but not enough so you can’t nail it into the sill plate. Attach all your corners with galvanized roofing nails, and use a level to make sure they are straight up and down. Don’t sink the nails flush, leave them loose for expansion and contraction. By using a pair of roofing snips, cut the trim for your windows. You should start from the top and work your way down. Measure your window and cut the trim two inches longer. The top piece should be notched so the sides can fit into the top piece. By making a small slice and folding the inside of the trim down into the side piece, this should assure a waterproof seal. Do the same for the bottom of the side pieces, folding the inside of the trim, into the bottom piece. It’s a good idea to cut several small test pieces, until you get the hang of it. Now hang you trim pieces on your soffit, and your ready for vinyl siding.
Put on your first piece of siding by snapping in the bottom of the siding onto the starter strip. Once snapped on tight, put nails around a foot apart and don’t sink the head, leave it up about a ¼ inch. Snap on the next piece and overlap it about 1 inch. When you reach your corners, don’t but them tight, leave ¼ inch gap from the inside. This leaves room from expansion. Take the cut off from the last piece, and use it on the other side, this assures your seams don’t line up. You definitely want to stagger your seams well.
Now that you have the hang of it, start siding! Finish one wall at a time and make sure your corners match from one wall to the next. You can move them up and down slightly to adjust for differences. That’s pretty much it! Leave room for expansion and contraction, make sure your nails aren’t tight, and your corners all line up and match. Have fun and enjoy your new siding!
