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Siding - Exterior
March 5 - August 22, 2015
October 27 - November 3, 2015 |
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Our house is mostly brick but it
has siding also. The siding is located above
or/and below windows, around the front entrance, and
balcony. There was nothing wrong with the old
siding. No large water damage, no water leaks.
However, the pine trim board used in some of these
areas, had dry rotted or was peeling paint.
I had no intention of doing anything to the siding
on the house, except to install new trim and paint.
That was until the "Raising
the Roof" project started.
When installing a new garage roof, siding was needed
to fill the new gable. |
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During
new roof construction on garage. Old siding
still on above garage doors and above window |
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New
siding installed on gable. Before any trim was
added. |
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The siding that was used on the
garage gable was different than the existing siding.
I asked the contractor to match the existing siding.
I was told it no longer exists. I took his
word for it. I probably could have found it
somewhere with a lot of searching. Anyways, I
liked the newer siding better. |
As
construction was proceeding on the garage
roof, I noticed the siding above the one
window on the garage wall. I wanted
the siding here to match the gable.
However, the window was covered with wrought
iron making it almost impossible to replace
the siding without removing the wrought
iron. BUT, if I replaced the siding
before the roof soffit boards were
installed, I could swing a hammer at the top
easily.
Installing new siding above the garage
window was not included in the contractor's
work. Therefore, the work was left up
to me. I dug through the contractor's
dumpster and grabbed every large piece of
scrap siding that was left over after the
gable siding was installed. And they
threw away a lot.
Note to those who hire contractors....check
the dumpster and rescue scrap lumber and
materials. |
Old orange siding above garage window |
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The first thing I did was to
remove the weathered pine trim. When looking
at the old siding, I realized that it was still in
good shape. It stayed. Placing new
siding over the old would add insulation and bring
out this indented area to the front a little.
I then removed any old paint and caulk to
level the surface. I then cut a piece
of the new siding to fit over the old.
The piece that I cut was 48" x 15 1/4".
After the new siding was in place, the
workers put up the soffit board.
While
the workers were working on another area, I
went back to do the trim over the window. |
Since this window gets a lot of direct
sunlight and is hit by the rain, I decided to
use a more durable material for the trim, so
I do not have to worry about rotting.
PVC
In my pile of purchased moulding, I had a
few pieces of 1" x 4" PVC trim board.
I ripped one in half so I had 1" x 2"
moulding and started with the trim piece
that sits above the window.
This window has a little ledge that the new
siding just managed to fit in. The old
trim sat on top of the ledge. I wanted
to prevent any water from getting in on this
ledge. So I cut away a little of the
moulding so it fit over the top of the
ledge. See the graphic at right to see
what I mean.
I only did this above this window.
Caulk placed between the moulding and new
siding will further block any water, along
with the paint.
After I installed the new siding and trim,
the area was left unpainted for a couple of
months while I worked on other areas of the
house. I did not want to start any
painting until the contractors were gone.
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How bottom trim piece went
over top of window frame edge |
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Of note,
I only had the contractor do the new
construction and some repairs. All of
the trim and painting was done by me, after
their work was completed.
When I got back to this window, the new
siding was painted and I caulked all of the
areas around the siding and window. In
addition, the wrought iron was sanded and
given a fresh coat of paint. |
New siding and PVC trim above garage window |
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New siding on garage after trim and painting was
completed |
While the construction
workers were on site, I still had not
planned to do anything with the siding on
the house. Until, they were doing
soffit repairs around the main bathroom
window.
Again I looked at the window siding. While the workers were away to
pick up some supplies, I climbed up on the
scaffolding to take a closer look.
What I saw was expected and then, I was
pissed off. The bathroom window was
replaced in 2013. I wish the window
installers had bothered to say how bad the
pine trim was at the top of the window.
I would have just given them a new piece.
I always have this type of moulding sitting
around. The bottom piece of old trim
was nailed back on in 3 pieces.
Jeezzzz!
The siding was in good shape. It just
had peeling paint.
So as quick as I could, I took off the old
trim and scraped down the old siding.
I then used more of the scrap siding from the garage
and cut 2 pieces to fit over the old siding.
I did not have enough scrap material to cut
just one single piece. Again, I used
PVC board for trim in place of the pine. |
Damaged siding and trim over main bath
window |
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I was
able to caulk all of the seams before the
contractors were finished and took their
scaffolding away, which was a day later.
Since I would be working along the roof of
the house for several months, I ended up
buying 12 feet worth of scaffolding. I
got a good deal and it was cheaper in the
long run to have my own scaffolding rather
than rent it. I work too slow.
After doing the bathroom window, I made the
final decision to cover all of the siding
around all of the windows of the house when
I got to that area when doing the soffit
repairs and painting.
By June 5, 2015, I had finished painting the
roof areas and covered the siding above
another window on the west side of the
house. |
New siding and trim over bathroom window |
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Completed
west side of the house roof and siding on June 5, 2015 |
The next section of the house to
work on was the east side. There were two
windows with siding here. At this point, I was
just about out of scrap pieces of siding. I
needed to buy some more siding. I did some
measurements around the other windows of the house
and determined I would need at least 5 more sheets
of 4' x 8' siding. That means I will buy 6, in case
I make a mistake.
I looked online to see if Lowe's had anything
similar to what the contractor used. They did.
But I had no way to get the full sheets home.
I decided to order online and suck-up the $60
delivery charge. What I did to cushion the delivery
charge fee, was to order the cement I would need in
the Fall to finish my rock walls. I added onto
the order 20 bags of cement and the pvc trim board I
would need.
The delivery arrived Saturday, the next day.
The board were a little thinner than the board used
by the contractor, but that was all right. The
pattern was the same and I would not be mixing any
boards on the same window. This board also has
a lot of very good reviews on the website. I
was confident I was getting a decent siding. |
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The next window with siding was
on the other side of the house above a kitchen
window. This area had a couple of problems.
The space was real tight and there was an electrical
cord for outdoor lighting I had to deal with.
See photo below.
For this window siding I did something a little
different. I kept the trim board on. It
is so far under the roof, the sun and rain does not
hit it. So there was no damage. I wedged the
electrical cord into the space between the soffit
board and the brick. I positioned the
electrical wire in the space above the old bottom
trim board and then placed a new piece of siding
over the whole area covering the electrical wire.
The siding had to be slid behind the wrought iron to
get into this tight spot. It was not easy. |
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Electrical wire moved
behind brick and placed in siding gap.
New siding to be placed over entire area on top of
trim boards. |
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New
siding and trim added above kitchen window.
Moulding
placed on brick under soffit on the right side of
the window |
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As you can see above, the
electrical cord that used to be attached to the
soffit where there was brick and then to the siding,
is now hidden. |
The next area with siding to work on, was above the large
dining room window.
This window was very easy
to attach the new siding to because I had a lot of room
to work.
The only problem I have been having around
the newer double glass windows we have had
installed over-the-years is:
1) the amount of caulk used by the window
installers and
2) some of the aluminum siding was cut
around the old pine trim boards.
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Old
siding above dining room window |
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This means I have to pull up the
corners of the old pine trim from behind the
aluminum siding without damaging the existing window
siding. I then need to cut and peel off a
bunch of silicone caulk between the old siding and
the window siding until I have a nice clean and flat
surface to attach the new siding to.
After the siding is attached to the surface,
I have been priming it with my oil based
paint. Yes, these boards are
pre-primed, but I am taking no chances.
I want these areas to be maintenance free
for many years.
After a couple days, when the primer has
dried, I then paint the siding with two
coats of latex paint. |
New
siding installed and primed above dining
room window |
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I pre-painted the pvc trim before
installation so I would not be painting against the
brick. For every piece of trim that is
installed against the brick it is sealed with clear
elastomeric caulk. During each preparation of
a section there was a lot of old white caulk that
was making the brick look awful. My prep work
also included removing the old caulk from the brick
with a rust/paint removing tool attached on my hand
drill. |
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Section between the first and second
decorative beam above dining room window complete |
After the east side of the house
was completed, it was time for the back of the
house.
An entire section of the back of the house
is siding with ten windows. The bottom
windows are newer. The top five
windows are the old single pane windows that
have not been replaced yet.
When I worked on the back of the house I did
all the work requiring a scaffolding first.
Then I worked on the sections at ground
level.
After tearing off the damaged fascia from
the roof and replacing it, I got started on
the siding.
I made the decision to remove the wrought
iron from these top windows. Although
not impossible, it would be very difficult
for a burglar to break into these windows.
Also, the pine trim that the wrought iron
was mounted on had dry rotted.
This section gets a lot of sun and rain. |
Ten window section at the back of the house |
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With the wrought iron out of the
way, all of the old pine trim was removed. The
old siding was scrapped down and nailed in some
places to make sure it was flat. The new
siding was installed and sealed and pvc trim was
added around the edges and around the upper windows. |
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New
siding and trim installed around top five windows |
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For the big blah space between
the two sets of windows, I painted the trim a dark
green color. I also added a little
southwest-step design to the corners with the pvc
trim. |
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Roof
areas complete. Area around top 5 windows
complete. |
The next
section of siding that was worked on at the
back of the house was the other side of the
balcony.
Here I repeated the same steps I had used on
the other siding areas. Remove the old trim.
Clean up and prep the old siding and then
install the new siding.
Additionally, I had to deal with a bunch of
cable wires that were finally controlled and
neatly attached to the house.
The wrought iron was also in bad shape and
was sanded and painted at the same time.
The bottom section was done after I finished
some work on the balcony. At this
point the scaffolding has been put away.
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Small
siding section to work on at back of house |
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The
photo on the right shows this small section
complete from the roof to the ground.
I did have to do some cement work on this
bottom section.
When I removed the old pine trim from the
bottom section I discovered an area, way
underneath, between the bricks and the
cement foundation where water can get
inside. I now knew how water, about 10
years ago, got inside the house during a
really heavy rain storm where the water rose
about 3 inches in the backyard.
With a small batch of cement, I filled in
this area before putting the new siding on.
On this bottom section I was pretty liberal
with the caulk to seal it because this area
has a lot of rain exposure.
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Small siding section at back of house
complete |
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Final Siding Section
October 27 - November 3, 2015
The final siding section I needed to complete, was
done when the temperatures were cooler. I
needed to do some cement work on this area.
Besides the spalled concrete underneath this
section, it was just indented too much.
Sweeping underneath here was a pain. |
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Last
section of siding to work on |
First I removed the old trim.
I then discovered a warped section of the old siding
that could not be hammered flat. This piece of
old siding was cut out. I wanted to remove
this whole section of siding but I could not.
The aluminum window siding had been installed over
the top of the old siding. If I had tried to
remove it, I would have damaged the window siding.
I filled in the cut out siding with some scrap
lumber, which was the same thickness as the old
siding. This is why I save my old scraps.
You never know when it will come in handy. It
did not have to look pretty. I just needed the
area to be level. |
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Old trim
and flashing removed. Warped section removed
and scrap lumber used to patch area |
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I then cleaned and prepared the
cement underneath. To patch this area I used
an entire 40lb bag of cement patcher. I
troweled the cement smooth up to the edge of
the old siding. This brought out the edge of
the cement a little under an inch. Now it will
be a little easier to sweep. |
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New
cement placed underneath old siding |
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I then installed the new siding.
It was primed and then painted. The trim was
then installed after I painted the new cement
underneath. |
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New
siding installed over the old siding |
All of
the siding on the house has now been covered
with new siding or painted.
The area around the front entrance and
upstairs around the balcony still has the
old siding. None of this siding is
damaged and only needed a fresh coat of
paint.
There are plans to eventually cover this old
siding in a few years.
When I get around to doing this, I will
update this web page. |
Completed large siding section at the back
of house |
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