Help me figure out how to do Vinyl Siding !

[airbiscuit]

A few years back, my son bought a home with an unfinished 3 season room. The build quality is mediocre, but we want to finish off the exterior with matching vinyl siding. I have decent carpentry skills, but I have never done vinyl siding. I know we have to put a Tyvek type house wrap on first.

I need to know the types and nomenclature for trim

• At the bottom
• At the top
• At the outside and inside corners
• Around the windows and door

Is the starter row just siding, or something different?
How do I deal with that ledge (about 1 1/2") partway up?
Any other advice?

 

[CalG]

I'm in a similar situation.
My Daughter's house needs an exterior wall rebuilt, and I haven't a clue about vinyl siding.

My motto has always been

"Vinyl siding is hiding"!

 

[RustyA]

Why is the ledge there? I would remove bottom course of OSB and ledge to start with a flat surface. Looks like gable end under eave has some sort of siding up high in picture #1? J trim around window and under soffit. Bottom starter strip first row of siding snaps into and strip disappears. Handrail for step hits right where your corner trim will go.. that will be challenging if you leave it attached to house.

 

[Racer4]

Bottom—-starter strip

Around doors, windows, and at top—-J channel

Inside and outside corners—- inside and outside corners

I would cut that lower lip off flush with the plywood and pad out the frame to make it even with the plywood. You want everything as flat as can be.

As far as your inside corners go, you will have to cut the old siding loose to get the inside corner trim behind the old siding. Or you could caulk any openings created by framing over the old siding and just stick another J channel up against the old siding.

 

[KennyG]

Vinyl siding is pretty simple and is the best value for exterior finish. I have seem poor installations and it amazes me because you don't have to be very skilled to do it correctly. Either remove the ledge or shim out to it. A perfectly flat and square surface will result in a perfect finished installation. The most common mistakes are not using the correct trim pieces and over driving the nails so the siding can't expand. Detailed instructions are readily available. Take a look at this:

https://polymericexteriors.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-VSI-Installation-Manual.pdf

 

[2manyrocks]

The "ledge" is a piece of aluminum flashing installed between the upper and lower sheets of OSB to keep water from running between them.

Looks like the walls were built on top of an existing exterior deck, but they left the decking extending beyond the wall. Water will run down and hit the deck running back into the structure. This needs to be cut flush, and I'd probably flash it to create a drip edge for the water to run off below the wall.

Basically, this entire thing needs to be gone over thoroughly to make sure there isn't any rot or deterioration and then you need to correct all water penetration issues with flashing before you cover it with tyvek and vinyl siding.

 

[ZTMAN]

Based on the pics, that is a deck that someone enclosed.

You say it is a three season room, but I see deck boards in the pic. Did the prior owner put flooring over the deck boards?

Before you get a lot of money tied up, you may want to confirm that deck framing is suitable to support the extra weight of the materials that were added.

 

[airbiscuit]

Ya, it was a sketchy build. It is what it is. Trying to put lipstick on a pig.

 

[2manyrocks]

Just don't trap water inside the structure or install vinyl over any OSB that has any soft spots. The nails won't hold and it'll be more work to repair later. The picture makes it appear that the OSB may be failing where it comes in contact with the deck. This is where you'd have to install a starter strip to begin to run all of your vinyl, and it needs to be solid.

The odd thing is that they installed these OSB sheets horizontally instead of vertically which then caused them to install the aluminum flashing (ledge) between the sheets. If you need to re-sheet this, I suggest installing the OSB vertically.

Doesn't look like they applied any flashing to the windows. The ones on the gable end look the most exposed to the weather. You may want to pull those off, install flashing, and then reinstall them so water doesn't penetrate.

 

[dodge man]

I’ve only done it once several years ago on a small shed. It was pretty easy.