Who To Side With

Who To Side With

Perhaps your old aluminum siding has outlived its day. It has been on your house for forty some years, and it shows it. You would like to make a change and you would like to do the work yourself. Before jumping into anything, you had better give it some thought.

The aluminum siding was put on your house for a reason. It is covering up damaged siding that was original to the house, or worse yet, asbestos siding. Removing aluminum siding is not hard at all, but be prepared for what you might find underneath. If you find asbestos siding underneath, you will have to find a professional who has the means to remove it. If you have other siding problems, you may first have to address them before applying new siding. It is best to find a section of the house in the back, perhaps around a window, where you can peel back a small area to see what is underneath before proceeding.

Assuming that you are good to go, you need to take a trip to your local home improvement store. Most home improvement stores have a wide variety of building material siding. There are probably some house siding alternatives that you have not even considered. By browsing the siding section of the store, you may get a new home siding idea.

Most people choose vinyl siding because it is somewhat easy to install. There is an array if house vinyl siding colors to choose from. Should you need help, Home Depot siding installation instructions are available. You may want to consider vinyl siding and replacement windows. Your home improvement store can help you here also.

If you decide to go with a house siding alternative such as cedar lapboard siding, there is a lot more that you will have to know. Before doing any installation, you must acclimatize the wood first. That means that you must stack the wood by your house, off the ground, covered from the elements, but allowing air to flow between the planks. This is so the boards will swell or contract before being applied. You also need to apply finish to all sides of the boards before installation. There are certain types of nails to use, furring strips, vapor barriers, and a whole lot more to learn before applying cedar lap siding.

Before you start ripping that siding off of you house, give this some thought. If you feel that this project is more than you can handle, then consult a siding and window contractor. You may just want to do the preparation work and have the contractor finish the job.

It is always best to side with the right people.