Insider Tips for Vinyl Siding

August 10, 2007

If you talk to a builder at a home-and-garden show, you may hear that more people are requesting vinyl siding on their custom and semicustom homes. While vinyl siding used to make custom builders cringe, now they are finding it often makes good sense because of the benefits it offers. If you think vinyl siding is for you, make sure it's installed by a professional who works with the product often.

Vinyl siding tips, tricks, and insider knowledge

One builder reports that over half of his custom home clients are requesting vinyl siding on new homes. Vinyl siding is a smart option because it offers benefits like quick installation, low maintenance, and classic good looks that show well. But it can also be tricky to make vinyl siding look as good as wood or fiber-cement siding.

Installing vinyl siding

Because vinyl siding is flexible, it can be difficult to nail corner boards straight. Snapping chalk lines can help. Water can also enter vinyl panels sometimes, and it's important to install flashing around windows and doors to redirect any water away from them. Be sure to keep the underlying tar paper intact, and you may even want to purchase siding with predrilled weep holes for moisture control. Unlike wood, which reacts primarily to moisture, vinyl expands and contracts in response to temperature variations. To compensate for thermal expansion and contraction, you'll need to overlap panels sufficiently.

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