# Siding job gone bad



## dustyyy (May 30, 2012)

Hi everyone, I wanted to get some professional opinions on a siding job I had done about 10 mos ago on my dad's house.

http://s873.photobucket.com/albums/ab293/dustydelrosario/siding/

Here are some pictures of the things that concern me the most. First of all I pulled one of the nails that were used as finish nails throughout the entire job and took it to the Lowe's hardware dept and asked what kind of nails they were. They were paneling nails used for the indoor wood paneling you see in older homes. All of these nails are rusting as you can see from some of the pictures.







None of the top pieces of siding are nailed. I noticed this and complained and the installer came back and nailed under the bottom lip that snaps into the piece under it in a few spots to keep the top from sliding off. As you can see from the picture, that didn't work so well. From what I've seen on the internet it looks like the proper way is to use some sort of hole punch tool to put holes along the top edge for nailing. Is that correct?






Sometimes they mitered the corners of the j-channel, sometimes they didn't.. I don't see any reason not to miter it, but is it common practice to just butt the joints like this?






This shows the j-channel on the soffit and on the wall creating an awkward corner along the entire run. I just wasn't sure if this was the best method for doing this. And also the top piece has that serial number stamp on it hanging out, is there something they should have done differently here?






Siding was cut short in a few places, this one was particularly bad. The whole area just doesn't look very professional to me.


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## kok328 (May 30, 2012)

Hack job, appears to have been done by someone with limited experience.
Pic 1 should have used a J-channel designed for recieving the last top course.
Pic 2 if your not going to 45 the corners at least layer them so that water sheds off the J-channel.  I.e.- the joint on the left bottom corner should be like the right bottom corner.
Not too crazy about the way they wrapped the column either.
Pic 3 J-channel should have been ran level with the top of the siding.  Probably not pitched correctly either.  Should be a slight pitch away from the siding/house.
Pic 4 Siding cut too short and also showing J-channel at the top.
Realize that some accomodations must be made for expansion and contraction but, this is poor craftsman shipt.
You may even want to see if the siding nails where hammered all the way in or were they left slighlty loose to let the siding expand & contract.  That's why they mean by "Hanging" siding.


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## oldognewtrick (May 30, 2012)

I agree with KOK, a real hack job, but what are you wanting to do 10 months after the fact? They should have never been paid till they cleaned that mess up.

Oh yeah, to *House Repair Talk*!


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## nealtw (May 30, 2012)

Is there house wrap on the house or is it all like the porch, this will cost as much to fix as it did to do it the first time.


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## joecaption (Jun 1, 2012)

I see nothing that looks like any pro would have done this job. It all looks like a first time DIY did it.

We have figured out a simple way to keep that top piece from falling out that does not require silicone or face nailing.
We use one of these to punch a hole in the siding. It leaves a raised tab that locks into a piece of utility trim (also called under silll trim) that's installed up side down up inside of the J moulding. It allows the siding to expand and contract.
http://malcoproducts.com/product/ro...-vinyl/siding-tools-vinyl/snap-lock-punches-a

For trim nails we only use stainless steel trim nails. The nails they sell at Lowes and HD for some reason are aluminum and way to heavy a gauge nail.
As you try to pound them in they tend to bend, and if there going into coil stock they compress the trim and leave a dent.

When installing the coil stock on a fashia we also do ours totaly differant then almost anyone else, we take the time to install utility trim up under the drip cap. As the metal is bent before it's handed up to the installer we punch the tabs at the top of the piece and punch tiny oval shaped holes in the lip on the bottom. Using a punch that looks like this one but has a smaller slot. http://malcoproducts.com/product/ro...ding-tools-vinyl/nail-hole-slot-punch-redline                                                                                                                                What this does is allow us to just snap in the top, once the tops snaped in place the bottom gets trim nails installed in the bottom that are not nailed tight. Now the coil can move because there's fewer face nails and the top lays flat and there's 0 waves when the sun hits it.


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