Use a garden hose with a spray attachment to clean the original siding. You will also need to scrub it a bit with a mild soap or TSP and water solution.
We found that a quarter cup of Oxyclean in a couple of gallons of water works well, particularly on mildew stains. We used a vegetable scrub brush to scrub the stubborn stains and then rinsed with water. Even though we brushed off most of the dirt first, mud was flowing down the side of the house!
If your original siding has been painted, a safe way to remove the old lead paint is to place drop cloths on the ground and hand-scrape the loose paint. Wear a face mask and change clothes before you enter the living areas of the house. Do not power sand lead paint. You can also use a heat gun or infrared heat plate to loosen the paint and scrape it off. Some people have started house fires doing this! I recommend leaving that method to the professionals.
If you have lots of lead paint scrapings, you should bag them up and take them to a hazardous waste facility. You can also use paint stripper. We found a product called Lead Out that is non-toxic and bonds with the lead and chemically changes it so that the paint scrapings can be placed in a trash bag with your regular trash. The siding can then be washed with mild soap and water to neutralize it.
Another important thing to know is that if you are painting over old paint or stain, you must use an oil-based primer. Latex primer over old oil paint or stain will cause your paint job to start flaking off in a couple of years. We also chose an oil-based enamel top coat for the trim and an opaque stain on the shingles. Our shingles have lots of water marks and stains. An opaque stain will cover like paint, but it sinks into the shingles and bonds with them.
If you ever need to re-stain them, just clean and stain — no scraping needed. Friends, neighbors and passersby all take an interest. At one point, we had a pile of aluminum on the driveway. A man stopped by, who was doing construction across the street, and asked what we were planning on doing with the aluminum.
Since it would cost us as much to rent a pick up as we would be paid for the scrap aluminum, we told him that he could have it and to stop by anytime. Whenever we put a pile of aluminum on the driveway, the next day it is gone.
If only we could dispose of the rest of our construction debris so easily. Our next door neighbor has had several contractors out to bid on a new roof. One day, one of them came over when we were working on the house. He was very excited about our project and gave us lots of unsolicited advice. He insisted that our shingles had never been stained they clearly had been. He said that cedar was self-cleaning and all the water marks and mildew stains would disappear on their own if we left everything to weather for a year.
I have heard that people remove it themselves lots of times but personally I would hire someone. As for the electric meter you would need to call the phone number on your bill. Best of luck! I am so happy to find folks who hate vinyl siding as much as I do!! Our last restoration was a stucco, very neglected but untouched. Both homes we are interested in now are vinyl sided.
Both built before , the larger home has asbestos siding UNDER the vinyl siding, plus both interiors have been severely remuddled. My question is: is there a certain way to remove the vinyl and the asbestos with minimal damage to the wood beneath. Maybe someone has experienced removing asbestos reading this. I hope this helps. Late to the party, but in case anyone else comes across this article and discussion, that has the same question — yes you can remove the inappropriate siding yourself.
My husband and I have been removing the tin can siding from our house and restoring the original wood clapboard siding underneath. We have about 5 months of winter here, so it is taking a little longer, but I assure you, it is absolutely worth it!! We have had countless neighbors and strangers stop to tell us how amazing our house looks. Yes, it is a labor of love — but the removal of the artificial siding is not difficult at all, and can be accomplished in a few weekends, if that.
I will never be able to wrap my head around replacing superior building materials with inferior ones! Do be prepared for window sill ends to have been hacked of to accommodate the ugly, cheap artificial siding.
Good luck to all:. My wife and I are preparing to remove the vinyl siding from our colonial. Like yours, the ends of all of our window sills were chopped off to accommodate the vinyl. Any tips for how to repair those? Good morning! Love your site. Most of the wood beneath is in good condition, and will only need prepped and painted. The original siding underneath is in nice shape, with a few cracked boards, no significant rot, but a LOT of large nail holes from the vinyl that was installed over the top.
I have the time, and would love to save the money. Any information would be greatly appreciated! As the owner of a year old home, I also faced the same dilemma.
Countless hours of research, inquiries to experts and conducting numerous test-patches led me to the following solution, which has held up brilliantly:. I tested out wood filler, Abatron WoodEpox, and various caulks. I determined wood filler was too time consuming since it required sanding. WoodEpox took too long to apply and it was a challenge to completely fill in the holes.
Caulk was quick, easy, filled the holes all the way, and is more flexible, which should prevent the repair from developing cracks around the hole. I found it to be useful in a pinch while painting, to fill holes I overlooked and hat I needed to dry asap. Will, I have a very similar house s ranch and same dilemma. Old wood siding under the vinyl, thousands of nail holes, and some broken boards. What did you end up doing? I bought a single story house made for a vinyl lover. My goal is to have it completely removed and return back to stucco.
Now, where do I find a contractor to take on the job? And does anyone know about how much it will cost?
Any advice is appreciated. I would find a carpenter that can restore exterior features and repair wood siding. The easy part is removing the vinyl. Replying late to this fascinating conversation about ugly vinyl siding. It smells heavenly, if you like the smell of linseed oil and so far has worked great to fill the bazillion nail holes that the inept vinyl siding folks seemed to think necessary!
I have asphalt shingles and an extra layer of vinyl as well front of house only covering my clapboard row house. I pulled some off in the back to see how hard it would be to remove; not hard, but holes from both the tar paper and the shingles left behind. I expect there will be thousands of holes to fill. And many nails to pull. Anyway, would love to see pics of your project as it sounds similar to mine.
I still have the option of having the Hardie people tear it all off and replace, but hate to trash what might be fine clapboard.
Thanks everyone. I will post photos as I progress. I also have a really good photo of vinyl windows vs wooden ones as I removed the vinyl ones the former owner had installed.
I agree about using Crawfords painting putty for holes, works magic in my mind and I like the smell. Hi Lisa — if you have good before and after photos of your siding removal please email them to info oldhouseguy. Really late to the discussion. I bought a s lake cottage. I want to remove the siding, but I can see that the siding looks like it was cut away near the door openings. I will work on one wall first. I guess just replace the cut boards?
Anyone else have the same experience? We also have a lake cottage, with asbestos siding. Did you remove yours yet? I am so scared to touch mine. I have a midth-century house that a previous owner installed vinyl siding on over the original wood clapboards.
I know we can make a casing that looks right with the vinyl siding, but what happens when and if we remove the siding and go back to the original wood? Does that make sense, and do you have any suggestions? Yea — I see what you mean. Not sure. I would probably wait and do it all at once with the vinyl removed. Started renovating the inside and found a termite damaged wall. When I checked the price of cedar shingles, I was stunned. Definitely going to sand and keep the them!
Now I can replace the doors and windows without having to build out to match the added depth of the vinyl. Thanks for the inspiration. My brick home has vinyl siding on the wall and window dormers, soffits, fascia, windows, etc. What paint would you recommend? My mother and I bought an s home at auction. We are in the process of removing the ugly modern siding and exposing the original clapboard. We are doing the work ourselves so it is a slow process, especially since we have a 2 year old and 3 year old to care for in the process we are a foster family.
I need your opinion on a few things. There is nothing behind the clapboard. We have removed all of the drywall on the inside so we can see the back of the clapboard.
What should we do to make the home energy efficient? Check out this page. My wife and I bought a Hulley house in Pittsburgh and I have decided to rip the vinyl off of it. It was installed only 13 years ago but who knows how much rot is underneath it, but rot must be eliminated.
Vinyl siding is all about hiding damage and you want to see damage so you can do something about it. I have one picture of the house before the siding was slapped on and it looks like a nightmare, so I think replacing is the right thing to do. Wish me luck! Your house may have looked like a nightmare with peeling paint but that does not mean it needs to be replaced. Why waste money and add good heart-grown wood to the landfill? Today people are very quick to replace if something does not look appealing.
Why do people restore something? Wood does not last forever. The man who builds out of wood builds a shack. This solution worked very well for clearing them out before tearing out the corner soffits.
They returned shortly after, so there was a limited amount of time to tear down that soffit about 15 minutes in my experience. Just beware and only do this if you accept the risks. They are dangerous pests to mess with and a single sting can be deadly to those of us who are allergic to them.
Check out the windows before removing the aluminum. The windows had been replaced with aluminum siding windows that were just tacked on with roofing nails and not flashed to keep the water out.
Check the condition of the paint. The old wood underneath may need more than a simple paint job. It may need substantially more work than the average exterior paint job. One other note: Have a plan of action ready to deal with aluminum siding that is close to the electrical service head. We just had the aluminum siding removed from our bungalow.
However, the crew left the aluminum soffits under the eaves. What should I expect to see if we remove them? Do we need to replace them with something? Or is it okay to just take them off?
Very attractive though it may need some repair from the aluminum. Similar to Meg, we have original wood siding the aluminum siding had thankfully been taken off , but the aluminum soffits under the eaves remain which drives me NUTS. Is it possible to take the aluminum soffit out without disturbing or damaging the gutters? Usually you can get the soffits out too. You may have to leave a small piece of J channel that runs under the gutters but the rest of the soffit material can usually come off.
Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Search for:. Scott Sidler. First Name John.
0コメント