Can Vinyl Siding Be Installed Over Existing Siding

Installing vinyl over wood siding does require considerable.

Can vinyl siding be installed over existing siding.

On existing houses old vinyl or metal siding must be removed but vinyl can be installed over old wood siding without removing it. It s no wonder why. Using existing siding for replacing siding the best place to start is to closely examine the existing siding to get a good understanding of what condition it is actually in. Vinyl siding can be installed over common wood sheathings such as plywood oriented strand board osb or other materials e g foam plastic insulating sheathing.

The thickness of wood sheathing counts toward the total thickness that the fasteners must penetrate into nailable material usually 1 1 4 32mm. With other siding types fiber cement engineered wood etc. Generally the best idea is to remove any existing siding from your exterior walls before installing the vinyl siding. Any imperfections in the wall will almost always show up in the siding.

Having said that there are a few things that you might want to think about. Just like vinyl siding you ll need to ensure the siding surface is completely flat either by the old siding or by adding slats to the wall. The manufacturers specifically say that to install their product over existing siding is to void the warranty. If it isn t there will be more steps that need to take place before it becomes possible and you might need the help of wood siding repair contractors to have the bad boards replaced which isn t always easy to do for the homeowner himself.

A current trend in home remodeling is doing away with wood siding and installing vinyl siding on the exterior of homes. This goes for fiber cement hardwood and masonite siding. This type of siding can be placed over some existing siding but most will not be good. Surprisingly many vinyl siding manufacturers state that it s perfectly acceptable to install their product over old siding.

On this particular job the home already had aluminum siding. The client had a tight budget and just wanted to patch in new siding to match the existing siding. According to the best practices manual from james hardie existing siding can be used as a substrate as long as it is in good condition meaning that it is not warped. While covering lap siding with vinyl is an option for some siding other varieties of lap siding can t be covered by vinyl.

Typically aluminum is not used anymore to reside residential homes so the siding needed to be special ordered. Feirer the bonus of installing vinyl into wood siding is that you can simply hammer the nails into the existing surface. It can be a time consuming and in some cases very expensive.