Damaged siding, what can be done?

Strong storms are the most damaging factor to a home owners siding. Unfortunately the siding is usually torn off at the top of the house and leaves a pretty good unsightly strip missing for the whole neighborhood to see. If you’re lucky enough to have the repair in easy reach from the ground and you have a mind to do so, you can repair the siding yourself.

If the damage is on a small section of the house and the damage is small in size, you’ll need a zip tool or unlocking tool that looks like a thin carving knife and has a metal blade that is bent on its end, these bends make it easy for you to access and unlock the siding from its holding bracket.

To repair any siding you have that is damaged, you’ll first need an extra piece of the siding that is already on your home and matches your siding’s color. The perfect scenario would be if you had an extra piece left over from your initial siding job. If not, you’ll need to go to a local siding dealer and purchase a piece of the same type of siding and the exact same color.

Since the existing siding on your home is no longer new and may have been dulled somewhat by the sun through the years, the matching siding you just purchased may be brighter and stick out like a sore thumb when placed along the older siding on your home. If this is the case, you can take an older piece of siding off of a less noticeable place on your home and put the brand new piece there. You can then put the older piece of siding on the repaired and damaged site so it matches the existing siding.

Before you decide to do the repair yourself, if you find you have massive siding damage or damage that is on the second or third level of your home, You may want to hire a siding contractor who already has the proper scaffolding to do the job safely and get it done in an efficient manner.

If you’ve already decided to do the repair yourself, now that you have the replacement piece of siding, take a straight edge and mark both sides of damaged siding and cut with tin snips, if you are dealing with aluminum, or cutting shears if your are working with vinyl siding. Remove the nails under the siding with a claw crow bar or claw hammer and measure the new piece of siding you are going to make the repair with.

You’ll want the new piece of siding a full 2 inches longer than the damaged area you are going to replace. This allows a one inch over lapping on each side of the replaced piece. Cut the new piece to the size you’ll need and nail the new piece back on. Make sure you leave vinyl siding nailed loose so it can expand and contract with the heat and cold.

Re lock your siding back into place with your zip tool and make sure your finished job looks the way you want it to.