Removing Vinyl Siding And Restoring Wood

Most of the time when i remove vinyl siding from a historic house i find wet spongy and rotted wood siding.

Removing vinyl siding and restoring wood. Make no mistake restoring the historic siding of your home is an intense task and certainly isn t as easy as removing the vinyl siding and throwing on some fresh paint. Do a thorough repair before. Because vinyl siding is notoriously vulnerable to water penetration be sure to check for moisture damage which could lead to underlying wood rot and pest infestation. Inevitably the vinyl siding got some moisture behind it sometimes from rain seeping in and sometimes just from water vapor trying to escape the house.

Gently rock the pry bar back and forth. The previous owner was the only owner and right after he bought the house in 1990 he had vinyl siding installed over the cedar wood siding with foam insulation in between. Therefore removing thold paint and starting from scratch may be the best way to preserve your siding. For this job.

First vinyl siding doesn t allow the house to breathe. My wife and i just purchased a 16 year old house late 2006. Sally zimmerman the senior manager of preservation services at historic new england recommends that the unsiding process ideally be completed over two building seasons. If you try to improve efficiency by scraping wood shingles horizontally across their grain you risk tearing the shingle faces and edges or even splitting the shingles especially if they re old and fragile.

If your siding is not well finished nature will take its action and will eventually ruin the wood beyond repair. This will cause the nail heads to protrude slightly enough so that you can pull them out with the claw section of your hammer. Remove the damaged section of siding. Force the pry bar into the gaps between the damaged board and adjacent good boards.

The first thing to do when restoring wood sidings is to ascertain the extent of damage. Removing the vinyl siding revealed wood shingles surprisingly intact but still due for repainting. Here is the story written by a historic neighborhood organization making things happen. Several years ago there was an article in the illinois association of historic preservation commission s newsletter regarding the program started in rock island il for the removing vinyl siding by volunteers.