Vinyl siding help


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Old 11-25-17, 10:11 PM
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Vinyl siding help

Hello!
First time home buyer here! We bought a 560 square foot home that we knew the vinyl siding was installed incorrectly. We knew we needed to repair/replace within the first two years. A couple of questions.
1. The original home is a 1950's New England cottage. What do you think is underneath? Could we restore old wood siding and/or try a new siding such as concrete or metal?
2. The j channels and flashing are all sorts of messed up all around the windows and deck. Should we just try to fix and replace all of these? Or would it be better to hire a team to redo the home?
3. The roof is steel, however, the soffits are wood, and not sealed as best they could be. If we redid the entire vinyl, do you think it would be worthwhile to install full vinyl soffiting? (Btw- is soffiting a word?!)
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Old 11-26-17, 03:44 AM
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I suspect the original material was covered for a reason but you have eyes on the project so we can only guess.

Vinyl is not really hard to install but lots of tricks make installation easier. The nice part is your outside, doing one wall at a time so its something you can do all winter and take your time installing.

I would also agree, if everything is vinyl why not toe soffits!
 
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Old 11-26-17, 03:45 AM
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1. You didn't even tell us where you are located so we can't even make a good guess as to what siding is on your house.

2. It depends on what "all sorts of messed up" means??? It might be fixable by you or it might be easier to hire a professional to do it all.

3. Only you can determine what is worthwhile or not. We cannot see your home. If you are completely re-doing all the siding on your home then it would be a good time to have the fascia and soffits done as well if that's what you want.
 
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Old 11-26-17, 07:03 AM
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He said New England. Personally, I don't like vinyl siding. It's very flammable. I know someone who's husband lit the BBQ & the house was gone in seconds. If it's not right, I'd get rid of it. I can't believe that it's not against building code.
 
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Old 11-26-17, 07:26 AM
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Regarding vinyl siding burning, wood actually burns better and faster than vinyl does. (Most homes are built from wood, a very flammable material. If someone's house burned down because of a grill, there was something else going on there. (Too close/too long/grease fire/inattention to grill). To blame the siding is plain incorrect. Just trying to be accurate.

Vinyl siding myths:

https://www.firerescue1.com/fire-pro...ths-dispelled/
 
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Old 11-26-17, 07:35 AM
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I think that it is accurate because there was another incident where a spark from a drivable lawn mower caused the vinyl siding to burn. That was on the side of a 2 story co-op building.
 
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Old 11-26-17, 10:07 AM
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I've been a jobs where a trash fire was too close to vinyl siding and melted the siding. A friend of mine had a house across the road from an abandoned factory that caught fire. The fire was intense and melted all the road side siding off the house, it even melted his wife's glasses next to a window BUT his house never caught fire. Vinyl siding is subject to damage from heat/fire but I doubt that it in itself is all that flammable.
 
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Old 11-26-17, 10:42 AM
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A spark. That's hilarious. A spark might catch dry grass on fire...
 
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Old 11-26-17, 11:36 AM
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If the house is a 1950's "New England" style cottage the original siding was quite likely cedar shingles or less common cedar shakes. That siding is very common in the North East. I would lift a run of siding and take a peek underneath. There is a cheap tool available to unlock the siding.

Trying to save a buck, I replaced old (60 years plus), worn cedar shingles on a 1600 s/f Cape style cottage that we used as a vacation home. It was a pretty easy job at a reasonable cost. The house looks OK almost 20 years later but every time I look at it I wish I had simply replaced with new cedar shingles.

"the house was gone in seconds". Was the house made of gasoline?
Vinyl siding has a relatively high ignition point. It will not "catch fire" - especially from a spark. However, it will melt, char, smoke and stink (I stupidly tried burning some small scraps in a fire pit once).
 
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Old 11-26-17, 01:50 PM
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Oh it will catch fire... But the point is that since all the wood and foam has a lower ignition temperature... It's the other materials that provide the fire that gets hot enough to ignite the vinyl.
 
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Old 11-26-17, 02:55 PM
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One of these days, I'll make a test with a piece of vinyl siding & a cedar shingle. A friend of mine might have some of each laying around his house. I'll put a lighter to both of them to see what burns faster.
 
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Old 11-27-17, 01:56 AM
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And all the ignition discussion is helping the OP?

Lets make it a separate thread, I'd like to see the outcome!

I like vinyl as long as it's not the cheap krap!
 
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Old 11-27-17, 04:38 AM
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I think that it's helping everyone except for vinyl siding salesmen. I won't mention it again until I do that test.
 
 

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