Anyone have experience ripping of aluminum siding, archived

Bump

Aluminum siding is tricky these days because you can not locate replacement parts and you will want to match the fading of color. So, here is what I have done.

On the wall with the problem, start at the top and remove the trim then each piece coming down. Be careful and remove all nails. I numbered the pieces so that I had a map for putting them back correctly. Once removed store them safely.

Now strip off the tar paper and remove or repair the wood sheeting that is damaged.

Now it is time to re-install the siding from the bottom up in exactly the same order you took it down.

I have done this a few times. The last time I was pressed for time so I hired Chris with C & C construction. Chris did an excellent job for me. I would use him again.

Good luck,
The UPS Store,
George

that'd work if orzabelle wanted aluminum siding removed to repair underneath and put back up, but s/he doesn't.

am curious also, because we had a screened porch converted to a real room a few years ago and now have wood slats (or whatever they're called) on 1/8th of the house and aluminum siding on the rest. we really would like to deal with it, but my pop keeps telling me how much of a p$i$t$a it will be to do so. and that we'd be better off putting back up the aluminum and just painting it if we find the color so offensive.

Yes, lars!

It is a hideous job, hiding the good bones that the house has underneath. Painting it won't do any good, because it is still going to be ugly, but there are a few houses near me with similar shapes but no siding.

Cedar shingle, unpainted, seems to be affordable (and I love how it looks, especially with a great color trim), and dh says it is easier to install than others

DH and I have plans to do this ourselves, at least partially, but we are also wondering about hiring it out. I know it all depends on the shape of the wood underneath, and we won't know the facts about that until it is taken off. I guess, if it is in crummy shape, we'll do it ourselves because we just don't have 30k to spare...

We had aluminum taken off a couple years ago.
Someone took it off and removed all nails in about 2 days for about a grand.
The tricky part is then you get to see what shape everything is in underneath.
We had quite a bit of damage from rot, window caps cut off and split wood.
Repairs took 5 days maybe and were about 8 grand if I remember correctly.

After painting it looks great, but it you really don't know what you're getting into.
Our house is a 3 story, 1928 colonial with a small addition.

Thanks, JK7B - how much did you spend total, soup to nuts? And who did the work?

We're going to put the shingle on top of whatever is there (but still may have to do some repair work.

we were thinking of doing some of the work ourselves also, until my folks gave me a reality check.

also, my mom pointed out that the garage, which HAS no siding on it, is likely indicative of the state of the wood underneath our siding.

but brainiac here pointed out, tut tut, the garage hasn't had a nice protective coat of aluminum over it for 40 years, so undoubtedly looks far worse than the house will.

what's underneath? I have no idea. but I do know it's got a lot of nail holes in it. we may do a test patch in back where it's already a hodge podge. 'cuz clearly we aren't going anywhere any time soon.

Us either. We'll be here a while. I guess we knew this when be bought this house, which is a project if there ever was one.

And my husband is a little bit of a lunatic, thinking he can do it all himself, along with having a full-time job (though he did our kitchen from demo to its current 'almost done' state with those limitations).

picture him up on a ladder while trying to rip something off.
that's what put the kybosh on it for little ms. intrepid over here.

Keep in mind that the wood below the aluminum siding is likely covered in paint with high lead content. Sanding of this wood to re-paint will need to be done by someone who si EPA certified and takes the necessary precautions to prevent contamination (per the department of Health in Maplewood who came and tested our house). If this is not done correctly the entire neighborhood will be contaminated with lead and the clean up will be timely and expensivefrom what we were told .

We aren't repainting the wood underneath. It will either come off or be covered with new wood shingle

Also, when my brother took the siding off of his house, he was able to sell it to a scrap metal guy for about $1000, just so you know.

Good luck!

pmartinezv said:

Keep in mind that the wood below the aluminum siding is likely covered in paint with high lead content.

yeah, ideally, we'd like to remove EVERYTHING underneath siding and replace it with hardee board.
and I'm pretty sure I know exactly how much that'll cost.

lars - a LOT We've realized we can't afford Hardee, though we'd love it.

yeah. toooooo much.
although, theoretically, it saves you in the long run from repainting or whatever.

orzabelle said:

Thanks, JK7B - how much did you spend total, soup to nuts? And who did the work?

We're going to put the shingle on top of whatever is there (but still may have to do some repair work.

We had old cedar siding underneath, that was sanded and painted after the repairs.
I think the whole thing was about 18,000.

Unfortunately, I would not recommend anyone that we used.
I had to do a lot of finishing touches on the repairs and the painters were essentially unsupervised.
The owner kept complaining that I was finding too many unpainted spots )

Hardie is definitely a nice option but seems too expensive. More than double the cost of vinyl. And it does need to be painted every 10 yrs or so.

Would love to replace our ugly puke color alunminum siding with it... Maybe if we win the lottery

http://www.buildingsupplyhouseusa.com/hardie_siding_and_tile_backer

Honestly, I think you should do it, Orzabelle, it will make a huge difference on your house and I think you'll love the results. We just repainted after 10 years (gulp) and the sense of happiness and satisfaction I feel driving up to my new/old home is unbelievable; I imagine with the kind of transformation you're looking at it will feel like that times 10. Go for it!!!!!

Also, be open to keeping the siding underneath if it turns out to be salvageable, you never know until you rip that tin can off!

There's a house on Wyoming that was flipped a few years back -- they removed the aluminum siding (& did quite a bunch of other work). Since I drive by there so often, I watched the project carefully. They also replaced doors and many windows, re did the front porch, etc. The house looks great -- and as I recall there seemed to be relatively little siding that had to be replaced (but then, again, I only saw the front of the house).

Heres my take after working for a few siding contractors in the 70's.Most were wood butchers who would cut the ends of windowsills in order to run j-channel up both sides and across the top.Water tables,the piece that runs horizontally around the house, a course or two of siding up from the bottom,would be hacked off with a claw hammer.Everything was packed out with lathe to give the walls a somewhat straight plane.And on and on.Lets not forget all the nail holes and the multitude of sins that aluminum siding can conceal.Hopefully there are shakes underneath rather than asbestos siding.Maybe even a shake/clapboard combo.Not a project for the faint of heart.Perhaps a little exploratory surgery is in order in some out of the way area.?

mplwdlvr said:

Also, when my brother took the siding off of his house, he was able to sell it to a scrap metal guy for about $1000, just so you know.

So, mplwdlvr - was that local? Do you know the scrap metal guy? Can you share any contact info?

Just so happens a friend of mine had the aluminum (and vinyl - go figure?) siding removed from her house today. She'd love to sell it to someone - the aluminum stuff, that is.

And for the record, the wood underneath was in pretty good shape. On the back of the house the water table (thank you, georgieboy for teaching me that word!) was indeed hacked off, but it was in place on the rest of the house, and the windowsills were fine. Some places need work, mostly around what appears to have been a small DIY addition, but we knew that would be true.

Once you remove the siding and before you install new cedar shakes, you have to pack out the existing clapboards with horsefeathers so you have an almost even plain to work off of. How are you going to reach the high spots ? your going to need either ladder jacks or pump jacks because working of a ladder alone is very dangerous and equals a very crappy siding job. We used to make our own posts for the pump jacks out of 2x4's and nail the crap out of them, the only downside is when they got wet you were going for a ride. They make aluminum poles now that I think you can rent at the Home Cheapo and they have a rubber pad that runs along each side to prevent that from happening. Cedar shakes need to be even so that means striking chalk lines across the entire width then attaching a temporary piece of 1x on that line and then you'll be able to have one person set up the shakes for you while you nail or staple. Good idea to prime them also on both sides before you start. Just a few suggestions I thought might be helpful.

Thanks - that is helpful. His plan is to build scaffold. Not a fan of heights!

This is great info, thanks for posting it.

METALART said:

Once you remove the siding and before you install new cedar shakes, you have to pack out the existing clapboards with horsefeathers so you have an almost even plain to work off of.

Does Home Depot carry horsefeathers, or are they a special-order item?

Metalart,a good plan in general but won't horsefeathering then bring your new shakes out past your window sills and door/window trim and cornerboards creating an issue with having to then pack that out also? The only experience I ever had with horsefeathering was on shake roofs prior to covering with asphalt shingles.Never thought about using them on sidewalls or with clapboard.Is that an accepted practice?

Clapboards and wood shake roofs are basically laid out the same way, we also used to use horsefeathers on re-roofs. I suppose you can just butt the new shakes up against the old ones but what if those aren't level? then you have a problem. You want the courses to end up being in line with the sill so you have to figure out your exposure and do the math.You also need to replace all the window sills anyway because the ends were cut of when they did the siding, Anytime you go over something there's going to be a buildup of material so you might need jamb extensions etc. It's better to replace your windows at the same time your residing anyway. Then what about tar paper or housewrap. It's a lot of work and definitely not a one man job.

orzabelle said:

Thanks - that is helpful. His plan is to build scaffold. Not a fan of heights!

This is great info, thanks for posting it.

Scaffolding isn't for siding a house and it's not big enough to span the entire side of a house . Right there you should say no and hire a professional because it's a big project and if you do it wrong, you'll have to hire someone to come in and fix it. Do you have money set aside for that? We did a bathroom job once and the homeowner said he would tackle the grout over the weekend. We showed up on Monday and the whole floor needed to be torn up and redone. Another example is a basement remodel where the homeowner wanted to do the taping and spackling , he used plaster of paris because he thought it would set up faster.That job needed to be ripped out too and costed him an extra $5,000. Home Depot is in business because everyone thinks their a carpenter.

I'm dying to take down our vinyl siding. Who do you hire for this type of a job? Any recommendations? I think we want to replace with cedar shakes. No idea what's underneath - I think just plain clapboard.

We don't have the cash to hire a pro for the exterior. 30K for the house exterior is just not something we ever see ourselves doing.

DH is an architect and so particular and methodical that he won't do it wrong. This is a personality trait that is the worst and best thing about him. He may do it slowly -- very, very slowly, with lots of cursing -- but he won't do it wrong. And I don't know his plan, really. I'm just gathering as much info as I can so that I can be even remotely helpful. I know lots of homeowners don't know what they are doing, but I don't count him as one of them. If you could see our house now, two years after we bought a complete nightmare, you'd believe me. He can grout, use a tile saw, hang door, do carpentry. The inside is beautiful when it used to look like where the Munsters live. The house was on the market for a long time because it was such a big project, and he has done an amazing job on it, mostly after a long day at work.

He can't do plumbing or electrical, though (fortunately, my dad is an electrician!).