OT- Siding

Reggae Fish

Premium Member
I was looking at maybe doing siding. I am not much of a handyman but my dad, my wifes dad and my brother are all good with that stuff. I'm a little worried on how long it would take to do even though I don't have that large of a house. Want to do siding, soffit, facia, gutters.

Are the siding companies rip offs?

Any suggestions, any comments?
 
Soffit and facia is the hardest to get perfect IMO. The siding is a piece of cake. On the gutters, don't try to do it yourself, call in a company that brings the truck with the long rolls of seamless they bend "on-site." Go for the oversized gutters and downspouts too, it makes a big difference, especially when cleaning them out. I had a window washing/gutter cleaning bus. for about 11 years that I took over from my father who did it for about 20 years and skinny gutters are almost useless. You may have heard of it, Windows, Etc. was the name. I sold it to Sunshine window cleaning and they tried to get into the residential market. Get your rear up and clean the gutters out vs. those POS guttergaurd screens/gutterhelmets/whatnots. You still need to clean those out just as about often but it will cost you 3X as much to have it done or take 3X as long to do it. The screens especially stink. The only thing they're good for is to make a roll of it to block a closed loop intake! :lol:

We have 150ft of guttering and it was about 5-600 bucks if I had contracted directly with the gutter guys but it was in my package deal for siding and new deck. My dad had them come over and do his house while they were here and it was about 400 and he had in the neighborhood of 100ft of gutters, but that's a guess.

Also, the way your home is ventillated makes a difference on they types of soffit. If your house is designed where it vent's between the roof and outer wall, then you need the vents in the fascia to create the proper circulation.

Greg does siding, or at least I've seen him doing siding at one guys house. He may have some input on this too and/or have experience on the soffits.

Again, if they haven't done a number of jobs on soffit's, I'd call someone on that part.
 
Siding- anyone can do them self. The hardest part is getting started at the bottom don't be surprised if it takes 2 or 3 hours to figure out your first side. We replaced the back of my house in about 8-10 hours over 2 days (we got a late start on Saturday). If you have 3+ people you can do it in half that. One person to cut, two to hang. Good luck. The bid for a contractor to do it was 1200, i did it, with buying siding tools for 450ish.
 
Are they a ripoff? No

Are they expensive? Yes!

Like every other job, there are tricks that make for a better looking job that you may not know. Trim work comes to mind first.

Many folks buy pre-bent fascia and my personal opinion of that is that it looks like crap compared to what can be made on-site.

I can get siding at wholesale prices so if you decide to do it yourself let me know. I also have a brake and cutting table that you can borrow if you wish.

DO NOT buy your siding from Home Depot or Lowes.

DO NOT buy vinyl soffit. It tends to sag after a while and looks cheap. Buy aluminum center vent soffit.

Feel free to PM me with any questions.
 
Borrow his brake or hire him for the day. Very very handy tool. Agree on the alum. soffits AND don't buy the HD or Lowes siding. They sell cheap, thin, and POS siding. You don't need the super thick 50 (is it mm or ?? I don't remember). If I recall you want to be at the 30ish range. It may be .3 or something but when you go looking you'll see the thickness'. I think the hardware stores use the thin ones under the 20 number. Also remember to leave expansion contraction room at the seams and they actually don't get tightly attached in the slots on top of each section either so that it can slide as it gets hot/cold. The expansion/contraction room is the most important thing about it really so that you don't end up with a "melted" look. Good time of year for temps right now for it since we're in a middle temp range. That's about everything that I know about it except brush up on your cussing for when you cut the wrong lengths. :D
 
Back
Top