Vinyl siding meets roof line causes leak

[Andy Arhelger]

I have a leak caused by my vinyl siding. I can see how the water is getting in but I don't know how it is supposed to work in order to keep the water out. The problem is where a vertical wall meets a 4/12 pitch roof on my garage. There is a u-channel piece of vinly trim that was placed down on the shingles and runs the entire length of the joint. Then the vinyl siding was simply cut at the same 4/12 angle as the roof and the raw edge fit inside the u-channel piece. It is kind of hard to explain in words. Now when the water builds up and runs down in this u-channel piece it can meet the raw edge of the cut siding and if there is enough water, will get behind the edge of the siding. The siding actually has a lip at the bottom edge that can fill with water on the inside and overflow so the water runs down the inside of the siding. Does anybody know how a joint like this is supposed to be water proof? It doesn't seem like it will work to me. Any ideas? Did I explain this well enough?

Andy Arheger

[xrongor]

its hard to visualize, but it sounds like the solution is to install a proper piece of flashing to prevent the water from entering the lip area in the first place.

randy

[Art]

It was a long time ago since I last installed vinyl siding but it used to have drip holes so there could be no water build up. Check other pieces for drip holes. Maybe they got clogged on that piece. They should be at the bottom edges unless things have changed.

[John Willis]

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 09:35:58 -0500, Andy Arhelger scribbled this interesting note:

Easy. Remove the vinyl siding. Fix the damage caused by the bad installation of this poorly designed product. Scrape, prep, caulk, prime, and paint the woodwork behind it. You will enjoy maintenance free woodwork for about the next ten years. At that time repeat the high quality painting process.

I've never seen a vinyl siding job that I'd say was well done. Moreover, I've never seen a vinyl siding design that was worth a crap. And I've seen thousands of installations of this product and had to fix the multitudinous problems the poor installations often cause.

Good luck.

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

[Andy Arhelger]

The piece at the bottom is that called J-channel? Did some research and it appears this piece is also supposed to have weep holes drilled in it every 2 feet. Mine doesn't have any.

Andy Arhelger

[Chris Lewis]

According to John Willis :

You actually find _wood_ behind vinyl siding rather than OSB, 10-test or plywood?

Or, are you considering painted OSB an acceptable wall treatment?

A bit self-selecting methinks. If it was a _good_ siding job, you'd not have seen it.

The bad siding I've seen has all been wood. Warping, curling, splitting, rotting out. Maintenance intensive (at least compared to aluminum or vinyl).

[John Willis]

On 23 Aug 2004 17:14:21 GMT, [e-mail] (Chris Lewis) scribbled this interesting note:

Around here? Yes. Usually a lap siding of some sort.

No. See above.

I encounter vinyl siding while working on houses in other capacities. Properly maintained, a good wood siding does not become brittle, does not warp, and does not rot. These days the various composite siding options out-performs wood or vinyl or aluminum siding. Vinyl and aluminum siding both can sustain significant damage during hail storms that will not adversely affect wood or composite materials. In fact, I recently gave a pass on buying another house mainly because all the vinyl siding would have to be replaced one way or another due to the holes knocked in it by a hail storm.

If you like vinyl or aluminum siding, that's great. But lets be realistic, the chances of hiring a good installer for this stuff is a lot like trying to find a good house painter...most of them are drunk most of the time.

There's a lot of hacks out there. Siding covers up things. Mildew, rot, poorly installed sheathing or wood siding, you don't know what's under it until you remove all of it and take a look....

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

[Chris Lewis]

According to John Willis :

Aye, there's the rub. "Properly maintained". I have enough trouble keeping my window frames painted without having to repaint the whole house every 5 years or less.

The vinyl siding on the house is well over 20 years old, and while just slightly dirty, looks about good as new. That's with _zero_ maintenance.

One day I'll break out the pressure washer.

Interesting. Hail, sleet and catastrophic icestorms aren't exactly unknown up here in the great white north, and I don't think I've ever seen vinyl siding with a hole in it. I've seen vinyl siding come off, but we're talking minibursts and tornadoes that took the roof off too.

The chances of hiring a good installer for vinyl siding is just about as good as hiring a good installer for anything else, and about the same consequences.

That's true of anything.

[John Willis]

On 23 Aug 2004 19:58:34 GMT, [e-mail] (Chris Lewis) scribbled this interesting note:

I've patched up some vinyl siding that's only had a few holes poked in it by hail, but the particular house I gave a pass on had dozens, if not hundreds of holes in it from hail.

Around here we occasionally get hail stones the size of golf balls, rarely the size of base balls, and once every few years the size of grapefruit or soft balls. That stuff will go through plywood roof decking. Think what it does to vinyl!

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

[Andy Arhelger]

I fixed the leak! I took off a couple of rows of siding and could see where the water was getting in. It was getting behind some of the flashing. I sealed the flashing the added an additional piece of flashing so it overlapped the existing flasing and came up 6 inches higher. Sealed it up good and put the siding back on. No more leak!

Andy Arhelger

[John Harrison]

Hi John. I have a problem similar to the original poster. I am not having any luck getting a contractor to come to my house and am looking for someone to point me in the right direction. I have a 2x10 foot section of rooted sheathing that I can fix but have no idea how to properly water seal the siding. There is a roof extension that is horizontal from the main part of the house and water is running off the roof on the extension and getting behind the wall on the main section. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks

[trader_4]

There should be aluminum flashing that extends 6" or so up the vertical wall and 6" or so down the sloping roof surface that goes on before the siding and shingles.