We live in Southern California. We're considering installing vinyl siding on a patio room remodel. One friend (a contractor) said that vinyl siding really isn't meant for new construction--only as an overlay of older covering.
We were planning to use tar paper over the plywood walls, but wondered whether we should consider something like Tyvek. The interior walls are heavily insulated.
We would also be interested in anyone's thoughts on vinyl siding from a do-it-yourself perspective.
Thanx
Can't help with the installation, but they put vinyl on new construction all the time around here. (NE)
vinyl on new construction is totallyl fine. good even.
use tyvek house wrap.
and if you have to ask, imho you dont want to do the siding yourself. its not so much 'hard', as it requires much patience or practice and tools you dont have to do a good job. its easy to fix though if thats what you mean....
randy
I wonder what tools you are referring to? I just did a small vinyl siding job myself on a portion of my home, and I didn't need any special tools for it. Lets see, as I recall I used a circular saw, a pair of snips, a hammer, a pencil, a ruler,a straight edge, a chalkline, and a utility knife, that was about it...nothing specialized that I recall. Patience, sure, any good job requires some of that, and practice, well, the only way to get that is to give it a shot, the materials aren't that expensive that a ruined piece or two is a disaster, and as long as the person takes reasonable care the job should work out fine.
Thanx for your feedback. That really helps. Re: doing it myself, if it was just me doing it, then there's no way I'd tackle it, but my son works in construction and is quite gifted in such matters (my wife and I are his "helpers"). Having said that, he's never seen or done vinyl siding before. We're reading up on it on the Internet and watched a Bob Vila video (on-line) showing the major issues. It looks like something we (i.e., my son with an assist from his parents) can do a credible job at . . . at least we hope so.
Thanx aga>
first off mikey, im guessing you wouldnt have had to ask im trying to give a short reply to a long question asked by someone i dont know. i would bet the person who wrote the post doesnt have even the complete tool set you mention. and there are other tools that make the job much easier. scafolding for one....
secondly you said it yourself. a small siding job on a portion of your home. im guessing that means flat open wall. multiply that out and estimate how long it would have taken to do an entire house, trimming in the windows, inside and outside corners, doors, eaves, everything....
for the record, i wont hang drywall either. its not that i 'cant' do it... the pros can just do it so much faster and better its not worth my time. my time would be better spent at a minimum wage job earning money to pay a pro to hang the drywall. maybe a couple sheets, or a garage, but not a finished job.
just so you know where im coming from...
randy
Actually the siding job I referred to was a small protruding extension of the house, 3 walls, 2 inside and 2 outside corners, a patio door, a couple of vents ( dryer and stove), a few outside electrical fixtures and the eaves. None of the walls were very big ( all less than 12 feet) so I said small, but actually I think this was pretty involved for a small job. I did it in 2 less than full days with one inexperienced helper, and my guess would be we could have done the whole house in a little more than a week, I know I could have easily done the whole side of the house along with the protrusion ( I considered it) with very little extra work, that would have been the straight flat part! I found this first siding job to be far less challenging than building the walls in the first place, and it came out just fine. I wouldn't hesitate the do the entire house if I find the need, though I will agree with you that if it was more than a 1.5 story house I would want scaffolding, I managed with just an extension ladder but there were some tough spots that would have went much easier with some better work platforms.
sounds like you didnt go much slower than the guys you pay to do it
ya if you can put up walls you can put up siding.
randy
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