aluminum siding comes apart. Does that mean it was cheap.

[mm]

We had winds about 50 mph earlier this week, and one piece of aluminum siding, 30 inches by 8 feet, narrow because it is the last one installed, the vertical panel type that they use to cover t-111 (which is what our houses were built with), came off my n'bor's house, and blew over my gate and a total of maybe 40 feet to rest just in front of my front door. This was added about 10 years ago when the house was about 18 years old.

Does the fact that it came off mean that it wasn't installed right? The answer seems obviously yes, but what do I know.

Also there is a whole n'hood of 12 year old houses a half mile from here, which were built with siding in the first place, vinyl I think, and several of them are missing pieces of siding, the kind that imitates clapboards. Does that indicate cheap workmanship, cheap siding, both, or maybe just high winds?

I sort of assumed that when properly installed the siding would stay on until it looked so bad one would want to replace it. If I ever get vinyl siding, I'll make sure I get a better installer if you say that the installer here is the problem.

(One or two of these houses, of the 50 or so I regularly walk past, also has a hole or two in the plastic siding at ground level. Where someone hit it I guess, pretty clearly by accident. With good siding, one would have to whack it on purpose with a hammer before it would break, right? Or maybe they just hit it with a ladder and broke it. Would good siding break that way?)

[Lawrence]

Gosh, any siding can be damaged regardless of the quality. 50mph is a hell of a wind but only one piece came off, it can be replaced. One house out of 50 you say are damaged? Siding is the first defence of a house so there are many ways it gets damaged since it covers the entire surface of every house.

Is is cheap siding? Most likely. People use that type of siding because of it's afforability. There are always more expensive products you can buy but most people don't since money is tight. Often the heavier product is hard to tell from the thin stuff since it can look the same when installed. On that basis, most people and contractors opt to choose the less expensive mat'l.

[jmagerl]

I dont know if its a bunch a bull....but I once had a builder explain that siding is put on before the wall board and the weight of the wall board is enough to compress the structure to make a marginal siding installation go bad.

This was said as he was denying my siding claim because winds at the local airport exceeded 70mph (warranty limit).

[Lawrence]

Yep, that sounds like bull. The weight of the wall board should have absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the siding installation. That insurance coverage sounds like bull too. You should be covered for winds above a certain speed, not denied.

If you followed that idea to it's conclusion then you would be covered when there is no wind but not covered during a tornado or hurricane. If that is really your coverage then you should complain loudly to whoever will listen probably the attorney generals office of your state. In some cases where there is a lot of damage an attorney has to be consulted. You always have to watch your back when dealing with insurance claims.

[Noozer]

It looks like it was the WARRANTY coverage that limited winds to 70mph, not INSURANCE coverage.

I'm pretty sure that most siding companies don't warranty their siding to withstand a tornado.

[Goedjn]

OTOH, I'd have thought that it was the builder's job to notice that he's building a building in a high wind-zone, and not use things that won't take that.

[Lawrence]

Thank you

[Lawrence]

thank you