Vinyl siding

[Tony Pacc]

I have white vinyl siding that's about 20yrs old,but still looks pretty good except for some shiny spots that are visible when you look at angle,is there anything I can do to make them less visible? Thanks

[dadiOH]

Sandpaper?

[xrongor]

put some plants in the places where you see the shiny spots so nobody can stand there and look at the house.

randy

[meirman]

In alt.home.repair on Sat, 26 Feb 2005 14:31:58 -0700 "xrongor" posted:

If the spots are on the second floor, put trees there.

Meirman

-- If emailing, please let me know whether or not you are posting the same letter. Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

[Gideon]

I would begin by phoning one or more vinyl siding manufacturers and presenting your question to them. They are the experts.

I would also try to determine what the real problem is - the fact that some of the siding is shiny or the fact that the rest of the siding is dull? You could consider restoring the sheen to all of your siding using a powerwasher or using one of the commercially available products for washing vinyl siding. Once again, the manufacturers should be able to advise you.

If you decide that you need to degloss parts of the siding and none of the manufacturers have any good advice, then here's what I would suggest:

1) Get some scraps of vinyl siding. You can get plenty of small pieces if you can locate a vinyl siding job in your area and politely ask for some waste pieces from the scrap pile. Please respect the contractor, his workers and his job site - don't disrupt a job site without asking.

2) Experiment on those pieces with a variety of common chemicals around your house - isopropyl alcohol, denatured ethanol, methanol, various painter thinners, fuel oil/kerosene, charcoal lighter fluid, WD-40, soap & water, house-hold cleaners, gasoline, etc. I'd prefer to wipe on an extremely light coat and I'd try to remove the solvent as soon as possible. From my past experience with any sort of chemical deglosser on any surface - the deglossing occurs almost instantly and any additional time can contribute to degrading the surface. Observe results a day or two later.

3) Note that you may need to use a brush if you are attempting to degloss the depressions in the siding as well as the high spots (I assume that your siding has a simulated wood texture.) Obviously, most abrasive methods such as sandpaper are going to leave the depression areas still glossy.

4) Try the safest successful solvent on one spot on your siding and observe the results a day or two later. If your happy, then take care of the other areas.

Coming up with you own method to degloss the siding could be tedious. Some chemicals won't degloss. Other chemicals are capable of removing the plasticizers from your vinyl siding. The gradual loss of plasticizers in vinyl siding and in asphalt roofing shingles is the major reason that these items eventually turn brittle. Obviously you don't want to accelerate this process on your vinyl siding. Also, many chemical are capable of etching the vinyl - you don't want to eat through the siding or reduce its thickness.

I emphasize again - I'd attempt to research this a lot before attempting to come up with my own method of fixing the problem. There is little need to reinvent the wheel.

Good luck, Gideon