| In
This Article:
Old wood clapboard siding is
ripped off, thrown into a trailer, and hauled away. |
Related
Articles:
|
| Skill Level:
2-3 (Basic to Intermediate) |
Time Taken:
A Couple Of Days |
By
Bruce W. Maki,
Editor
Before siding can be replaced, the old siding needs to be
removed, sometimes.
I have seen many cases of contractors installing vinyl siding
over old wood siding. I guess it's standard procedure in the siding
business, but I don't prefer it.
In addition to replacing the old wood siding, one of our goals
was to add more insulation to the exterior walls. With the price of
energy these days I think it's irresponsible to replace siding
without making an effort to add a significant amount of insulation.
I often see houses where a contractor nails on a thin sheet of foam
fan-fold insulation before hanging the vinyl siding, but that
insulation has an R-value of about 0.25. The purpose of that thin
stuff is to provide a smoother substrate for the vinyl siding.
We had many reasons for removing the old siding, which will
become apparent in the articles that follow.
 |
The 1907 farm house near the beginning of
the siding replacement project. |
|
A Top-Down Approach:
| We set up a pair of heavy-duty 28 foot
extension ladders against the side of the house. From
these ladders we could reach any point on the gable
ends. The highest points of these gables are about 25
feet above the ground.
We salvaged some of those wavy boards, so we could
trace the shape and cut new boards from fiber-cement
siding. |
 |
|
 |
The careful method for removing siding:
- Jam a small pry-bar under a piece of siding.
- Pull carefully, to loosen the board.
- Repeat at several places nearby.
- Slide reciprocating saw blade under board and cut
the nails. This makes the board looser, and once
this process is started it usually gets easier to
pry the board and cut the nails
|
|
| Often a window casing board can be removed
by simply prying it away from the house and cutting the
nails with a reciprocating saw. |
 |
|
Of course you're supposed to use a metal-cutting blade to cut
nails. Wood-cutting blades may cut nails for a while but they will
dull quickly.
 |
We removed the siding down to a point just
above the ladders.
For most of this work we just used pry bars to rip
the siding off, with no regard to whether the boards got
cracked or broken. We have tried to re-use old wood
siding but we have concluded that it just is not worth
the effort unless there is something special about the
old boards. |
|
| At this point we lowered the ladders so we
could remove the siding on each side of the window |
 |
|
 |
The Secret Weapon For Demolition:
We parked a small utility trailer next to the house.
By using a trailer dolly we could easily place the
trailer right against the building. The trailer dolly is
the black thing at the front of the trailer, with the
small wheels and the handle.
We simply ripped siding boards off the house and
dropped them into the trailer. Of course some boards
would bounce out, but with a little cleanup we could
haul away the debris with minimal effort. I avoid
handling junk more than once. |
|
To avoid getting a flat tire, we used a rolling magnetic nail
picker to pick the nails off the ground before moving the
trailer.
| In less than a day we had stripped this
gable-end section of the house. This section is almost
16 feet wide and about 23 feet tall. |
 |
|
 |
One small problem was the electric meter.
What you CANNOT do is cut the little metal lock to reach
inside and remove the mounting screws. Only the power
company can remove the lock.
I simply used a reciprocating saw with a long
metal-cutting blade to reach behind the meter and snip
the mounting screws. I suppose there is a risk that the
cut screw head could fall and short out some live
electrical parts... but the most likely result is that
the screw head simply falls to the bottom of the metal
enclosure. |
|
However, it's important to fasten the meter or surrounding
conduit to the wall. We used a few conduit clamps to temporarily
hold the pipe secure to the wood sheathing.
Warning:
While there should be no exposed live wires anywhere
near an electric meter, there often are bare live
wires at the weatherhead, which is the top of
the conduit that supplies the electric meter. Near the
weatherhead there is usually a connection between the
wires that feed the meter and the wires that run from
the utility pole to the house. These connectors are
typically wrapped in insulating tape, but I have seen
MANY older homes where that tape has fallen off,
exposing live wiring. These bare wires are not a problem
unless someone touches them. Be careful when
working around service entrance wiring. Using an
aluminum ladder around wiring is NOT recommended,
because it will conduct electricity.
Between the utility lines and the main panel there is
no circuit breaker or ground fault interrupter to
stop the power if you were to accidentally short two
wires together, so the sparks are dramatic. |
|
| This is the north face during the
replacement of the siding, a couple of weeks later.
After this picture was taken we removed the
"gingerbread" at the top of the gable. After
some repair and restoration work we will replace it. |
 |
|
| We removed the frieze board and bed
molding. This was kinda tricky because these boards were
about 11 feet long.
Our original plan was to strip the paint from these
pieces of wood and re-use them, but later we re-thought
that idea. |
 |
|
Ladders:
We used a pair of 28 foot Type 1A aluminum ladders,
which were quite expensive (about $300 each). The
ability to safely reach all parts of the the wall is
crucial. These heavy-duty ladders are very stiff and
stable, so they don't flex wildly while you climb them.
Some Type III ladders (consumer grade) are so flexible
that I get nervous climbing them, and I climb ladders
often.
|
|
|
Tools
Used:
- Pry Bars
- Basic Carpentry Tools
- Reciprocating Saw
- Utility Trailer
- Ladders
|
Materials Used:
|
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