Removing vinyl/aluminum siding

[CrestwoodCottage]

3/4 of my house is covered with vinyl siding and 1/4 covered with aluminum. I'm guessing it has been covered with siding when it was sold in 1950, just guessing from the aluminum. The original wood is underneath but I believe someone started replacing the aluminum with vinyl as they did renovations/additions on 3 sides of the house. Has anyone had any luck removing vinyl or aluminum siding and had the wood underneath actually be salvageable? I believe our vinyl is probably nearing the end of it's life but I would love to not have to replace with vinyl again. Knowing that there is wood under the vinyl has been driving me absolutely insane for the last 3 years! I keep telling my husband one day he is going to come home to his crazy wife ripping all the vinyl siding off the house but I'm terrified that the unknown under all that vinyl/aluminum is going to be a nightmare! Anyone had any experience with this?

[Don M]

Removing aluminum & vinyl siding is certainly doable & you might find the original wood is in great shape. The obvious benefit of aluminum or vinyl is reduced maintenance costs especially scraping & painting. Unfortunately what you may also find when removing the siding is rotted wood, damaged window trim or missing soffit corbels etc. Also if windows & doors have been removed or changed during the renos you may have boarded up openings that don't match the original siding so remove the siding at your own risk. If your house has had blown in insulation there maybe many round holes in the original siding that need to be repaired & at the very least many nail holes to be filled once the siding is off. You might try carefully removing some siding from an inconspicuous place to get an idea what you are up against & if it's bad you can replace what you have removed. Good Luck & please keep us posted on your progress!

[SouthernLady]

I am glad you asked this question, CLB. I, too, have a house covered with aluminum siding. A contractor-friend of mine checked it out right before I bought it, told me I was crazy for my long-term plan to take the crap... um, "low-maintenance siding" off to try to restore the original, but said if I went to do it, I could save money by removing it myself and scrapping the aluminum. He couldn't tell me how much I could get obviously, as the price for scrap aluminum fluctuates.

Basically, because of the unknown of what would be once the siding is removed, I have this job on the very last of my project plan list. As I have already stabilized the outside, I am completing the house room by room, and once the interior is done my plan is to start yanking off the siding. I will also most likely end up lowering my plantation-style porch as it was not that way originally. I asked my contractor friend to give me an estimate for the job based on his crew doing it (although I certainly plan to do as much as I can myself which will greatly cut down on the cost), that way I can budget myself X-amount for the project and allow a cushion should a good amount of siding be rotted beyond repair and need replacing. Should I not need the cushion, I will have extra money to go on my kitchen remodel project down the road.

[CrestwoodCottage]

Thanks for the advice and I'm glad someone shares a similar dilemma. I'm hoping mine has been preserved pretty well being covered up for 60+ years but it could also mean that it's been rotting for 60+ years! From reading things on the web I am super paranoid that by not removing it and knowing what is underneath that I am letting my house rot and the possibility of creating a Salisbury steak for termites to munch on!

[phil]

how about drilling a few holes for spot inspections, Gee even if you cut one piece of siding short and then spliced a new bit on to cover it it would tell you something. Maybe start on whatever side is most likely to rot , the sunny side from sun damage and the north side for signs of moss and mold damage? Just plan to patch it after inspection then you can rest better at night.

[CS in Low Hud]

I had multiple layers of siding that I removed. Much of the underlying wood was salvageable (nail-holes to patch, etc). It's dirty work if you do it yourself (as I did). But as others indicate, there is scrap value in the aluminum, so you might be able to defray some of the cost to have someone do it. Here's a few photos of how the process went on my place:





Chris

[CrestwoodCottage]

Phil- that's probably what I'll end up doing. I'm not really the jump in over my head type...If anything I might be able to talk my husband into at least removing the one side of aluminum(northwest) and if the wood is in bad shape we can just replace with vinyl to match the other 3 sides of the house. We just have to decide if it is financially a good move to put money into the exterior.

Chris- Your house looks so much better! I love the color! That is one reason I would like to remove my siding, I'd love to paint the house a different color..I'm ALL white now. My house was originally white with the windows painted black but now I have white vinyl replacement windows(ughh!) so I guess I will change the color of the house and keep the white trim when/if we get to that point.

[Superbeetle]

I have white vinyl and detest it, but I don't know if I will ever have the budget to remove it. The house is nearly 5000 square feet and at least 30 feet to the gable peak, too big for diy. The worst part is that they hacked off the window trim and sills and the corbels when they put it on. At least I have all my other original features.

[fugaziosbourne (WavyGlass)]

When we renovated our kitchen we pulled the aluminium off which has been there since the late 60's and there was a layer of brick asphalt siding which was in decent shape and under that were the original cedar shingles which were way past the point of saving. I was hoping like always, everything would be perfectly preserved(it never is).

CS in Low Hud, your house looks amazing btw.

[Texas_Ranger]

I'd definitely try to tackle it in small steps. One of the blogs I read recently had HORROR stories of a homeowner being harassed and dragged to court for peeling paint when she was busy stripping her original siding down to bare wood. I guess she might have been able to avoid some of that hassle by doing a side at a time rather than tearing all the siding down at once and then stripping a wall at a time.