Vinyl Siding Questions


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Old 05-02-07, 05:19 PM
J
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Vinyl Siding Questions

Looking to side my house this summer and have a few questions. Currently have hardboard lap siding on it with some strange kind of sheathing underneath, I'll do my best to explain it.

It looks like a fiber type material black in color and literally crumbles if you touch it.

How can I install over this as I planned to remove the lapboard siding. No way can this support a nail much less siding. Will I need to remove this and basically resheath the house or is there somthing else I can do?
 
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Old 05-02-07, 06:14 PM
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It is probably what we call tar board and was used as an insulator. I would remove all of it, start over with 1/2" foam insulation, then the vinyl.
 
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Old 05-02-07, 06:53 PM
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The asphalt impregnated sheathing (around here we call it blackjack) will get destroyed if you aren't careful. When you tear off the old siding, you should start at the top and work down, prying on the existing layers of siding (below) as you pull out the nails on the row of siding above. If nails remain, orient the prybar along the stud as you pry- otherwise the prybar will bust right through the sheathing, which would be bad- you don't want to be making a bunch of holes in it. With some care you will be able to remove the old siding and pull all the nails without too much damage.

IMO, that sheathing is fine. It's not as convenient for nailing as shiplap or plywood would be, but you can work with it. Since your windows and doors are all installed on of it, you really don't want to remove it. Like chandler mentioned, you could always add something on top of it, like a layer of foam, if you wanted to increase the R-value.

If you wanted to add building paper, that's a wise option that will help protect the sheathing from future water damage that will result from water infiltration, which is a given with vinyl siding.

Before you add the building paper, you would be wise to mark the location of all the studs on your soffit and across the bottom (below the siding). That way, once the building paper is on, you can chalk vertical lines to show you where the studs are. Then when you apply the vinyl siding, all you have to do is nail into the studs. It's very common to run into this situation, because you have to nail into studs with other types of sheathing such as rigid foam or gypsum sheathing, which also do not hold nails by themselves.
 
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Old 05-02-07, 07:17 PM
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This stuff crumbles in your hand just by touching it so it would get pretty well destroyed removing the siding I imagine.

I was thinking I would have to resheath it all with something like chipboard. I had planned on adding some value of foam board anyways.

So leave it, remove it, foam board, or building paper no matter what I will have to attach the vinyl to studs right?
 
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Old 05-02-07, 08:04 PM
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If you sheath the entire house with OSB (recommended) and then add a layer of insulation foam, hitting the studs isn't absolutely necessary, although preferred. It gives you the error proof installation taking into consideration of the difference in lengths you will probably have in your siding.
 
 

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