Reattaching vinyl siding

I've got a piece of vinyl that keeps coming off my house and I can't seem to get it to stay on. I get it back in place, but then it keeps coming out whenever the wind blows wit any force. The upper piece doesn't seem to want to hook in the lower piece and stay. They don't engage far enough (i.e. the lower piece is to high so the higher piece can't stay under the lip). When I look under the siding I can see that it was stapled in. But the piece can't float any lower because the staples are preventing it. Is just removing the staple and replacing with a snail a valid solution here? I'm trying to figure out the best way to get this to stay put. Thanks!

Loose Piece


Staple

 

What are you using to lock it in place?
Should be using on of these.
https://www.zoro.com/malco-siding-re...Q&gclsrc=aw.ds
#1, Never should have been stapled, 1-1/4 galv. roofing nails only.
Likely was never fully locked in place before stapling.
Remove all the staples in that piece, lock it back fully in place and this time nail it every 16" making sure to hit the middle of the hole and do not nail it tight!
You should find the new nails end up be slightly higher then the old staples.

 

Hi Matt,
Keeping everything locked together is a matter of uniform spacing, bottom to top, when installed. My concern with adjusting one where you are is that it will just transfer the problem to another row.

My first approach would be to measure and sight from the side to see if i could see where they went wrong. If you can find the error then remove what is needed to make the correction and reinstall.

As a note, cold weather is a poor time to be playing with vinyl. 60° and above is much better.

Removing and reinstalling vinyl is fairly easy. They make a tool, but some tips for using it will help.

Bud

 

So I did what you suggested and to me looks like the end of bottom piece is actually a bit higher than where it should be. It's had to be 100% certain though since it's 10' up in the air. It's sitting right in the area of the sill plate between the first and second floors. I also checked the piece that abuts the bottom piece and I am able to pull the adjacent piece off with ease where the middle of the piece overlap and should interlock a little bit. I'm including a picture below. It took very little force.

 

Oh and it is above 60 here in Cleveland today. Should be back down to 40 tomorrow and snow by Wednesday unfortunately.

 

JoeCaption, of course it shouldn't have been stapled, but this is a newer home and we all know how much they like to cut corners to save some time.

I'm not using anything to lock it in place. It slides right up in and there isn't much in the way of anything to curl over.

 

Wow, I didn't check the temps out there. Hopefully some of that makes its way up here.

You have the right idea. If the installer pulled one area up too tight I would make it hard for the next row to fully engage. A pain to remove a large area but I've had to do it going around windows to get the rows to match over the top. Wasn't paying attention.

When pulling rows apart, even with the tool, one tip is to squish the upper row to make it extend lower while pushing up behind the lip below. If no tool, a 4" spackle knife will work. Two people even better, the third hand pulls the top piece away from the bottom. With the tool you can rotate it to do the same and then catch it with the hook on the end.

Bud

 

Funny you should mention going around a window. The bottom piece actually goes over the top of a window a bit further down.

 

Not what you want to hear but may all have to come off and be reinstalled if it's that bad to get all the rows to lock.
If one rows off all the rows above it are likely to be off.

 

Oh don't say that. That's not a job for me. I have to pay for that.

 

If you can't get it to stay and need to wait for spring for a bigger project, use some thin double sided carpet tape under the end just out of sight. That should hold it until spring and you should be able to get it apart when you resume.

Bud

 

Why, this is a DIY 101 job, know how to use a hammer and a flat bar?

 

It's more the fact that I have about a 30' height on that part of the house. It's the gabled end.

Oh and BTW, the piece is actually one above the the piece that's right on the window.

 

So the one that went over the window might be a little higher than it should have been. Solve the puzzle and you are there.

Bud

 

Yeah I was wondering what to use to hold it given the Temps are still going to go well below 0

 

Any chance you could post a link to the type of tape you're suggesting? I don't want to use stuff that will mess up the siding.

 

It is a pretty common tape. I searched for double sided carpet tape, as I got mine from a friend who owns a carpet business, but saw several that were for sealing seams with heat, not what we want. But just searching for double sided tape shows many. Mine is not a foam, just a white vinyl material which holds well but pulls off in one piece. Looks something like this, but the ad does not say how thick. hyStik 2 in. x 11 yds. Carpet Paper Double Sided Tape-890-2 - The Home Depot

But any good hardware store should carry something.

Bud

 

If you have a troublesome piece that wants to come loose repeatedly, you would use a few dots of 100% silicone in the interlock. And you would use the Malco Sideswiper tool that joe linked to in his initial reply. You cannot properly hook it up without it.