Greetings all,

This is my second post on this site.

Our recently purchased home built in 1989 has hardboard (glorified cardboard) siding.

The hardboard is beginning to show telltale signs of the reason why all the hardboard manufacturers went out of the siding business...

A professional siding contractor came to the house and said that insulated vinyl siding could be installed right over the old hardboard. As expected, the estimate was very expensive.

I thought that I could simply remove the siding and install the vinyl myself, except when a buddy of mine who is also a contractor said he wouldn't do that, since there might not be any thing except backer board behind the siding.

I looked and to my surprise, there was indeed no plywood or sheathing; only a piece of rigid blue foam with the hardboard installed over the foam.

So, at this point:

Is it still possible to install the vinyl directly over the old siding even with no plywood or sheathing behind it?

Is this something that is best left to a contractor in it's current state?

Basically from the inside-out the layers are as follows:

Sheetrock
Studs
Interior Insulation
Rigid Blue Foam Board
Hardboard Siding

Any advice appreciated.

 

You can do it either way, but if you remove the hardboard siding, you will only be able to nail to the studs. There may be places you want to nail that will not have a stud, so in those places you might wish you would have left the hardboard siding on.