Is there an easy way to take aluminum siding off a house? I need to take a little section off to look underneath there and I am having a hard time. It is nothing like vinyl siding.

Hey jduke,

Is there a specific spot where you need to look, or are you just curious to see what you've got to work with. If where doesn't matter, I would consider taking a piece that is close to your soffit, perhaps a piece that is over a window. Take a razor and score the caulking if any is there. And then be gentle when you masterfully ease it out of place. The bottom of the section has a bit of a lip which laps over the previous piece, and at the top there should be some sort of fastener, usually a loosly tamped nail. Just take your time a try not to bend or puncture it. Keep your hands and tools clean also because the marks will drive you crazy.

Hope this helps,

Louie

Thanks for your reply. I do have a specific spot I need to look at because the wood underneath rotted. This was due to years of neglect (not by me). I wanted to see how far up the rot goes and also to be able to access what I need to replace which is right at the bottom by the foundation. It sounds like it is the same as vinyl siding, right? I didn't know if there was a special tool like there is for vinyl siding.

If there is a special tool for Al siding, I don't know about it. I am not any sort of Al siding pro either though, I'm just citing my own previous, albeit limited, experience. As far as seeing how far up the rot goes: if you wanted to do so without removing a whole heap of siding, perhaps just make (drill) a small hole in underside of the lap and test for rot with an awl or small screwdriver. After you're done then caulk the hole. Of course this should only be done on the lower rows so that the caulked holes aren't eyecatching.

Just my two cents,

Louie

As far as your experience, I have seen a lot of your posts and you seem to have a rpetty good grasp on things. I do trust your reply would be sufficient, however, I'm not sure if I am comfortable with drilling a hole only because every time I do something with this house that should be the right thing to do, it backfires and I end up having to do more work. The people before us lived here 15 years and I am hearing all they did was laid rug on the porch and painted the stairs every year. Instead of fixing the problem in the front of the house where the water from the roof would hit the house, they laid another layer of plywood down. So I think I might try to get 1 more piece of siding off and that should do it. I got quoted 800+ to repair this so I am going to try to do it myself. Thanks again for your help. :)

Is there an easy way to take aluminum siding off of a house? I need to take a little section off to look underneath there and I am having a hard time. It is nothing like vinyl siding.

I think you are right, aluminum is different. I have worked quite a bit with vinyl, but not aluminum. My experience with aluminum trim is that it is often nailed tight. Vinyl expands more and will pucker if it is nailed down tight. Vinyl can be bent and sprung loose from the piece below it. Once you have one piece loose, it is easy to remove all the ones below it. I made my own tool, a simple, flat hook.

I am not sure aluminum will spring back once bent far enough to unhook it. The sellers are responsible for some defects. Check with your lender or the lawyer that handled your closing.

That's good advice labman and I may do that, however, everything is pretty covered when you buy a house in NY. First of all, the inspector puts down that it was an unaccessible area. Second of all, there is a disclosure you are recommended to fill out that states what problems there are with the house that you know of. I am not sure how far that goes with this situation. If they have never disturbed that area and they honestly did not know it was rotted and did not do anything with that area they might be covered. I didn't know until I took the side panel off to the porch which started coming off 1 month after I moved in. I noticed the wood looked a little weak. I was able to rip the pieces off the porch with my hand and that was when I discovered that some of the pieces on the house was rotted. It would be worth looking at the disclosure and see but I highly doubt I am going to get any where. Thanks again.

If what is rotten under there is the original weather board, it may have been rotten when hidden under the aluminum siding. If the aluminum is doing its job of keeping the rain off the underside, it may not be any worse that it has been or a long time, no real problem. If rain or condensation is keeping the area wet and continuing to rot, you have a problem. Do you have a basement or crawl space to examine the sill plate, band joist, and the ends of the other joists? If they are rotten, big trouble. You might also drill into the studs and plate at the bottom of the first story. Again, you do not want to find rot. You could remove the baseboard and drill in that hidden area. Even drilling in the drywall could easily be patched and repainted.

That is a good point. We have a 4 sided roof (hip and ridge?) and recently put gutters on them. When we got real heavy rains this summer the water overflowed in the corner and all the water fell right at that point on the porch. My assessment is that is where all the rain would go and between the rug and the plywood on the porch it would just sit there and soak thorugh. If this has been doing this for years maybe (hopefully) this is what the problem is.? I do have a basement. If the sill plate is the board that lays flat on the foundation then it seems OK. Since it is higher I can't tell and I haven't gotten on a ldder to look yet. I am not sure what a band joist is but if that is what lays on its side like aheader board then, yes, that is rotted. All the other joists oon the ceiling in the basement looks dry. I am not sure about the ends of the joists. I hope I answered all the questions correctly. Please feel free to ask again if it seems like I didn't understand. I am not sure of all the terms and lingo. I think the siding is doing its job but only living there 5 months it is hard to tell what would have been there before they put the siding up. I am only getting ideas from what I see. Thanks for hanging in there with me. You are giving me good ideas to look at and see what I may need to do. One thing the small contractor was going to do was to put a weather proofing sheet under the board before he puts the siding up which I think would be a good idea for me to do I do it myself. Thanks again!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that part of the floor board and the stud on the bottom is rotted also. I thnk that is where you said to check if there is rot. I was able to pull away the weather board so I can pretty much view every thing up to 2 feet from the bottom. After that there is still siding on there.