Siding Replacement: What to do with the old Siding - Aluminum, Plywood and Stucco

What to do with the old siding

Now you´re faced with the question of what to do with the siding you already have on your house. Well, I´m glad to tell you that there are only two choices, remove it, or leave it. My recommendation almost all the time is to remove the old siding.

Asbestos shingles

There are cases when that is not the best method, such as with Asbestos shingles. It´s best not to disturb them because of the dust that is created when they are broken.

Aluminum siding

If you are replacing aluminum siding with vinyl siding, you have to remove the old. Uneven surfaces will prevent a good installation. Also consider how much additional window and door treatment you´ll have to do because of the increase in thickness if you leave the old siding intact.

Plywood

If you have plywood like T1-11, that is another instance where you might just as well leave it in place, provided there are no rotting sheets.

Stucco

I also wouldn´t remove Stucco, as that would make more work then you could imagine. In fact, if your house already has Stucco, you should consider having a good contractor put a new layer over top of it. It is possible to side over top of Stucco, but you´re going to be doing a lot of drilling and installing a lot of furring strips. Again, this can be done, and can be done right, but it will be time consuming.

Get the old siding off

To get the old siding off, you basically need a prybar of some sort and a hammer. A pair of dikes or Vice-Grips is also a good item to carry. With few exceptions, you´re just going to be ripping the siding off. It´s rough work and messy. One popular treatment was sheets of ´fuzz board´ with some type of shingle siding on top of it. This ´fuzz board´ gets it´s name from what it looks like after you try to pry against it with your pry bar. You will poke holes right through it and you will see lots of little hair-like fuzzy pieces. If you discover this type of sheathing on your house, use a 1 x 4 as a fulcrum to pry against.

I highly recommend you get a dumpster dropped off at the house before you start work and carry the siding over to the dumpster as you pull it off. If you just pull it off and leave it laying on the ground you have to walk all over it and it likely is very hazardous with nails and sharp edges.

If you can get a couple of friends to help, you might try having two pull the siding off and one going back and forth making trips to the dumpster with siding that is pulled off by the other two. If you´re really good, you can have this done while you´re sitting on your front porch drinking lemonade.

In this process you will also have to remove lights, downspouts, shutters, etc… basically anything that is mounted to the old siding. I prefer getting everything ripped off and in the trash so it is a safe work environment and conducive to rapid installation of the new siding.

Before you start slapping siding up, let's take a look at possible insulation.