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Vinyl Siding Problems and Repairs: Ripples, Loose Panels, Cracks, Fading, Melting and Matching a Discontinued Colour, With What Each Fix Costs in Ontario
Exterior Finishes
Vinyl Siding Problems: Nearly Every One of Them Is a Panel That Was Not Allowed to Move, a Panel That Was Too Thin, or the Sun
Vinyl siding is a plastic panel that grows about 1/2 in. over its 12 ft length between a January night and a July afternoon, and the whole installation manual is about letting it do that. Nail it tight and it ripples. Cut it to length with no gap and it buckles at the J-channel. Put the thin panel on the driveway wall and it cracks at minus 25 when the shovel hits it. Hang it a foot from the barbecue or across from the neighbour’s new low-E window and it melts. None of those is the siding’s fault, exactly, and all of them are cheap to fix compared with what people are told they cost.
The problems and what caused them
| What you see | What it is | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Ripples or waves along a panel, worse on hot afternoons | Nailed tight. The nail head should sit 1/32 in. off the panel, centred in the slot, every 16 in., so the panel hangs and slides. Driven home, the panel cannot grow, so it bows between the nails. Also: a panel cut too long with no gap at the J-channel, or a dark colour on a south wall doing what dark vinyl does. | Unzip the panel, pull the nails, renail loose. One panel is an hour. A whole wall nailed tight is a wall redone. |
| Loose or blown-off panels, usually at a corner or the top of a wall | The lock at the bottom of the panel was never snapped into the one below, or the lap at the butt joints is under 1 in., or the panels were nailed at the ends instead of the middle so the wind can lift them. On a gable, a panel cut to the slope with no face-nail or utility trim at the top. | Re-hang with the lock engaged and utility trim at the top cut. If panels have gone down the street, new ones at the supplier if the colour still exists. |
| Cracks and holes, mostly near the ground and the driveway | Impact on a cold day. The 0.040 in. builder panel is brittle below about minus 20; the shovel, the puck, the mower stone go through it. A thicker panel takes the same hit. | Zip the panel out, slide a new one in. A hidden-wall donor panel if the colour is gone. |
| Fading and chalking, south and west walls first | Ultraviolet. Dark and bright colours fade first; the old pastels chalk, which is the surface breaking down into powder. Twenty years is a normal life for a colour on a sunny wall. It is not a failure, it is the panel aging in public. | Wash it. Paint it at $3.50 a square foot with a vinyl-safe paint. Or accept it until the re-side. |
| Melted, sagging or glossy-warped panels in one spot | Heat. A barbecue within 2 or 3 ft of the wall. A patio heater. More often now, sunlight bouncing off a neighbour’s low-E window and landing on your wall at 90 C in a strip, which happens, and which is a strange conversation to have over the fence. | Replace the panels, move the barbecue, and for the window, a screen on it or a shrub between; the glass is not going to stop. |
| Gaps at the corners and J-channel in winter | The panel shrank in the cold. If the gap is 1/4 in. in January and closes in July, that is the siding working. If it is 1 in., the panel was cut short. | Nothing, or a new panel cut to length. |
The nailing rule and the 1 in. lap are in the Vinyl Siding Institute manual, which every maker’s warranty points to. An installer who has never read it has still heard of it.
How a panel comes out and goes back
Vinyl siding is the easiest cladding in the world to repair, which is the main thing it has going for it after the price. Each panel hooks over the lock on the panel below and is nailed along its top edge, and the panel above hooks over that. To take one out you need a zip tool, which is a bent piece of steel with a handle that costs less than lunch. Slide it under the bottom of the panel above the damaged one, pull down and along, and the lock unzips. Lift that panel, pull the nails from the damaged one, slide it out. Slide the new one in, nail it loose, zip the panel above back over it. Ten minutes, once you have done one.
That is the repair for a crack, a hole, a melted strip, a loose panel. No siding crew will come out for it, because the minimum job for a siding contractor is $2,500 and one panel is not that. A handyman will, for a service call plus the panel, and if you are able to stand on a ladder you can do it yourself with a video and a dry afternoon above freezing, because cold vinyl cracks when you bend it.
Matching a colour nobody makes any more
The panel on your 2004 house is a colour the manufacturer dropped in 2012, and the one they sell now in the same name is a shade off and the fade has moved yours further. Three ways around it.
Take a donor panel from a wall nobody sees. The back of the garage, behind the shed, the wall under the deck. Pull three panels from there to fix the front, and re-side the donor wall in the closest current colour, where the mismatch is a matter for the raccoons. This is what I do, and it is the only way the front of the house ends up truly matching.
Re-side a whole wall or a whole face. If the damage is on one wall, side the whole wall in the new near-match, corner to corner, so the colour change lands at a corner where the light changes anyway and nobody notices. One wall of 400 sq ft at $9.50 is $3,800, plus tearoff at $2.00, $800, and a $550 bin, $5,150. It is more than one panel and less than the house.
Paint. Vinyl takes paint now, with the right primer or a paint made for it, at $3.50 a square foot for two coats. The one rule is the colour: no darker than the original, because a dark coat on a light panel absorbs heat the panel was not made for and it warps. The paint makers publish a vinyl-safe palette; use it. Painted vinyl is good for 8 to 10 years and then it is painted vinyl again. Exterior painting costs has the rest of the arithmetic.
A faded 1,500 sq ft house, three ways
A 1998 two-storey, 1,500 sq ft of net wall, 10 openings. The south wall is chalky and has ripples from a crew that nailed it tight, the rest is dull but sound. The colour is gone from the catalogue.
Paint the house. 1,500 at $3.50 is $5,250 before HST. The ripples on the south wall stay, because paint does not loosen nails. Looks new for most of a decade.
Re-side the south wall, paint the rest. The south wall is 450 sq ft: new mid vinyl at $9.50 is $4,275, tearoff $900, bin $550, flashing kits on its 4 windows $340, $6,065. Paint the other 1,050 sq ft at $3.50, $3,675. Total $9,740 before HST. The ripples are gone, the colour is close enough at the corners, and the whole thing looks like a house that was looked after.
Re-side the house in mid vinyl. 1,500 at $9.50 is $14,250. Tearoff 1,500 at $2.00 is $3,000, bin $550. The 1998 wall has a sheathing membrane, so no wrap line. Flashing kits on 10 openings, $850. Total $18,650 before HST, $21,075 with. A new wall for 30 years, nailed loose this time, and the chance to add insulation under it while the wall is open, which is the only cheap time.
Which one is right depends on how long you are staying. Three years, paint. Ten, the south wall. Twenty, the house. What is not right is the salesman at the door who looks at the ripples and says there is hidden moisture damage behind them; ripples are nails, not water, and that pitch has its own page.
What a good vinyl installer does, so you can check
- Nails loose: head 1/32 in. off the panel, centred in the slot, every 16 in. You can slide a nailed panel side to side with your hand. If you cannot, it is wrong.
- Gaps for movement: 1/4 in. at every J-channel and corner post in warm weather, 3/8 in. when it goes on below freezing, because it will grow.
- Laps of at least 1 in. at butt joints, staggered so the joints do not line up course to course, and facing away from the street so the shadow hides them.
- Every lock snapped, which you can hear, and utility trim with the panel punched at the top of every wall and under every window so the cut edge is held.
- Flashing and wrap under it like any siding: a sheathing membrane, head flashing at every window, a kick-out where a roof meets a wall. Vinyl is a rain screen with holes in it; the second plane behind it is what keeps the sheathing dry.
- The right thickness on the right wall: 0.044 in. or better where the shovel and the puck live, and the insulated or 0.046 in. panel on the street face if the budget allows.
Questions people ask
Why is my vinyl siding wavy?
It was nailed tight, or cut with no gap at the ends, so it cannot expand in the sun and bows between the nails instead. Dark colours on a south wall make it worse. The fix is to unzip the panels and renail them loose, which is an hour a panel and a day a wall.
Can you replace a single piece of vinyl siding?
Yes, with a zip tool, in about ten minutes once you have done one. The hard part is the colour, if the panel is more than a few years old; take a donor panel from a hidden wall and re-side the hidden wall in the nearest current colour.
Can vinyl siding be painted?
Yes, with a vinyl-safe paint in a colour no darker than the original, at about $3.50 a square foot for two coats. It is good for 8 to 10 years. Going darker makes the panel absorb heat it was not made for, and it warps.
Why did my vinyl siding melt?
A barbecue or patio heater too close, or, more and more, sunlight reflected off a nearby low-E window landing on the wall in a hot strip. Replace the panels and fix the source; a screen on the window or a shrub in the path stops the reflection.
Does wavy siding mean there is water damage behind it?
No. Ripples are nails driven tight or panels cut too long, and they show up on the hot side of the house. Water damage behind siding shows up as soft sheathing, stains inside, or rot at the bottom of the wall, and finding it means taking a panel off and looking, not a sales pitch at the door.
Price the wall or the house
The exterior cladding cost calculator prices one wall or all of them in vinyl at these rates, with the tearoff, flashing and the insulation line if you want to use the open wall. If someone has already handed you a quote for a full re-side because of some ripples, the $99 review will tell you whether the wall needs it or the nails do.
Sources and further reading
- Vinyl Siding Institute: the installation manual every vinyl warranty points to: loose nailing, expansion gaps, laps and the J-channel details.
- Your rights when starting home renovations or repairs: Ontario government: the 10-day cooling-off period on a contract signed at your door, the written contract rule, estimates, and the door-to-door rules.
- Ontario’s Building Code, Section 9.27 Cladding: the first and second planes of protection, sheathing membrane, flashing at openings and transitions, and the clearances from grade and roofs that every siding and stucco job has to meet.
