We recently purchased a wonderful old (1914) house that has been beautifully restored – on the inside. The outside is now our project. It is covered with 45-year-old aluminum siding that is sorely in need of paint. Or something. My wife is in favor of tearing it off & recovering it in vinyl, but somehow I’m not sure that’s the answer. In an ideal world I’d like to tear it off & paint the wood siding that’s underneath, but I’m not prepared for the maintenance issues that would entail. And I’m afraid that the contractors all those years ago probably ripped off the window caps & anything else that protruded beyond the plane of the wall. I’m impressed with the heaviness of that old aluminum siding, and am inclined to paint it, but if I do that, I’m going to want to somehow fix the window trim – they “jumped” the window casings with the siding. I am mulling over how to do that. I’m thinking that I could cut the siding at the appropriate spot around the window to expose the casing, re-affix j-channel in the new spot, then trim out the window with Trex or a similar material (which admittedly would need painting, but I hope would hold paint better – or longer – than wood). In this way, I think I could re-create the detail around each window – and even bring it forward a bit to more closely simulate the original relationship of siding/casing.

My question is – What would you do?

1.) Recover with vinyl – probably the most expensive option, but we could wrap the window casings to achieve a more appropriate look.

2.) Leave the existing aluminum, try to achieve an authentic look (as described above) and paint it. (Is there a better material for this than Trex?) This is probably the fussiest option (not a problem for me,) but I think one that could almost exactly reproduce the look of the original casings if I can work out some of the details – like maybe fastening the j-channel to the side of the Trex trim, etc. I’m certainly interested in your thoughts on this option – first, on its feasibility, and second, on techniques to use.

3.) Something I haven’t thought of yet!

Thanks for any advice you can offer . . .