*
With no maintenance the goal, but an aversion to J-channel, we decided to use vinyl corners with integral channel on our new vinyl sided house. What we didn’t realize was the material comes in 10 foot lengths and the cantilevered upper story outer corners are about 11 feet high. The installer just overlapped material for the top two feet–and boy does it look tacky. Any thoughts on a different corner treatment that could be installed without ripping all the siding off three walls?
Certainteed makes a wider corner that comes in 20 foot lengths, but the siding would have to be cut back and installation would be a bear–unless the siding comes off, too. And when it was done the width wouldn’t match the rest of the corners on the house.
Would it be possible to run self-adhesive building film around the corner and under the siding and then install either vinyl board or cedar that’s been routed to retain the siding?
Or is there another manufacturer that makes the initial product in a longer length? Any other ideas for maintaining functionality and improving appearance of these corners without breaking my already strained budget?
Peggy
Replies
*
Dear Peggy,
Tacky. Yes.
You are also correct when you say that all the siding panels would have to cut back to accept the wider corners.
The siding can be quickly and easily cut with a reversed fine toothed circular saw. It can also be cut with a fine toothed hand saw. Or even snips.
There are a few tricks to nailing the new corners in with existing siding, but nothing that would take much more than an hour per corner.
Yes, that will cost you a few hundred dollars to hire it done. But if you're hating the way your house looks........
Cordially, Fred
*Peggy, You have a couple of other options but all of them will cost more. 1. Go with the longer wider Certainteed corner, I would pull off all the end pieces butting up to the corner, marking their row height and row location as they are removed. Install your new corner and cut them to fit. Sometimes it's just easier to get in there with both hands and go after it than to snip around, believe me, tried and true. 2. Build the corner out of 1x or 2x depending on standoff preference and wrap it with coil stock. The only problem here is finding someone with a 12'6" metal brake. 3. We normally use the 10' corners and overlap what ever is left. If it is a small piece left at the top, like 6" or less you could always cut the corner back to 9' and then finish out with a longer piece. I cut away the nailing flange and j channel part of the corner leaving the face to overlap by 1". I've never had any complaints on this method.RU
*I would consider this nitpicking. When we splice corners they are nearly invisible. I always tell people "its vinyl, if you want it to look like wood, buy wood."I you are going to the expense of changing out the corners, you might want to look at some of the three piece corners, which allow for a more architecturally correct look. But it will still look like vinyl.A wrapped aluminum corner may look better, but will be prone to dinging, and possibly oil canning, regardless of how professionally it is installed.Tom
*Peggy, Can I suggest you consider the simplest possible fix first? Vinyl siding pleases or disappoints depending on how carefully the installer considers the angle from which it's going to be viewed. Can't these corners just be re-installed with the overlap joint near the bottom of the corners rather than two feet from the top? As it is, you're looking up at the raw bottom edge of the short overlapping corner piece. If you put the short piece on first at the bottom and then install the ten-foot main piece from there up to the top, I think you might achieve an acceptable appearance with much less trouble than recutting scores of siding pieces to accept a new (and admittedly better) corner system. You might even be able to use shrubs to hide the joint altogether. Good luck.
*John,I think she's referring to the upper story of the house, would have to be tall shrubs, eh?If it's that high up, probably not going to be as noticeable after the job is done than when you're actually looking for it now.Not a vinyl guy,MD
*Thanks for the good thoughts, John. These are second story corners on a cantilever over a patio/entertaining area. So the shadow of the overlap is very visible. Your idea of shrubs is novel and while that's not an option at this location, maybe climbing vines would work! My builder's suggesting caulking the gap to minimize the appearance. And the architect suggested having a custom solid vinyl extrusion made to the size and shape of the current corner piece.I appreciate your time.Peggy
*Thanks for your thoughts. This installation might be less visible-- and more acceptable--if it weren't at the top of a second story that cantilevers over a patio entertaining area. In that location, there's a pronounced gap and shadow line at the bottom of the overlap and a guaranteed audience. My builder's suggesting caulking the gap to minimize the appearance as a low-cost trial fix. And the architect suggested having a custom solid vinyl extrusion made to the size and shape of the current corner piece. Or I could take off from John's suggestion and plant a climbing vine!I appreciate your time, Tommy B.Peggy
*I hope you're right about less visibility later--but this faces and cantilevers over a patio area, so it's pretty public. But if we get desperate, I might take a tip from John's suggestion and plant a climbing vine!Thanks for your time, MD.Peggy
*Thanks much for the good advice, Richard. I think your #3 is what our installer did. It's just the location, high up over a patio/entertaining area, that emphasizes the gap between the two pieces and makes it very visible to guests. Suggestion #1 may be our best option.(Today the architect suggested having a custom vinyl extrusion made in the shape of the current corner piece-probably pretty costly. And the site supervisor suggested we try caulking the gap to minimize the appearance of the shadow line for a low-cost fix.) I appreciate your time and thoughts.Peggy
*Thanks for not beating up on someone who actually CHOSE vinyl siding. I appreciate your practical advice on installation of the wider corner stock. Your time estimate is less than I anticipated so this looks like a real solution to the problem.I appreciate your help!Peggy
*Overlap the corner oppositely ( is that even a word?).Overlap upwards instead of down. Negates the watershedding theory but vinyl isnt waterproof anyways.
*Well, never let it be said I know to shut up when I've already embarrassed myself. I apologize, Peggy, for missing the clearly-described fact that this is a second-story problem. Let me try to redeem myself with yet another unlikely fix.If the 20-foot Certainteed corners aren't too much wider than what you already have on the house, any chance you could cut away the the L-shaped flange that functions as the J-channel, leaving just the corner with a simple fold at each side you could (maybe) wrap around the existing corner? IF this were possible, you'd want to remove the upper, overlapped pieces, cut them to a butt-joint length (rather than overlap), and reinstall them before installing what would be, in effect, a veneer corner. Again, if the widths aren't to different, you could do this on the other corners of the house so they'd all match. On the other hand, the climbing vine idea wouldn't be so bad, considering that a vinyl-sided house would just logically deserve plastic ivy...no waiting! That's not an insult, Peggy; I happen to like the vinyl siding on my house just fine.John