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Discussion Forum

vinyl siding, corner trim

chrisross | Posted in Construction Techniques on February 11, 2005 09:14am

Any thoughts would be appreciated.  Was thinking of installing vinyl siding, 5/4 harditrim corners.  Could I cut out a 3/4″ rabbet to accept the ends of the vinyl?  Thought this would hide the j-channel.  Thanks

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  1. Hubedube | Feb 11, 2005 09:29pm | #1

    There is no need to use a 'J' trim on your corners at all.

    There are various inside and outside corners on the market that are made for this situation. (corners)

     'J' trim has other good uses, but corners is not one one of them.

  2. User avater
    Mongo | Feb 11, 2005 09:34pm | #2

    Rabbett the hardi corners, but not to accept J-channel. Rabbett them to accept the ends of the vinyl claps. It'll be a smaller rabbett.

    1. User avater
      chrisross | Feb 11, 2005 10:02pm | #3

      Thanks, that's what I was thinking.  Rabbet the  Harditrim to trim or cover the ends of the vinyl siding.  Do you think this will look OK and would a table saw be sufficient to do the rabbetting?  Thanks alot for your replies.  Chris

      1. ScottMatson | Feb 11, 2005 10:04pm | #4

        Use a table saw you don't like very much.I would strongly recommend using cedar instead.

      2. User avater
        Mongo | Feb 12, 2005 07:22am | #5

        A tablesaw would work fine...just be aware that hardi, as well as other fibercement products, are tough on blades, and the dust can be tough on motors. I'm sure that's what MadDog is alluding to.

        The blade can be taken care of.  The saw? Depends on the type of tablesaw you have as well as you dust collection, but it can be done as well, especially since we're not talking a huge run of stock.

        To minimize dust and uneccessary blade wear, I wouldn't use a stacked dado set to make the rabbet. Just two runs with a regular blade.

        Prime/paint the cornerboards before you hang them.

        1. ScottMatson | Feb 12, 2005 05:09pm | #6

          Yeah, the dust problem combined with scratching the tablesaw's table. I did a job for a guy who loaned his brand new dewalt table saw to his crew for putting hardi trim on a commercial building he gc'd. They had worn grooves into the aluminum top--so bad that I think the saw is useless now, unless he can get someone to grind the whole top down to plane. The trims I used for windows and doors on a couple jobs were at least 5/4 thick, heavy, and had a lot of little bumps and nubs that would want to scratch and tear into a saw. Maybe screwing down or clamping a thin sheet of plywood on the table's surface would solve that problem, depends how much you'd need to move the fence I guess.

          1. User avater
            Mongo | Feb 12, 2005 10:46pm | #8

            Mad Dog, that's an outstanding contribution to the thread.

            I never even considered damage to the saw table itself, especially with him only having to run a few hundred feet of matrial through, but as you showed, it could happen.

          2. ScottMatson | Feb 13, 2005 04:00pm | #10

            Thanks, but it's run of the mill compared to a lot of what you've typed here in the last 8 years.The dewalt saw incident stuck in my mind for awhile, because at the time, that tool had been on my list to buy, but couldn't afford it. It ticked me off that some guys would trash a brand new thing that I couldn't buy. Kinda like John Hiatt?

          3. User avater
            Mongo | Feb 13, 2005 06:24pm | #12

            Now this is just too bizarre..."Perfectly Good Guitar" is spinning in the player as I write this. Not the specific song...that would have been too close and just a bit too spooky...but the CD.

          4. ScottMatson | Feb 19, 2005 07:51pm | #13

            Been spinning in my head for years. Gotta love it.

  3. User avater
    SteveInCleveland | Feb 12, 2005 05:21pm | #7

    Maybe Azek instead?

    http://www.azek.com/corner.asp

     

     

     

  4. Ronbaby | Feb 12, 2005 11:04pm | #9

    why even bother with the routing? I did a vinly job a few years back. We ripped plywood strips about one inch less than the trim and packed out all corners and windows with them, then applied our trim on top of that hidng the ends of all the vinyl. I looked very clean. good luck

     

  5. toolpouchguy | Feb 13, 2005 06:08pm | #11

    I am building a house now with vinly and wooden corners. first we strapped the corners with 3/4 "strapping added a piece of soffit "j" to the side tucked the siding into the smaller j and clad the top with western red cedar. the j is so you can not see the strapping if you would like to see a pick i will send you a web site it is common practice for us when we use vinly witch is not to often .it has a place but not on walls lol

  6. migraine | Feb 19, 2005 11:08pm | #14

    I did vinyl on our home.  We origionally were going with Hardi Plank, but my shoulders are shot and I can barely lift a gun over my head. The local guys wanted aound  $7,000-$10,00 to do the install of the hardi-plank, plus cost of painting.  This unfortunetly put hardi-plank out of the question.   We used the Natural Clay color with white corners(3/4" chanel) and white soffits.  All the clay colored channel was 1/2" and the soffit j-channel was 3/8". The windows had the j-channel built into the extrusion.   One thing I did was and an addition piece of clay colored j-chanel in side the corners on the sides of the windows.  It make the pocket alittle tighter and hides the transition of the siding into the corner. 

    There are many differnt profiles for vinyl corners.  Some of these have a 1" channel, some have a 3/4" channel(slot).  The same as for the j-channel.  J-channel comes in 3/8", 1/2", and 3/4".  The local lumber yard only carries on of each corner and j-channel, just to keep inventory costs down, and they charge around 30% more than if I went to another distributer.  This was the same for the pricing on Trex

    There are also corners that are available that have a foam fill attached to the corners(pricely)

    We used a Wolverine brand(made by certainteed) that had a nylon hem that can be nailed/stapled tight  to the house and it allows for expansion/contraction.  Wind rated to aroung 165mph(I think) Cost is about $60-70.00 per square.  Our home consisted of 3700 sqft of siding and 1800 sqft of soffit.

    I still wished we could have used fibre cement siding.  But the easier install, and no painting makes me sleep a little easier.

    Good luck on your install

    Also, Senco makes a staple gun with 7/16 crown that you ccan find for $200.  Plus their is a company that sells a attachment for   $13.00around .  Try this place and look at the Senco SNS40.  It is VERY light weight and easily sets the staples and it's oiless.            http://www.juldan.com/juldan.html?tsmw.html

     

  7. migraine | Feb 25, 2005 08:22pm | #15

    Try go to here:           http://www.certainteed.com/NR/rdonlyres/796E2082-C8CA-402E-B24C-6B3DCAC7338D/0/CTS002.pdf

    It's a catalogue of various trims available in vinyl

    Hope this helps

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