Install Vinyl Siding on a Garage

Learning how to install vinyl siding on your garage can be very simple if you pay attention to the tips and instructions below.

Option: Prior to installing vinyl siding on the garage you may want to install a rodent guard on the bottom of the wall sheathing. This is typically aluminum cladding that is bent at 90 degrees Vinyl Siding Tulsa and runs up the sheathing a few inches. The lip wraps around the sheathing (OSB, plywood, or foam) and butts against the footing or foundation.

Now that you have selected vinyl for siding you must realize that vinyl siding is a cladding only, and the building requires a water resistive covering. (also called barrier or envelope). Tar paper was a common barrier until about the 1980's when advances in technology produced improved barriers. The most common is Tyvek by Dupont.

Tyvek is available at most building centres and it is sold in rolls that are 9.5' long. One roll is usually enough to cover one and two car garages. It is applied directly to your framing sheathing (OSB, plywood, or foam) using a stapler (hammer tacker, construction stapler, or siding nails). One person can install the Tyvek, but it is much easier with two people. Start at one end of the garage and hold the roll of Tyvek vertical against the garage and roll it out as you fasten it to the walls.

After the garage is covered you can cut out the windows and doors and use a sheathing tape (i.e. Tuck Tape) to seal the tuck tape to the windows and doors trim. This will provide a continuous barrier against water.

Now it is time to make your starting lines. Starter strips are used on the lowest point of the siding and they allow the first row of siding to snap, or lock, into it. They are available in metal and vinyl and they prevent the bottom row of siding from flopping about in the wind. Using a level and a chalk line snap a line that identifies the location of the top of the nail flange on the starter strip.

This is line is usually snapped one or two inches above the bottom of the rodent guard. Snap the line around the entire garage to make certain that you end up at the same elevation on the last wall. If thefoundation has different elevations then vinyl J-trim will be used rather than the starter strip unless you get lucky and the new elevation works for a full sheet of siding (if the siding has to be trimmed for the new elevation the fastening clip is remove. An option to help hold the bottom of trimmed siding into the J-trim is to install vinyl undersill in the J-trim and fasten the siding into the undersill.).