A building may sometimes seem like a living thing, as it expands and contracts in response to rising and falling temperatures. However, individual building materials react at different rates, complicating the task of an installer. We share tips for allowing for vinyl siding contraction and expansion in today’s post.
The Contraction And Expansion Rates of Vinyl Siding
The molecular structure of vinyl ensures that it expands at a greater rate than more rigid iron and glass. A standard length of vinyl siding may be up to a half-inch shorter, or longer, during a cold snap or a heat wave. If you notice your vinyl siding bulging slightly on a hot day, then your contractor did not allow for expansion.
A vinyl siding manufacturer should indicate their coefficient of linear thermal expansion (CLTE) on their packaging. While this may vary slightly between products, a half-inch difference between summer and winter is sufficient for our purposes. We move on to describing how we allow for vinyl siding contraction and expansion, when installing the product.
Allowing For The ‘Stretch / Shrink’ Factor When Fitting Siding
It is most important to allow for expansion and contraction when installing vinyl siding on any building:
- Your siding may buckle, crack, chip, or break, if you did not allow sufficient spacing at joints.
- You may also hear creaking and rattling noises outside, depending on the time of year.
The only way to avoid these problems is to allow a sufficient horizontal gap between lengths of siding, before attaching them to a building. As a general rule of thumb, a 1/4 inch (6 mil) gap should be sufficient. Although, if your local temperature falls below 40 degrees, you may need to increase the gap to 3/8 inches (9 mil).
Why Vinyl Siding Must Always Be Attached to Studs
We always nail our vinyl siding to studs, so we know it is firmly attached if a storm comes. Allowing siding to float encourages it to warp and buckle, and come away easily in a strong wind. We space our nails 16 inches (40 centimeters) apart, working from the centre, and leave a slight gap between the nail head and the panel.
How Much Does it Cost to Use a Siding Professional?
Valiant Exteriors will cost you more than installing siding yourself, although we pay less than the retail price for the material which helps. Some customers come to us when they need to repair a botched job, because the job was simply not done properly in the first place.
When these customers run the numbers, they find it might have cost less if they used Valiant Exteriors in the first place. The joy of purchasing a cheaper service soon fades, in the light of the frustration of shoddy workmanship.
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