Vinyl siding is an attractive, low-maintenance option for the siding you use to cover your home. It comes in a myriad of different colors, as well as different appearances including shingles and boards. Unfortunately, while it never requires painting and is fairly easy to clean, the boards themselves are very thin and fairly brittle with low compression strength. This means that while they can bend, an impact may cause a hole or a crack. If this occurs, it can allow moisture behind the siding around your home, and detract from the curb appeal of your property. Make sure you understand the options available to you in vinyl siding repair to ensure you make the right choice for your home.

Patching Small Holes

If the holes in your siding are fairly small – about the size of a nail head or a little larger, you can repair them yourself without having to replace the entire board. All you need is a putty knife and some exterior-grade caulk in a color that matches the rest of the siding.

Squeeze some of the caulk into the hole and smooth the surface down so it is level with the rest of the board. When it dries, it should fill the hole completely and be fairly unobtrusive unless looked at close up.

Repairing Larger Damage

There are a few different issues that can affect your vinyl siding. Depending on how well it was installed, some rows may unhook from their snap-lock system and fall down. Boards may be cracked or broken by things like hail stones, high winds, and impact from things like a well-hit baseball as well. When this happens, the board in question usually has to be replaced in order to repair the vinyl siding.

The good news is that individual boards can be replaced no matter where they are on the home. You do not have to have all your vinyl siding replaced just because you have a few broken boards. A special tool called a zip tool is used to free the bottom of each board from where it snaps into the board below or where it snaps to the house. Depending on which type of vinyl siding you have, your boards may snap at one of a few different places. The zip tool is designed to unlock them from one another so that you can get the damaged board free.

Once the zip tool has unlocked the siding, a pry bar is used to pull the nails free from the damaged board and remove it. The new vinyl siding can be cut to fit, snapped, and nailed back into place on the wall to repair the damage.

So unless the damage that you have is extremely widespread, you can generally expect a vinyl siding repair to go fairly quickly and easily.

Matching Color Lots

The biggest problem with vinyl siding repair isn’t with the repair itself; it’s with the replacement boards. Unless you happened to purchase some extra siding when you had it installed and left this extra in your garage for future use, you may not get a perfect match on the new boards. This is because dye lots can vary, particularly with vinyl siding. Therefore your new board may be a hair lighter or darker than the other boards, and may make the repair obvious. The best way to avoid this is to keep some extra on hand in case of future repairs so you can ensure your siding repair matches.

Get Your Vinyl Siding Repaired

Vinyl siding repair is so fast and easy there’s no excuse for living with broken, cracked, or damaged siding. Have your siding repaired as soon as you notice a problem and take care of your house.