Aluminum Siding Help - Odd Situation

firemike

Hey all!

Got an interesting situation with aluminum siding. A friend of mine bought a house a year and a half ago, the gable end of the garage (large) is done in aluminum siding. After a storm a couple weeks ago, he called me to look at the siding on the gable, the bottom piece blew off and the second one up is bent.

I checked it out, and found that there is no starter strip at all. The just nailed the hem of the first row of siding to the sheathing just above the top of the brick that is on the lower portion of the garage, and let the siding overhang the brick and used caulk to secure the bottom edge. WTF???

The problem is that during a remodel (before he bought it) they installed a 3 piece built-up dentil and crown molding with corbels under the eaves/soffit and over the aluminum siding, it overlaps the siding by a good 6" or so, making removing the siding impossible without removing all the trim and corbels first.

The garage is 30 feet deep, and the siding alone is 14 feet high to the peak, meaning there would be a lot of siding to take off just to install a starter strip, not to mention all the corbels and 3 layers of built-up trim boards.

Is there anything available (clips or something) that can fasten the bottom of the first course without having to remove everything and starting over? I know it would be a piece of cake with vinyl but I don't think I can get the aluminum to flex as much to pull it and hook it over a starter strip.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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-Mike-

neolitic

Aluminum scrap prices are way up!

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(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

easy sider

This should be an insurance job to replace the entire wall. If not and you find some matching siding, the siding can be reinstalled the same way it was installed before. Use better caulk to hold the bottom down like buytal rubber. Match the nail holes on the new siding to where the old siding was so you can relock the siding on a course above. On the locking course slightly bend the nail hem top lock outward just a bit. Bend the bottom lock slightly outward on the pannel still on the wall. After nailing push the panels together to relock and then use a tapping block to bend the bottom lock back up if need be.