[nwksremodeler]

To make a long story short this siding was installed 6 months ago and is now falling off the house. I WAS NOT the installing contractor and he is not in business any more nor is he able to be sued for the bad installation. It is the pre painted version and he used caulking at all the butt seams and no flashings, along with numerous other common sense best practices that were not used. I will say that I have never installed this product, but have done plenty of research on it. No one knows if the installer was using a pneumatic nailer(siding or framing), or hand driving nails or what, but it appears to me that looking on the back side of the fallen pieces that it is blowed out. Similar to a gun shell piercing something. It is not cracking around the nails it just simply looks to be pulling the nails through. Over driven nails? The other problem that I can see is that the course above the next seam seems to be rolling/flexing out away from the lower course leaving a gap of 3/16" to 3/8". I did talk to JH and the tech said that was all do to improper nailing and his remedy was to face nail every course/every stud. This is also what the home owner would like to have done to keep from loosing more of the siding. It is acceptable to face nail and paint the nails for heavy wind load areas, my question/concern is can a pneumatic nailer be used to do this or does every hole need to be predrilled and nailed tight? I was advised by another contractor that I may end up with a larger problem than I start with resulting in having chipped siding. What is other experiences?? Wasn't wanting to purchase a nailer just for 10SQ of face nailing but it would be the fastest.

 

[duburban]

lordy lordy… the scope of this project is confusing to me. is it just 10 sq feet or a whole building? theres a common saying on here that would serve you well; " you touch it, you own it"

do you want to own an entire bad instal so that you can get paid just enough to clobber on some more nails?

home owners do it your way, or find someone else.

reminds me of another saying from my old saab mechanic talking about brake jobs and resurfacing rotors; "new or screw"

 

[nwksremodeler]

it is 10SQUARE of siding the whole house. The way the JH tech talked it should have been face nailed from the start.

 

[griz]

Might be best to get a JH Field Rep to inspect the job and put the fix in writing...:thumbsup:

 

[Randy Bush]

Seeing more of this problem around here. Really nice when you drive around and see the siding has fallen off on a house. :no: I think I would put LP Smartside on before using FC.

 

[CarpenterSFO]

Might be best to get a JH Field Rep to inspect the job and put the fix in writing...:thumbsup:

Good idea.

 

[Fender]

Sounds like he over drove them or used short roofing nails. It's not rocket surgery installing this stuff, but if you do it right it'll last forever.

 

[Tom Struble]

ringshanks can also tend to blow out the back

 

[nwksremodeler]

Took several pieces off the house to do a bit more research. I found that the original installer did use a siding nailer with ring shank nails. One big problem was that they didn't shoot on the stud but rather randomly. We did face nail a wall with the customer and yard manager on site and it was well documented and decided face nailing is the only way to salvage the job. Obviously the best solution would be to tear it down and reinstall but just didn't seem to be financially possible by the customer

 

[Gaboy]

We use 2 " 16ga finish nails for face nail. All of the butt joints should be faced nailed one inch from bottom an top on both sides as well. Small head on finish gun helps hide the heads not hitting studs bad news. If pressure was to high on compressor it will blow through the siding. Cheap people trying to save money always get bit.
I spend 80% of my time fixing other peoples crap. Sucks don't it.

 

[WBailey1041]

We use 2 " 16ga finish nails for face nail. All of the butt joints should be faced nailed one inch from bottom an top on both sides as well. Small head on finish gun helps hide the heads not hitting studs bad news. If pressure was to high on compressor it will blow through the siding. Cheap people trying to save money always get bit. I spend 80% of my time fixing other peoples crap. Sucks don't it.

Face nailing all the butt joints? I do my best not to face nail lap siding. If you get the lap right and split the studs with the butts it will stay forever. I also prefer 1 3/4 roofing nails. If I must face nail, I use trim nails.

My guess is they missed all the studs and just hit 7/16 osb or cellotex. Got any pictures?

 

[Gaboy]

Face nailing all the butt joints? I do my best not to face nail lap siding. If you get the lap right and split the studs with the butts it will stay forever. I also prefer 1 3/4 roofing nails. If I must face nail, I use trim nails.

My guess is they missed all the studs and just hit 7/16 osb or cellotex. Got any pictures?

I said at the butt joints or when u see a wave in siding it happens need to face nail them then...trim nails are a must usually two guns are on walk board trim gun 16g an a coil nailer... He has to put siding back on house an using a big head nail will ruin the look shiny spots all over...
The van isn't mine it's a GC that has a siding crew... That I work with time to time...