There are two dead giveaways that a house is sided in vinyl: J channel and the vertical butt laps at panel ends. With creative trim planning and windows with integral channels, you can eliminate most of the J channel, leaving just the panel laps to deal with. Now, even those visual defects may be a thing of the past on all but the largest homes. Over the past few years, several companies have introduced superlong panels to their standard 12-ft. and 16-ft. offerings. These panels are over 25 ft. long and available in some siding lines made by Mastic, Royal Building Products, Alside, and Napco. They are put in place like standard and long panels, but when installing in cold weather, you should be extra careful to leave a full 1/2-in. gap at the ends for expansion and make sure you’re nailing in the center of the hem slots. Other than that, you’ll definitely want two sets of hands when hanging these monsters. The superlong panels cost 15% to 20% more per square than regular panels.
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