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Do I have to use J-Channel where siding meets the deck board?

sscott0203 | Posted in General Discussion on October 7, 2013 12:40pm

Do I have to use j channel where the siding meets the deck boards? If so, what’s its purpose?  Are there any other options? 

Thanks

 

Reply

Replies

  1. florida | Oct 07, 2013 04:53pm | #1

    No, I think the J channel looks terrible and it catches dirt and water..

  2. calvin | Oct 07, 2013 05:23pm | #2

    ss

    It looks like you have the deck boards up to and perhaps over the vinyl, is that the case?

    Did you build a free standing deck and so there is no ledger fastened to the house frame?

    thanks.

  3. DanH | Oct 07, 2013 08:25pm | #3

    Maybe you can show a picture of the near end in the second shot, so we can get an end-on view of the relationship between the deck and the siding.

  4. sscott0203 | Oct 08, 2013 05:13pm | #4

    It's an attached deck and the siding is just trimmed to right above the flashing of the ledger board. I get mixed answers some say its a must others say it's not. I want it to look good and not be an eye sore, so I don't know what to use

    1. calvin | Oct 08, 2013 05:39pm | #5

      If the flashing is good, any water let through should drain out and over the ledger.  Hopefully the edge of the decking floats rather than is nailed through the flashing below.

      From this angle in the picture, it looks fine to me.  I guess the only concern would be if it's flimsy along a cut edge of the siding.  If you placed a scrap of the bottom factory edge of siding behind it-it shouldn't flex too much and allow gunk to collect there over time.

      J would just hold water and debris.

    2. DanH | Oct 08, 2013 06:54pm | #6

      Yeah, the only real worry would be that there's nothing backing up the bottom edge of the siding (if it's been cut short), making it susceptable to toe kicks.  J-channel would do relatively little good, and would just collect trash.

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