Vinyl siding expansion noisy. When the clouds break my siding expands making quite a bit of noise detectable from the inside of the house. My siding guy went out of his way to assure everything was nailed loose and now I am questioning whether this was such a great idea. Could not having housewrap behind it be the cause? A little more than half the builders in my area do not use housewrap.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Few people understand it. Nobody agrees what it is, how to learn about it, or who's responsible for it. It has never been more important
Featured Video
How to Install Cable Rail Around Wood-Post CornersHighlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
When you say "no housewrap" do you mean me tyvek or typar or similar, but instead he is using felt or something? Do you mean that the vinyl is installed directly on the sheathing with out a barrier of any type? Where are you? What sort of climate?
As far as I know, vinyl on sheathing will ALWAYS create problems much larger than background noise.
Hey willie, ive installed a mile or two of vinyl including my own new house. Just yesterday, I listened to the siding sing to me on the sunny side. Not much you can do
Your house and my MIL's house should get together for a concert. Her siding thumps in the wind. Maybe they could get a good beat going.
OK. This is going to sound weird.
Have a friend locally who is sort of a handyman. Does lots of work. Most of the work he does is without the benefit of training research or previous experience. At some level what he does works and he gets paid.
The sheet steel roof for a porch was a good example. He learned about acceptable sag and just how far you can stretch a 2x4 before it develops a noticeable belly. The 2x4s are 6' OC at just under 12'. I realize that, this being Florida, that there is no snow load and that water doesn't stack very high if there is any slope but this roof kind of smiles at you. I'm sure he will do better on the next one. He usually learns a bit each time and some types of jobs he has developed, almost completely without guidance, effective designs and practices.
His first vinyl siding job looked odd. It had an unintended oceanic motif. He failed to keep the siding straight and it waves at you noticeably. Still the HO, poor folks living in a trailer, seem happy enough that the wind and rain don't come in. The second job was better. A quite a bit straighter and the trim detail was a better job. The problem is that the HO complained about the siding making noise as the sunlight hit it. He went out and using one of those handy "J" tools unhooked almost every length of siding .
Then he did the weird thing. He went to the truck and got a can of silicon spray and sprayed each nail. He then, again using the tool rehooked the siding and drove off. I know him because he lives close to me and , due to a nasty shock, he is afraid of electricity and so he calls me when he has electrical problems.
The kicker is that the HO, a week later, said he has no more problems with the siding making noise. Is silicon spray the answer? It kind of has a logic to it. The noise comes about, excluding any wind noise, when the stuff expands and binds. Eventually the force of expansion overcomes the strength of the binding and "twang" the siding moves. Could silicon lubricate the nail slot enough to prevent the siding from binding and allow it to more silently slide?
OK. The guy is a hack. A hack that is slowly improving but a hack. Has the hack. Operating out of blissful ignorance found a solution?
This is common with vinyl siding not much you can do. If you are questioning the siding nailed loose is a good idea or not don't . you would have big problems if it were nailed tight. Sounds like you have a pretty good siding guy and the noise is a small price to pay not having to paint anymore!
Woodoc