"bubbled" vinyl siding 1

[PSUengineer1]

bubbled vinyl siding.

Siding installed directly over wood siding (furring strips). Siding is backed with styrofoam insulation but no weather-resistive barrier (see attached pics). The siding was painted about three years ago. I have already considered sunlight ray damage from neighbor's windows but all of the evidence leading to that cause just does not add up.

I am considering moisture damage in combination with inadequate attachment of nails (installed too tightly). Any other thoughts?

 

[MikeHalloran]

To my untrained eye, it looks like the siding is buckling where the ends are restrained, so it can't expand axially in the sun.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[hokie66]

Mike may be correct. I have no experience with vinyl siding, and nor would I want to. Why would anyone cover up the handsome timber weatherboards with that tacky stuff?

 

[XR250]

Vinyl siding expansion is usually measured in feet. I agree with Mike and the fact that it is just crappy vinyl siding.

 

[SLTA]

This kind of thing happens a lot on Habitat houses when volunteers don't leave room for thermal expansion. I'd put my money on cutting the lengths too tight and nailing too tight.

 

[bridgebuster]

Take a look here:

http://inspectapedia.com/exterior/Vinyl_Siding_Buckled.htm

 

[ajh1]

I would concur with the nailed too tight concept. It also appears that the pieces were not snapped together vertically very well. The lower edges should not have popped loose the way they appear to have.

 

[dik]

PVC has a high coef of thermal expansion... looks like a restraint problem.

Dik

 

[dik]

BB... your link appears to be an extremely interesting site... will take a gander later when I have more time...

Dik

 

[Screwman1]

The nails used have too small of heads to prevent the siding from pulling over them. In the last photo you can also see in the course two rows up that all of the available expansion space is used up, so the siding has to buckle when it warms up.
Certainly one of the worst installations that I have ever looked at.

 

[SteelPE]

Why would they paint vinyl siding, kind of defeats the purpose.

I find pictures #3, #4 and #5 to be interesting:

#3 and #4 it appears as if the siding has not been "slid" into the J channel. It appears as if the J channel might not be deep enough for this application.

#5 appears to be taken at the end of a piece of siding. Most of the vinyl I have worked with in the past have 1" slots cut out of the bottom corner of each siding piece to allow for thermal expansion. Odd that this siding does not have such a piece.

Do you know the mfr of the siding? Also, are all of the sides of the house like this?

 

[kylesito]

As SteelPE points out, there are several issues. Probably the biggest is that the nails were installed way too tight to allow the siding to slide. I see this all the time.



PE, SE
Eastern United States

"If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death!"
~Code of Hammurabi

 

[IRstuff]

Seems to me that the biggest issue is poor material quality in the siding itself. Potato-chipping is probably indicative of manufactured stresses in the siding itself. I've seen roofing materials that do that, even when properly installed.



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[oldestguy]

Obviously a job done by amateurs and I second the comment "Why any paint?".

 

[ajh1]

In picture 7 it almost looks like the nail head broke off and what we are seeing is only the top of the nail shank.

 

[Compositepro]

I agree with the above comments and want to add that the solvents in the paint will be absorbed by the PVC which will cause it to expand and to soften.