How to Install Aluminum Siding

The use of aluminum as house siding began after World War II. Since then, people have preferred to use aluminum siding over other types of house siding on account of its several advantages. The surface of the aluminum siding is often coated with enamel, which enables the aluminum siding to obtain various different looks including an artificial wood surface. The weather plays a vital role when installing aluminum siding. Summer and spring are the best seasons for carrying out this project. Even before you start the work, you should check out the weather forecast as well. An unexpected rain for a few days will make the task difficult for you. Before you know how to install aluminum siding, let us find out the advantages of aluminum siding.

Advantages of Aluminum Siding
Aluminum siding is fireproof as well as waterproof. Aluminum siding can last for several decades and does not require much maintenance. It gives rise to some problems like scratches and minor dents that can be cured by sanding or repainting the surface. It does not get rusted like steel siding. A very important function of siding is to provide protection to your house from the outside weather. Due to the aluminum siding, the exterior wall of your house does not come in direct contact with the moisture of rain and snow and thus, the resultant damage of the interior walls is prevented. In absence of moisture, in both the outer walls as well as inner walls, make them free from any kind of infestation of molds or harmful bacteria. These kinds of problems are difficult as well as expensive to cure. The cost of aluminum siding is much less as compared to other house siding like brick stone and wood siding. It provides more effective insulation to your house as compared to vinyl siding. As it is a good insulator of heat, it will assist your furnace or air conditioner to work at its maximum efficiency throughout the year.

Aluminum Siding Installation - Preparation
Usually, the manufacturers provide an instruction manual, when you buy the aluminum siding. If you read the manual carefully, the installation work will be quite easy for you. You require some simple aluminum siding tools like attachment strips, hammer, handsaw for cutting the sheets of siding, nails, utility knife and a ladder to reach out to the higher areas of the wall. To get an impressive finish, you have to prepare the wall properly. Clean the walls to remove the dirt and debris like old paint, putty or caulking. If you find any nails on the walls, they should be hammered inside. Any small or big depression should be filled up with wedges.

Aluminum Siding Installation - Underlayment
For installation of the aluminum siding, the backing surface has to be even. For this purpose, an underlayment has to be installed before you fix the aluminum siding. Foam board is considered the best underlayment for aluminum siding. Start the installation work from one wall and once you are done with it only then move on to the next one. During installation, each of the sheets should be kept in a straight line. Any two adjacent sheets of aluminum siding should overlap at least two inches with each other.

Aluminum Siding Installation - Fastening the Aluminum Sheets
After placing the sheets of the siding on the wall, you have to fix them. The sheets have factory made holes on them where you have to put the nails and hammer them in to fix the siding on the wall. You have to use only aluminum nails for this work or else the siding may get damaged. Take care not to fix up the aluminum siding very tightly, as the siding may get bent due to temperature expansion and contraction. On every wall, a gap of three-fourth inches need to be kept to fix up the corner caps. When the installation of aluminum work is finished, you have to fit the corner caps on each corner of the wall. Slide the rims of the corner caps under the edges of the panels of aluminum siding and then fix them up with nails so that the sheets are joined together.

Hope, you find the process of how to install aluminum siding easy. Now, you can paint aluminum with any color of your choice and make it look attractive. Once you have installed the aluminum siding, you are free from any kind of maintenance of the external wall of your house. All you need to do is to clean up the siding once every year and paint it once in maybe 5 or 6 years.