Replacing trim on ranch along with vinyl siding install?

Hi,

I am in the research phase of replacing all the windows in my ranch style house and removing the lap siding and replacing with vinyl siding. One of the reasons I am going to use vinyl is the low maintenance involved with it. Now some of the trim on the house is not in the best of shape and will need to be replaced and some just scraped,sanded and repainted. Ideally I would like the entire house to be low maintenance. I am glad I will not have to deal with painting the soffits anymore and that vinyl/aluminum fascia covers are available but what about the trim that runs up the gable side of the house. How about the doors and garage door for example? Is composite or fiber-cement trim a not too costly option? Do they make vinyl pieces for the other trim on the house. For the windows I am considering just using a wider vinyl trim piece instead of wood trim to look better than just using j-channel there. I will be doing all the work myself. Really appreciate your input.

thanks,

Mark

Mark, welcome to House Repair Talk. You can "wrap" the trim boards on the gable edge, trim around window and doors, garage doors with trim coil. It comes in a 50' roll, various colors and comes painted or PVC coated. To fabricate this you will need a metal "break" that makes bends in the trim coil and yellow, red and green snips. If you don't know what you use red, yellow and green snips for it's probably not a DIY project.

Since coil stock to do the job is almost $100.00 a roll now, and going up agin next month, a break to bend it cost about $1700.00, (yes you can rent one but the learning curve will kill you on time and materials,) tin snips I guess would cut it but a real siding person would use special snips with longer handls, then your going to need several differant seam tools at $58,00 a pop, and by the questions your asking, I'd strongly suggest hiring this one out. Every year we have at least 2 or 3 jobs to remove all the DIY siding and have to redo the whole job.
I've never seen a DIY cut or tab over the trim around a window or doors right, it's nailed to tight, not nailed in the middle of the oval holes, cut to long or to short, run in the wrong direction. ECT.
If the plan is to leave the old wooden siding in place all the window trim and sills will need to be built out before they get wrapped, Z moulding added over the windows and doors, Fan fold foam installed over all the wallls.
This is a one shot deal, done wrong and all the seams show, it buckels, or unlocks, wood rot starts behind the siding from leaks.

oldog/newtrick, joecaption,

Thanks fellas for the input. As far as the DIY aspect, I hear where you are coming from as far as those jobs being screwed up by your average homeowner. I fall into the minority of DIYers who actually take pride in their work and want as professional a job as possible to come out of it. I had remodeled my kitchen amongst other things, demolished it down to the studs and rebuilt the entire thing myself (literally), electrical, plumbing, gas, heating, lighting, flooring, walls, appliances, everything except the Silestone countertops, fully passing inspection. Took me 3 years to complete because I am meticulous, wanted to do it right. I usually spend several months educating myself before I even order materials or pick up a tool for any project. Off my soapbox now.

That being said, I will be ripping off the old siding first as I think that will produce the best results. joecaption, I hear you on the cost/learning curve thing. Based on the learning curve you are talking about I do not want to get that involved with it. I will probably avoid that aspect of it or maybe hire out that part of it. Though I would still be interested in hearing if anyone has used/heard about other materials for trim work like fiber cement or composite materials as I am leaning more that way anyhow.

thanks,

Mark