Repair Hail Damage Vinyl Siding

Repair minor holes quickly and easily with vinyl caulk.

Repair hail damage vinyl siding.

Use a zip tool image 1 to unlock the siding from the surrounding pieces image 2. While your homeowners insurance replaces siding damage from specific types of losses it only covers the parts of your home that are damaged which can be a bigger deal than. Repair hail damage on your home siding. Vinyl siding is fairly resilient but stray baseballs or chunks of hail can leave behind holes dents and cracks.

But hail storm damage to vinyl siding may be difficult to detect without knowing what to look for. Insurance companies often need to differentiate between mechanical damage and hail damage and homeowners need to be familiar with the evidence of hail related damage. Subscribe to this old house. Repairing small sections of vinyl siding can be an expensive proposition if you have a repair.

To make it a little bit easier to check out you can spray the siding with a hose. Vinyl siding is the most fragile of all siding materials and can melt in intense heat or become brittle in cold weather. Introduction to repairing vinyl siding. Start at the bottom of the piece that is being replaced and insert a wooden shim between the pieces of siding as the zip tool slides along the siding.

There are several ways to repair damaged vinyl siding depending on the extent of the damage. Indicators of hail damage include holes in vinyl siding or dents in aluminum siding two of the most common materials used on the exterior of homes. Look for any buckling or warping which is common in vinyl siding that has been damaged. The water on the siding will reflect any damage that is present.

Allow it to completely dry then use a razor scraper to cut the excess caulk flush with the outside of the siding. When cold vinyl is especially prone to impact damage such as cracking or breaking apart. Another way to spot hail damage is to look for chipped paint. Squirt a generous dollop of exterior caulking that matches the color of the siding into the hole.

Aluminum hail damage tends to be easier to spot but any material can show chipped paint spots from hail. Buckled and warped siding is significantly less. With high winds small hail can be detrimental to siding. For instance if the vinyl or metal siding of your home experiences wind damage or tornado damage finding replacement siding that s an exact match can be difficult.

Repeat the procedure for the top of the damaged siding. Hail storms can damage your roof gutters vents and air conditioner units. Often the damage occurs to one side of a home s exterior leaving homeowners with the problem of matching replacement siding to the color and material of existing siding.