DIY Home Siding Repair

The look of exterior siding is usually what makes or breaks the overall attractiveness (not to mention resale value) of a home. There are many siding options available in new construction, but when purchasing a previously occupied home, the new owner is often times stuck dealing with the effects of time and weather on the original siding. Most home purchasers don’t have it in their budget to completely re-side a home; repair is usually the only viable option.

Sarah over at www.uglyducklinghouse.com has the good sense to know when she can tackle a DIY project, and when its scope exceeds her DIY ability. When Sarah moved into her Atlanta, Georgia house, she knew she had her work cut out for her bringing her fixer-upper up to neighborhood standards. She undertook a number of repair issues herself, sometimes with help, often alone.

She did stopgap repairs on some of the siding issues within arm’s reach from the ground; toiled away on the interior of her home; fixed some window frame wood rot and did repairs to her garage siding with caulk and paint. But when it came to the siding on the upper floors of her home, she realized she needed siding experts with the proper equipment and experience who could perform permanent repair work and not the stopgap measures she done on other problem areas.

As Sarah sagely says in her blog, being a homeowner means that she always has more time than money to devote to necessary repair work; siding issues languished for many months as a result of those budget constraints as well as need for more urgent repairs elsewhere in the house.

She used the necessary delay productively however, performing her due diligence with the help of a website called Homeadvisor.com, a free online service. The website offers varied services, hosts lots of reviews and a handy cost calculator that made her estimates more reliable and which helped her zero in on the best repair provider. The great folks at the website even vetted some of them for her when she got no initial bids on the work she needed done.

As a result she was able to find a local company with years of experience in her local area, who not only kept to her original budget, but did so in spite of finding and fixing problems Sarah didn’t even know she had in other siding areas on the house exterior as well as in the gutters on her roof!

Sometimes the better part of homeowner DIYer valor is knowing exactly when to call in the professionals like Sarah did. For a highly entertaining look at Sarah’s process and progress check out her blog at:
http://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/repair-replacement-and-exterior-siding-updates/

For more information on wood siding care and maintenance see our wood siding guides


REVIEWED AND FACT-CHECKED BY JAMIE SANDFORD

Jamie Sandford - Owner and Lead Editor at RenoCompareJamie Sandford is the Chief Editor at RenoCompare (find out more). Jamie has been involved in construction for over 30 years. Straight out of college, Jamie worked with construction crews for the television, film and theatre industries for over 12 years. In his thirties, he turned his attention to DIY decorating and construction, working on many house renovations and remodels. During this time he started to specialize in home flooring and in 2013 he launched the Home Flooring Pros website. Two years later he launched RenoCompare.

“I’ve seen interior design, remodeling, and construction from both sides of the street, contractors on one side and homeowners on the other. My aim is to close the gap between the professionals and the consumers and make it easier for both sides to work smoothly and effectively side by side. At RenoCompare we want to save you time and money by giving you the information you need as simply and as quickly as possible!”

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