How To Prepare Your Home for New Siding Installation

How To Prepare Your Home for New Siding Installation
How To Prepare Your Home for New Siding Installation

When you’ve lived somewhere long or have just moved into an older home, the time will come when you’ll need to replace the siding on your house. Whether it’s broken, faded, or simply needs an update, replacing it isn’t a task you can take lightly. You’ll need to do a lot around your home to prepare for this. If you want to carry out a new siding installation soon, read here for some things you’ll need to make sure happen before getting started.

Hire a Siding Company

While this might not have to do with your home directly, the first step will be to find a specialized siding company. This isn’t a home project that you’ll be able to learn and complete on your own as a weekend project. The process of taking down the old siding and putting up the new is a difficult task that requires an entire team of professionals to complete.

Be sure to research the company you hire and check reviews to verify they’re the right fit for the job. Fortunately, if you live in the Chicagoland area, we have teams full of siding contractors ready to work on this project for you. Here at Pro-Home Services, we specialize in all kinds of outdoor work on various parts of houses, such as roofing, doors, and windows. And we’re the best in the area when it comes to siding.

Decide on a Schedule

Once you’ve hired a company to do your siding, it’s time to set up a schedule. Start by figuring out which days they have available and try to line it up with your personal plans. You also need to consider which times you’d like them to start and stop. Whether it’s because you’re concerned about the neighbors or have your own sleep schedule to worry about, you must iron out all these details beforehand. Failure to do so will make other preparations for your home that we’re about to go over much harder to accomplish.

Remove All Outdoor Items

Before the first day of this project arrives, you’ll need to ensure that the exterior is clear of all removable items. This includes things like:

  • Patio furniture
  • Portable fire pits and grills
  • Potted plants
  • Children’s toys
  • Yard equipment
  • Outdoor decorations

If there are large objects in the way that you can’t move, you need to communicate that to the siding company before they begin work. They’ll need to bring proper equipment to work around these items. Some examples of immovable objects that you need to identify to the siding company include:

  • Permanent patio fixtures
  • Air conditioning systems
  • Wall-mounted electrical equipment
  • Trees and bushes

Trim Nearby Foliage

Even though you can’t move trees and bushes that are near your home, you can trim them back before the installation team gets there. They’ll need at least a few feet of clearance to get themselves and the pieces of siding onto the side of your house.

Just be sure not to trim them back too short, or you might accidentally kill them. Talk to an arborist or find tips online for cutting back your foliage. If you can’t remove enough of the trees or bushes, that’s okay. The contractors will still be able to work around them. It just might be a little more challenging and take up more time.

On top of the trees and bushes, though, you’ll also want to cut the grass. Siding installation uses lots of nails and staples. If the grass is too long, the magnets the workers use to find them might not be able to pick them up.

Park Your Cars on the Street

If you park in the driveway, then you’ll obviously want to move your cars. But even if you leave them in the garage, the street will be a better place for them during this project. Not only will the siding contractors have their own vehicles, but they’ll likely have a giant dumpster they’ll need to set up in your driveway. If this blocks your car inside, you won’t be able to access it for the entirety of the project.

However, there are times when street parking isn’t an option in your neighborhood, or you’re worried that your vehicles will be too close to all the work that the team is doing. If that’s the case, it might be best to find a neighbor or close friend who can house your cars for the time being. So long as you have access to your vehicle and it’s out of the way of the workers, you should be fine.

Take Down Items on Interior Walls

One house preparation tip that many people with siding installed never think about is taking down everything inside their home. The process of putting up siding can shake your walls quite a bit. That means that it’s pretty common to have pictures and other wall decorations fall during this project. Even walls not connected to the exterior could vibrate quite a bit, so it’s safer to take everything down beforehand.

If you want to play it extra safe, you should also move any fragile items on higher surfaces down lower. Putting them on lower shelves or into storage will be the best way to ensure that nothing inside your home breaks on you.

Shut Down Exterior Power

Another aspect to consider is the outdoor electrical systems you might have set up. Things like exterior lighting have wiring that runs through the walls. Since the contractors will be nailing straight into these areas, there’s a potential risk of electrocution. Shutting down all your external power is the best way to ensure their safety while they’re working.

Leave the House if Possible

Our final suggestion for preparing your home for a new siding installation is to simply leave the house if possible. Because of all the shaking and noise, being at home during this project will be very annoying. If you have any pets or children, you might find this is too much to handle and that it can possibly even damage their developing ears.

That’s why the scheduling aspect is so vital. If you can plan the installation for when you’re already out of the house, then everything will be perfect. If not, be sure to try to find some things to do throughout the day that will keep you away from all the racket for a while.

How To Prepare Your Home for New Siding Installation

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