How to Fix Loose Vinyl Siding

Unlike other types of siding, vinyl is designed to be installed loosely. But if it's too loose, it can be noisy and at risk of being blown off the house. Get repair tips.

LESLIE: Carolyn from Ohio is on the line and has a noisy neighbor. I mean her siding is being noisy. What’s going on?

CAROLYN: The siding is just noisy. The second floor. You can hear it when you walk through the bedrooms. You can hear the siding.

TOM: It’s vinyl siding?

CAROLYN: It is.

TOM: So, vinyl siding is not supposed to be nailed securely to a home; it’s supposed to be nailed loosely. That’s why, if you look at a piece of vinyl siding, it doesn’t have holes in it; it has slots. And it has to be nailed loosely because the siding is designed to expand and contract when it’s exposed to the sunshine. It has a pretty high expansion-and-contraction rate, as a matter of fact.

I haven’t really heard anyone complaining about noise from it but I do think it would make sense that if you were in a windy area, perhaps you might hear some of that. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good solution for you because you cannot tighten it up. If you do, you’re going to start getting buckled areas. And if you start driving around neighborhoods that have vinyl siding in the summer, have you ever seen a house that’s just got all this sort of wavy siding on it? That’s what happened: it went on too tight and it buckled.

So, if it’s moving, it’s put on correctly. One way to check is to take a piece and just put your hand on it and just try to slide it back and forth. The boards actually should slide if they’re installed properly.

CAROLYN: OK. I’ve had people out to look at it, to fix it. And they say that that – it’s OK. Because I always worry that it’s flying – it’s going to fly off the house or

TOM: Yeah. No, don’t worry about that because, like I said, it’s supposed to be loose.

CAROLYN: OK, OK. Thank you.

TOM: Alright. Good luck, Carolyn. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.