Vinyl Siding in Connecticut

Standard or insulated

Standard vinyl is a hollow panel hung over the wall. Insulated vinyl has a rigid foam backer shaped to fit behind each panel. The foam makes the panel stiffer, so the wall looks flatter and resists dents better, and it adds a layer of insulation over the studs, where the wall loses the most heat. On an older Connecticut house with little or no insulation in the walls, insulated vinyl is worth pricing.

Panel thickness matters too. Thicker panels hold their shape better across a long wall and stand up to hail and lawn-mower stones; thinner panels show every bump in the wall behind them.

Why vinyl has to hang loose

This is the single most important thing about vinyl siding, and the most common mistake. Vinyl expands in the heat and contracts in the cold, much more than wood. A Connecticut wall can see a summer afternoon in the nineties and a January night below zero, and the siding has to move through that range freely.

So vinyl is hung, not nailed down. Each nail goes in the centre of a slot, not at the end of it, and is left with a small gap under the head so the panel can slide. Panels are cut short of the corner and window trim to leave room to grow. A wall that was nailed tight looks perfect the day it goes up, then ripples and bows the first time the weather swings. Connecticut’s code requires vinyl siding to be installed to the manufacturer’s instructions (IRC R703.11), and those instructions are built around that movement.

Wind

Vinyl panels carry a wind rating, and Connecticut’s design wind speeds run from 115 to 129 mph depending on the town, highest along the shore. Siding on a shoreline house, or on an exposed hilltop, needs panels and a nailing schedule rated for it. See building on the Connecticut shoreline and our town pages for each town’s figure.

Window reflection

A newer problem: energy-efficient low-e windows on a neighbouring house, or on your own, can concentrate sunlight onto a patch of vinyl siding and distort it. If you see a warped area that appeared on a sunny wall facing big windows, that is a likely cause. It is worth knowing before choosing a very dark colour on a wall that faces glass.

Colour

Vinyl colour runs through the material, so a scratch does not show a different colour underneath, but all vinyl fades somewhat with sun over the years, darker colours more than light ones. Manufacturers make heat-resistant formulations for darker shades. If you might need to replace a section in ten years, a colour the manufacturer is likely to keep making is easier to match.

What goes behind the siding

Siding is the first layer against rain, not the only one. Behind it the code requires a water-resistive barrier over the sheathing (IRC R703.2), and flashing around windows and doors so water that gets behind the siding is sent back out (R703.4). A re-siding job is the one chance in decades to fix both. Rotted sheathing found when the old siding comes off is replaced before anything goes back on.

Older houses: lead, permits and historic districts

On a house built before 1978, taking off painted siding comes under the EPA’s lead renovation rule unless testing shows no lead paint. A full re-siding needs a building permit in Connecticut; repairs limited to 25 percent of the siding in a calendar year do not. In a local historic district, visible siding changes need a certificate of appropriateness first. Our siding guides cover all three, town by town.

Common questions about vinyl siding