Vinyl Wrap

[Byron Trantham]

Anyone out there familiar with vinyl wrapping of existing wood trim and sofets on houses? I heard that after its done, if a leak occurs it caused rot worse than before the wrapping. My house is 17 years old with aluminum siding which is still in pretty good shape but the wood corners and sofets are rotting. I was told that they could be wrapped with vinyl to stop the rot.

[James Corey]

You aren't considering wrapping them with out replacing them first, are you? They are rotting because they are staying wet, but wrapping wet rotting wood doesn't sound good to me.

You should find our why they are staying wet, there might be other damage from that source that you haven't discovered yet.

[Ray Bersch]

Byron, I just noticed your post or I would have answered sooner. If you have not painted your corner boards for a long time you can expect the wood to be punky. It is very likely that the wood was not primed on all sides before installation, so that adds another issue and this particularly comes into play with aluminum siding - that type of siding needs little maintenance so the trim gets little maintenance also, even though it needs regular scraping, painting and caulking. You will find rot near the cut ends, especially near the ground where it will suffer from constant rain splashing.

If the wood is mostly solid, you can cover it - just remember you are covering marginal wood. But if that is what you want to do then I suggest you cut out the rotted areas - it is not likely that the wood is rotten for its entire length and if it is, then you need to find out why before you cover it. Anyway, cut out the bad stuff, seal the seams, caulk the edges, prime and then cover with vinyl - it will last a lot longer than simply covering with vinyl.

Ray