Lessons in Vinyl
So I installed a boat rack last week. It required I cut the vinyl siding on my garage and lag bolt the rack pieces into the studs.
Never worked with vinyl before how hard could it be? Made some cuts, leveled some stuff and screwed it down. Voila!
Not so fast.
Now there’s gaps between the rack pieces and the vinyl siding.
Gaps where wind, rain, and dirt can get in and deteriorate my siding.
Hmmm. That’s not so bad. I’ll just trim them out like the windows and doors.
Voila!
Hmmmm. Here’s where the lessons start. It didn’t take long (if you don’t count the time I spent last weekend or all the days in between) to realize the proper way to work with vinyl is to trim any objects (like windows and boat racks) before you install any of the vinyl runs. I could fight enough to get the side peices in, but there’s no way I’m getting the top piece in while the rack or siding is in place. One of them is going to have to come off.
Second quick lesson – working with vinyl in the cold sucks. Older vinyl becomes brittle in the cold. It hurts your fingers and cracks easily. Last weekend it was sunny and warm. The vinyl was pliable and easy like butter. Today is was a nasty bitch.
Third lesson (not exactly a vinyl lesson) – my racks have the ability to and need to flip up.
Without the trim around the rack, they’re barely able to accomplish this. If I trim out the bottom, the flipping will be impossible.
What to do?
I could:
- mount a spacer under the rack to set it out from the wall and trim so the arm flips like it’s supposed to. This would obviously require longer lag bolts.
- forget about it. I’ll trim the top (somehow) and sides, then silicone what I can at the bottom and leave it be.
I’ll take option #2. At a later date, when it’s warmer.
The trim really only makes your cuts look square anyway. I don’t really see how it protects the underside from the weather. There’s all kinds of gaps between it and the object you’re trimming, but maybe that’s just the objects with which I’m working. I could see how a window frame would fit slightly more snug than my rubber wrapped aluminum brackets.
So that was it. I did the sides of only one rack arm (there are four) and gave up for the day.
The other task I set out to do, but also punted was securing the canoes. I had this whole stainless steel eye bolt chain plan set up, but couldn’t really do anything as long as I have to take all the siding off again. Still needing to secure the canoes, I went to the hardware store for some chain in hopes of just chaining them together would be enough for now.
In reality the whole chain thing is a farce. There are more than enough hand tools out there to cut chains and run off with whatever you want. Like the hardware store guy said, “You’re only trying to keep the honest folks honest”- like they’d ever steal anyway.
I bought 22′ of 5/16″ (I think) chain and went home.
That will do for now. Handling just one of those boats is pain enough. Now if you really want them, you’ll have to take both and I say have at it.
– b