Siding Contractor Westland, MI | Family-Owned, No Subcontractors | (734) 224-5646

Why cracked siding in Westland lets water reach the wall

If you can see a split or a loose panel on your Westland house, water is probably getting behind it every time it rains. Vinyl siding is a shell that sheds most water, but a crack lets the rest run straight onto the boards underneath. Those boards are called sheathing, the layer that the panels hang on and that holds the wall together.

Wet sheathing does not dry out quickly behind closed panels, so it stays damp and slowly softens. Many Westland homes are ranches and split levels from the 1950s to the 1970s, so the walls behind your siding may have been taking weather for decades. A crack you ignore for a few seasons can turn into a soft patch you cannot see from the yard.

What we check before new panels go on

You should not pay for new siding laid over a wet wall, because the rot keeps spreading under fresh panels. Our own crew pulls off the damaged vinyl and presses on the sheathing, looking for soft spots, dark stains and boards that crumble.

Where the wood is sound, it stays. Where it has gone bad, we cut out the rotted section and fix it before any new material touches the wall. We do not use subcontractors, so the same people who find the damage are the people who repair it. Siding often meets the roofline, so we also check whether the home needs roof repair in Westland while we are up there.

Patching a few panels or doing the whole house

Not every cracked panel means new siding all the way around, and we will tell you straight which case you have. If the damage is on one wall, we can replace those panels and match the profile and color as closely as current products allow. If the siding is brittle or faded everywhere, a full replacement is the better use of your money.

Trim, corner posts and the soffit and fascia under the eaves are part of the same wall system, so we look at them during the visit. Siding, roof and gutters can also be one project, with the order of work planned so one stage does not damage another. See our full siding service for what we install, or look at how we handle siding in Livonia.

Siding Questions From Westland Homeowners