DIY Repair Hail Damage
We had three raging hail storms this summer: large marble size, golf ball size and tennis ball size. The wind was fierce. It damaged our roof, broke windows, and broke holes in our vinyl siding. Although we have home insurance, it would not cover everything. We saved big money by doing research and taking the DIY approach to some repairs. Professionals repaired the roof and installed the new windows, but we repaired the vinyl siding. Some day we will replace all the siding.
The holes seemed small, but there were more than two dozen of them of various sizes. They needed covered soon to prevent water damage to the house. We did research and decided on Mendyl Vinyl Siding Repair Kit. It comes with complete instructions, is easy to apply, will take extreme cold to minus 40 below zero Fahrenheit to plus 130 degrees Fahrenheit. The application was simple, finding a paint to match our exact siding was not so simple.
The kit cost around $50, but it was much cheaper than replacing all the siding. Our home looked new before the storms. Home Depot and probably some other home improvement stores can match paint with a photo from the phone or a piece of the material. The phone photo app did not work for us. My husband cut about an inch off an over lapping section, because we did not have any extra vinyl siding to take to the store.
We wiped around each hole with rubbing alcohol on a rag and applied the repair tape. It comes in 10 sheets with a grid on the back to cut the right size for each hole. We over lapped as much as we could to be sure the repair patch was more than covered to give it a sure grip on the house. Here you see the pieces of patches. We did this to all the sides of the house. Then we painted each patch.
The paint went on very easily. We over lapped onto the siding some what and the color was a little lighter than the house, at first. The patches were pressed and even took on the little designs in the siding to help them blend on well.
Here you can see the lighter small patches if you look closely. This was about a half hour after we painted them on this side.
After that day, you could not see the patches at all! This is the same side as the photo above with the lighter patches painted. The paint blended in perfectly with our home. It looks new again.
This is not meant to be a permanent repair, we intend to replace the siding after we move our home to our recently purchased land. It will protect our home and prevent moisture damage.
It has been cold, snowing and raining and all the patches are still holding like they are not even there. This would also work on a frame home vinyl siding repair to buy some time and protect the walls until the damaged siding can be replaced. If we can do this, anyone can!
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Thank you for sharing this information. I had a small nick near the bottom of my garage. I tried a kit that someone gave me (now I know why they didn't like it, lol). My repair looked great at first, but with a week the color darkened significantly and the repair tape started bubbling. I finally went out and removed it and filled the hole with chalking...NOT something I recommend at all, but at least the chalking sealed the hole and is actually less visible than the repair kit was. Your kit turned out awesome! Nice job :?
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thank you, if you ever need it MENDyl Vinyl is great!
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I had holes in my siding from the lawn mower. A contractor showed me a great fix. I had some leftover siding that I had put away. I cut a piece of siding longer than the hole and long enough so it didn't "stand out" as too short. I cut the top of the siding off so it was flat Then I took silicone caulk and ran a "bead" around the back of the cut piece, pressed it in place, matching the cut edge to the top of the siding that is there, sliding it under the bottom edge of the piece above the patch you are putting on. Go back a couple of times to press the patch down, and let it dry. You can't see any of my patches and they have been on as long as 6 years. I cover the new holes each year. If you are afraid it won't hold, liquid nails can also be used. It will seal also. Five minutes a hole and you don't have to buy a kit. Also....most siding places will give you scraps to match, or you can buy one strip. It goes a long way.
Good luck!
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I am glad you had some scraps, but we had NO left over vinyl or we would have fixed ours similar to yours. Also, we were told we could not get any siding to match at all. Even the estimation reps who WANTED the job to replace the damaged sides could not get any to match (our insurance company would not pay for all 4 sides when only 2 were damaged so it would not have matched, no thank you). This is for folks with no vinyl siding, or anyone wanting a quick repair until a permanent one can be done.
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Though we all have insurance, it doesn't cover everything. Have you replaced the siding?
Our house also was damaged by the storm. Fortunately, most of the things that needed to be repaired were covered by the insurance. I'm so happy that did thorough research and read the American International Group reviews before choosing an insurance company. I'm sorry you had to do the most part of the repair by yourself and pay for it. What insurance company did you use and what did it cover?