Metal Wall Panels

Looking around at the different houses on the street and not finding a unique, modern look that satisfies your desire for articulated lines yet is minimalist enough to not be in everyone’s eyes? Perhaps you are looking for Aluminum or Steel Standing Seam Siding. In this article, we will show how such a system is installed, as well as explain its properties and a bit of history.

As you may know, aluminum siding has been very popular about 60 years ago; however, with changing tides in the global commodity market and innovative use of cheaper PVC (vinyl) siding, the use of aluminum and steel as a siding material has declined. Nevertheless, it has reemerged as an element of modern and contemporary design.

Modern metal wall panels such as corrugated metal, standing seam, and metal shingle cladding, provide a unique alternative to the standard options — when desiring something more than the same old vinyl siding or cedar shingles look for the exterior walls of your house. Read to learn more about how to go about installing metal wall panels and what to expect.

Standing Seam Siding — Project Details:

Length between the seams – should be adjusted so that most penetrations would fall between the seams.
Height of the seam – purely aesthetic but should be at least 1” tall.
Wall anchoring – two options nail strip or clips (longer use clips short use nail strip).
Lock type – snap lock or lock in from side, contractor preference.

Paint Finish – KYNAR 500® PVDF or HYLAR 5000® PVDF high quality raisin paint.

Gage – Thickness standard for aluminum siding and roofing is 0.032 to 0.040.

Project: Siding on the back portion of a town house with adjacent units on both sides.

Location: Boston, MA

Substrate: wood siding on top of boards.

Color: Silversmith and mate black window trim.

Type of panel: Nail-strip snap-lock.

Initial Inspection and material order preparation

First thing one should do when installing metal siding is to see if the deck, in our case wood planks, would hold the screws. Make sure that there is no rot or cracked boards (we were lucky as some of the siding was already removed).

Second measure every distance from sides to protruding objects such as windows, pipes, and outlets – try to record how big a penetration would be – to properly select the width of the panels. This step is crucial to having a clean look, flashing around objects is hard enough flashing with a seam in the middle is twice as hard.

Once all the above is done, I used Sketchup by Google, draw a diagram, and come up with a width that will make the least number of cuts necessary to go around windows and penetrations. After the diagram is adjusted for accuracy, the order is sent to the manufacturer.

Removing old siding, fixing deck, and installing underlayment

The main problem here is not to damage the adjacent buildings and the newly installed door. As this was wood siding and the work area was very small, we used crow bars which both less destructive and tests the strength of the boards underneath. As expected, some of the boards were rotten and on top of that the blown in insulation fell out once we removed the rotten boards.

After a quick run to Home Depot, we got some 3/4” plywood and pink insulation, and fixed the troubled areas. When installing standing seam for either roofing or siding applications, the deck should be as straight as possible and should not have any nails sticking out — if they are, sooner or later the aluminum will take the form of anything that’s underneath it.

As with traditional siding choice the wood deck should be covered in underlayment/vapor barrier. Our choice is the synthetic breathable underlayment by GAF called Deck Armor. — It allows moisture to escape but doesn’t allow any water from the outside to penetrate.

Thus, it can help remove (vent out) any excess moisture coming from inside the house, while preserving the wood, insulation, and walls for many years to come. Underlay also acts as a second water barrier. — This treatment makes the side walls watertight.

Underlayment should be installed starting from the bottom, all the way to the top. It can be left exposed for months if the project were to be delayed or interrupted for whatever reason.

Flashing around windows and sides

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