Caring for Your Vinyl Siding

Keeping our home's exterior in great condition is one of the great prides of being a homeowner. As time progresses, the physical appearance of our homes starts to deteriorate, but good maintenance habits and damage control will keep our homes appealing.


Care of your vinyl siding is an easy step you can take to keep your home beautiful. Some important tips to remember are:

- Wash it annually. Keeping it clean on a regular basis will keep you from scrubbing it harder when it becomes caked with dirt.
- Be careful with it. Keep lawnmowers, bicycles and lawn care items away from the siding so it doesn't crack or break.
- Keep hot things away from it. Grills, smokers, and patio torches can produce heat that can melt or warp your vinyl siding.

Cleaning vinyl siding is a snap with the right tools. If your siding isn't caked with dirt, mildew, or other foreign material, spraying it with a hose can wash away the dirt and grime that has accumulated throughout the year. If you need a cleaning solvent, some ordinary dish soap or laundry detergent mixed with water will do the trick. Where there are troubled areas, such as mildew, a mild solution of 1 quart of bleach, 1 gallon of water and a small amount of detergent. Scrub the areas with a soft-bristled, long-handled brush. You can also do this with Oxygen Bleach, which is a Green Product.

If scrubbing with a soft brush is going to be too much work, you can wash your siding with a power washer, which can be rented at your local home improvement store or other equipment rental business. If washing with a power washer, be careful not to spray into the seams of overlapping siding. This could cause moisture to get under the siding, causing mildew growth. Also, always spray from top to bottom, away from seams.

Try to avoid using bleach on the shutters. They fade extremely fast when bleach is used to clean them. This causes a horizontal streaking fade pattern on the shutters, as seen on many homes in our community. One resident had extreme fading on their shutters, and discovered an easy resolution to remedy the fading. It was ArmorAll, applied with a soft cloth. The shutters have now regained their luster, and look sparkling new! You can see the difference in the picture here.


If you have damaged or broken siding, shutters or other external finishing pieces, you can contact Lowcountry Renovations for repair. Their number is 851-1111. If you wish to do the repair yourself, you can buy the materials directly from our contractor for Bradford Chase at Revere Buiding Products at 745-5444. Their website is http://www.reverebuildingproducts.com/. The siding color palette and design used for our community is located here.