Installing Vinyl Siding Corners: Learn How to Cut it, and Tackle The Gable Ends
Which Corner is First?
Find the lowest corner and start there
Earlier, in our Basic Steps article, we discussed how to locate the lowest corner of the house. This is where you´ll want to start and where you´ll install your first corner piece.
Cutting to fit
Since this is a Home Improvement site, I am handling all the instructions here from that aspect, assuming your home is already built. Things are done a little differently for new construction. For example, if you were doing an addition, it would be best for you to install Soffit before you start siding. For this series of articles, I am assuming your existing Soffit has either been replaced already, is being left as-is, or might be replaced later.The absolute easiest home to do this to is a ranch-style, single story home with a hip roof. All of your corners will simply be flat at the top and you just have to cut them to length. However, the majority of homes where I come from don´t fall into this category. You´ll have to cut an angle on one end of the corner to make it follow the angle of the rake.
Gable Ends
On gable ends, the best place to start is to get the pitch of the roof, this is covered in detail in the next article. Then transfer this pitch to the corner post as far towards the end as you can. Even if your wall isn´t that tall, you want to have room to redo the cut if things don´t fit right. Now this is assuming you are working on a single story home. If your home is two or more stories, you don´t have to cut the first corner piece at all, you´ll simple put the bottom where it goes and move on. If that´s the case for you, you´ll be stacking the corner pieces on top of each other as you side up the house. Then when you get to the top, you can come back to this section to see how to cut it.In order to give the best detail, for the purpose of this article, I´m going to use a single story home, with gable ends as the example. If you have specific questions about your house, please feel free to visit our Forum. You can post any questions you might have, and also look around for more helpful information.