In the late 1960's, from what I've been told, aluminum siding salesmen descended in the town in droves. Unfortunately, our home (purchased in 1999, 1917 Craftsman style) got stuck with being "renovated"! <br> <br>We have an add-on garage, obviously put on years ago.. The side of the house the garage is attached to shows narrow white clapboard (though we are not sure if "white" was original or what)... <br> <br>However, underneath the siding we see stucco.... We are in the process of contacting former residents of the house (we have abstracts so are able to see who owned the house and when) for input re when the siding was put on, condition of stucco underneath, etc.. <br> <br>The siding unfortunately is very wide with false wood-graining and in a terrible shade of pea-soup-green, which has faded over the past 30-35 yrs or so.. It looks so horrid that when we were initially house-hunting we almost didn't look at the house! Fortunately it has a treasure trove of original fixtures inside which more than make up for the exterior. <br> <br>We do plan on removing the siding eventually--many indoor projects are taking the time up but we will do it one day. We've been told by some to remove the stucco and by others to paint the stucco. <br> <br>Just was curious as to whether or not anyone here has removed aluminum siding from a house and any thoughts they had or advice, etc. <br> <br>Thanks..

Kim: I'm not an expert by any means. Can only relate our experience. Our house had the wide, ugly aluminum siding in a dark barn red. We hired someone to remove it, and underneath we found styrofoam and some kind of paper (?). In many places the original siding was horribly rotten from leaking window air conditions and a leaky roof. The guy who took the aluminum siding off must have liked it because he carefully sorted it and hauled it away. Our house has very large windows, and most were beveled, leaded glass in a diamond pattern He broke several of these windows in the process by not being very careful when he removed the siding. He had alot of trouble handling the large pieces of siding, and would just fling them to the ground.

Thanks, Joyce! We have stucco underneath the siding (which is also avocado green...unfortunately)... The only part of the house which has clapboard is the part of the house where the attached garage was added on years ago. I'm in the process of contacting prior occupants to see if they have knowledge of how the stucco was underneath.. Someone said we'd probably have to repair holes from where the siding went in.. <br> <br>Even stucco is better than that awful wide-planked siding with false wood grain.. <br> <br>We have many original windows in the house, too--you can see the waviness in the glass... Ours don't have the leaded patterns though... <br> <br>Thanks for the input..

I don't know much about removing siding, but have some suggestions about the stucco. The best solution for the stucco is spraying on a slurry mix. It's a thin mix of the stucco compound (portland cement and whatever else it has in it). If you do that, have the color mixed in and you won't ever have to paint it. If you don't use the slurry mix and choose to paint the stucco, make sure you use a latex paint rather than an oil based paint as stucco needs to breathe. <br> <br>The contractor who did our stucco repairs did a great job of matching the color and you can hardly tell where the repairs were done.