If you have chosen siding for cladding your home, in the process of choosing and ordering all the necessary material for installation, you will certainly face the question of which fasteners to choose for installation work.
Choosing siding fasteners
No repair work is complete without the use of fasteners. The most widely used types of it are nails and screws, they are also used for siding decoration.
Nails are one of the oldest and most reliable fasteners, but they have a number of features:
- don’t expect too much precision when using nails; therefore, when finishing the facade, self-tapping screws are often used;
- if it is necessary to dismantle a part of the cladding, where nails were used as fasteners, and redo, it is unlikely that this can be done without loss of material;
- hammering nails with a hammer can lead to oversized effort and damage to the material – and this is especially true with siding.
A tangible plus of using nails is their relatively low price, and they are also very convenient when working, for example, with wood. For siding sheathing, it is best not to skimp on fasteners and purchase self-tapping screws. Let’s consider their advantages for this type of work.
- the use of self-tapping screws allows you to do work many times faster and easier, while the appearance of the finish is much more aesthetic
- high-quality fixing of elements determines the reliability and long service life of the repair done;
- with self-tapping screws, it is easier to observe the gaps for thermal expansion, which must be present during siding;
- it is possible, if necessary, to dismantle the coating, while the panels and fasteners will remain intact and can be used again.
How to choose self-tapping screws for siding
As you know, metal is susceptible to corrosion, and after a season, rust will appear on ordinary self-tapping screws, without an anti-corrosion coating, and will also transfer to nearby areas of the coating. All this makes the appearance of the facade unkempt and dirty, the whole point of updating the walls with siding comes to naught. Therefore – only galvanized fasteners.
As for the dimensions, it is recommended to take self-tapping screws with a length of at least 30 mm, and if the mounting surface is wooden, then longer.
How to calculate the required amount of fasteners? It’s not that hard when you consider the following:
- horizontal siding panels are fixed with self-tapping screws in increments of 25-30 cm;
- J-profile and H-profile (which are mounted vertically) will require one self-tapping screw for every 40 cm.
