Wood siding Repair - part 3
When doing exterior siding repair obviously the thing to do is to line things up so that the wood seals itself as much as possible. These siding panels are tongue and groove, the tongue on one end fits into the groove on the other end of the adjacent panel.
So if you make sure the first one is nailed well you can you slide the next one into the groove on the side of it and then you would nail it tightly to the stud behind it. This would of course be more difficult if we had paper over the studs so in that situation you'll just have to measure where the stud is before you nail and then mark the panel well for where the nails go. When you're measuring the studs measure from center to center obviously. A good thing to do with paneling is to just nail as much as you need to to secure things, and then fill in all of the rest of the nails when you know for sure that all your wood is in the right place. That way you don't have to pull out a million nails if something went wrong!
Just some other exterior carpentry tips: If you do have to pull out a lot of nails (like in the beginning of this job) it is best to dig the nail out with a nail-puller, then grab the nail in the claw of a hammer as usual but then push the hammer down sideways. Try it! it takes a lot less energy then pulling the handle down every time. Also, be sure to measure very carefully on every cut and watch out for slack in your measuring tape, then take the 'kerf' (width) of your saw blade into account when you cut. Also when cutting two by fours for framing make it a 1/16th of an inch bigger than your measurement so you can gently pound the studs into the space they are going into, otherwise it will be much harder to nail them if they are flopping around. It is also much easier to toenail the studs by predrilling holes in this situation. Start by drilling straight and then turning the drill down as soon as it bites into the wood.
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