Wood siding Repair - part 4
Some more tips: you can switch arms when nailing, one arm gets less tired and you get a more even workout. If you have to pound a lot of nails over and over like on this job you can grab a handful of nails in one hand and 'feed' them to your hammer. In other words, while one hand is pounding a nail the other hand is getting another nail ready at the same time. Of course the old 'measure twice, cut once' adage is good advice and for long cuts in plywood or siding I like to measure two marks at either end, make a line all the way across with a 2 by 4, put the panel up on scrap wood on the ground out of the way of the saw (scrap wood on the LEFT side of the cut), make the cut with my hands and knees on top of the wood and watch the blade against the line (with your safety glasses on, of course.) Be careful! It is possible to make a very straight cut this way without a lot of gear (saw horses, saw fence, etc) and the piece you are cutting off will just fall away.
This picture is after the 2 panels have been roughly nailed in. Now I need to nail them all down and since there are already nail holes I'm just reusing them because that's the best way to seal it, by using the same holes and caulking them very well after they are nailed. Obviously if you were starting with new panel you would just make new nail holes and you would have to measure very carefully in order to hit your studs every time.
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