Siding contractor in Glen Rock, NJ
Glen Rock is a borough of single-family houses standing close together, and their walls are wood clapboard, vinyl or stucco. We side them in wood clapboard, cedar shingle, fiber cement, engineered composite and vinyl, rebuild the trim to each house’s own proportions, and replace tired vinyl with a properly wrapped and flashed wall.
Clapboard, vinyl and stucco on a tight grid.
Near the two train stations and Rock Road stand the houses of Glen Rock’s commuter years, roughly 1905 to 1930: Colonial Revivals, Queen Annes, Dutch Colonials, and Mission-style houses finished in stucco. Later houses fill the old farm parcels toward the Fair Lawn and Paramus edges. Almost all of them sit on modest lots, a short side yard apart.
So a siding job here is rarely just boards. On the older houses it is the trim and the shadow lines; on the stucco houses, the joint between wood and plaster; under old vinyl, whatever it has hidden; and almost everywhere, the narrow gap between two houses.
The borough’s oldest walls are not siding at all: four eighteenth-century sandstone farmhouses of the Hopper family on Prospect Street and Ackerman Avenue, among them the Hendrick Hopper House of 1780 at 724 Ackerman Avenue, on the National Register. They are local history, not our work.
The layers behind the cladding, from the weather barrier back to the sheathing, are set out on our county siding page.
On an older house, the trim is what reads as old.
On a Colonial Revival, Queen Anne or Dutch Colonial of that age, the boards are half the wall. The other half is proportion, and a re-side that ignores it shows from the street. Where only part of a wall has failed, our guide to replacing one section of siding explains how a limited scope is set.
| The detail | What the new wall keeps |
|---|---|
| Exposure | The height of each clapboard course. We measure it on the house and set the new boards to the same reveal, so the shadow lines stay put. |
| Corner boards | Broad, flat boards at the outside corners, with the clapboard butted into them. Narrow stock corners give a careless re-side away. |
| Window and door casings | Kept at their original width, with a drip cap and head flashing over each, so the openings sit in the wall as they were drawn. |
| Water table and frieze | The board at the foot of the wall and the band under the eaves, rebuilt in their own profiles with their flashing, not dropped to save a day. |
| Gable shingles | A Queen Anne often pairs clapboard below with cedar shingle in the gables, sometimes cut to a pattern. New shingles are cut to match and laced in. |
Where old clapboard is sound and only the paint has let go, mending the bad boards and repainting usually serves the house better than new siding, and we will say so first.
Where wood meets stucco, and when it is the stucco.
The Mission-style houses are plaster on most of their walls. The wood is in a few places: window and door casings, the fascia and soffit at the eaves, sometimes a porch or a later wing. Each is a meeting of two materials that move differently, and that is where water gets in.
At each one we look for a head flashing over the opening; a flexible joint between wood and plaster, sealant over a backer rod rather than caulk pressed into a hairline crack; and, where a wood wall butts a stucco one, flashing lapped to carry water out. Rotten casings and fascia are rebuilt in wood primed on every face.
Some faults belong to the stucco alone: a crack across a whole panel, a patch that sounds hollow, plaster gone soft at the base. That is a plasterer’s repair, and the estimate names it rather than hiding it behind new trim. Flashing where a roof meets a stucco wall belongs to the roof; see roof repair in Glen Rock.
When the vinyl has had its day.
Vinyl is one of the claddings you see across the borough, and vinyl that is sound and keeping the wall dry can stay. When it has gone brittle, faded unevenly or begun to buckle, we strip it and look at what it covered.
An older layer underneath
Vinyl was often hung straight over the first clapboard or shingle. That comes off too, down to the sheathing, so the wall can actually be seen.
A barrier that was never there
Some went on over bare boards or torn paper. The new wall gets housewrap lapped like shingles, so water that gets past the cladding drains down and out.
Openings trimmed, not flashed
J-channel collects water; it does not keep it out of the opening. Every window and door gets a sill pan and a head flashing first.
Wet wood at the bottom
Where water ran behind for years, sheathing goes soft under the sills and along the base. We replace only what is rotten, photograph it, and bill it by the sheet.
What goes back on is your call. Fiber cement in a clapboard profile holds paint for years and will not rot; wood clapboard asks more upkeep but mends a board at a time; engineered composite is the budget-led choice; and new vinyl, which needs no painting, can go back on over the new housewrap and flashing. An older house sided over in vinyl gets its lines back in wood or fiber cement laid to its first exposure. If the windows are due too, flash them while the wall is open; see windows and doors.
A re-side on a modest lot, planned for both houses.
Staging that fits the gap
There is rarely room between two houses for a ladder at a safe angle, so we bring staging sized to the side yard.
The house next door
Its windows, siding and shrubs facing the work are sheeted over before anything is stripped, and nothing drops loose into the gap.
One elevation open at a time
A wall is stripped only as far as it can be wrapped and closed that day, so no side of the house stands open overnight.
Cutting kept contained
Fiber cement throws fine dust when cut, so we use shears or a dust-collecting saw, away from open windows on either house.
If any part of the job needs a permit, we tell you at the estimate and handle the filing.
Gutters, windows and the roof above the walls.
Glen Rock
The borough’s two eras of houses, and all of our work on them.
The borough →Gutters
An overflowing run soaks the frieze and the wall below it; fix the two together.
Glen Rock →How a wall is built
Six layers from the cladding inward, and four systems compared.
Siding →Windows & doors
New units set into a properly flashed opening while the siding is off.
Windows →A new roof in Glen Rock → · Roof, siding, windows and gutters planned together →
Do you install siding in Glen Rock, NJ?
Yes, throughout 07452. We put up wood clapboard, cedar shingle and shake, fiber cement, engineered composite and vinyl, and the trim, flashing and housewrap go in as part of the same job. The estimate is free and written. It names the material, the profile and the exposure, and prices rotten sheathing separately, by the sheet, only where the tear-off turns it up.
Our house has vinyl siding. Can you replace it?
Yes. We take it off and put new vinyl, fiber cement, wood clapboard, cedar shingle or engineered composite in its place. If yours is sound and the wall behind it is dry, it can stay, and we will tell you that. When it is cracked, warped or letting water in behind, the whole layer comes off, with anything older nailed beneath it, so the sheathing and the window flashing are checked before the new wall goes up.
Can new siding match the clapboard on an older Glen Rock house?
Yes, if it is laid out from the house rather than from the box. We measure the exposure of the existing courses, the width of the corner boards and casings, and the profile of the frieze, then build the new wall to those numbers in wood or in fiber cement. Where only part of a wall has failed, that part is replaced in matching boards and the rest is left alone.
Our house is stucco. What siding work does it need?
Mostly the wood: casings around the windows and doors, the fascia and soffit at the eaves, and any porch or wing framed in wood. We mend or rebuild those and remake each joint with the plaster, with a head flashing over every opening and a sealant joint that can flex. Plaster that is cracked, hollow or crumbling needs a plasterer, and the estimate will say so in as many words.
Is there room to re-side a house this close to the next one?
Almost always. Staging is sized to the side yard, the neighbor’s side is covered before work starts, and only one wall is opened at a time and closed again the same day. Old siding and cut-offs go into a container, not onto the ground, and where that container stands is agreed before the first morning.
A re-side planned for the house, and for the one next door.
Every board, trim profile and flashing named in writing, rotten sheathing charged only where we find it, and the staging worked out for your side yard. The estimate costs nothing.