Siding installation & repair in Wyckoff, NJ
Wyckoff was largely built after the war, and a split-level or ranch wears its siding differently from a colonial: walls on more than one plane, long runs near the ground, much of it under the township’s trees. We install fiber cement, wood clapboard, cedar shingle, engineered composite and vinyl, and flash every place one wall meets another.
Farmland until the 1940s, then a township of post-war walls.
In 1940 Wyckoff had just under 4,000 residents and still farmed 30 percent of its land. By 2020 it had 16,585. Most of the houses on its streets were built in between, colonials, split-levels and ranches, with custom houses added since and a handful of eighteenth-century farmhouses surviving among them.
For siding, a colonial is the simple case: two flat stories and four corners. A split-level sets its walls on different planes, a lower wing butting into a taller block; a ranch spreads one story under a low eave. Each shape has its own weak lines, and a re-side is won or lost on them.
What a house is clad in today varies, and some carry a second siding nailed over the first, so the estimate starts with what is on the wall and what lies under it. The full assembly is on our siding page.
Split-levels and ranches, break by break.
The flat field of a wall rarely fails first. The breaks in it do, and these two shapes have plenty.
The split-level
Walls on two or three levels, half a story apart.
- Under an overhanging upper floor, a metal flashing at the break throws water out over the lower cladding, not behind it.
- Where the lower roof meets the taller wall, the siding stops short of the shingles, over new step flashing that ends in a kick-out.
- The lowest level sits near grade, so its bottom course is kept clear of soil, mulch and the driveway.
Every break listed on the estimate, with how it will be flashed.
The ranch
One story, long walls, a low eave.
- Long runs mean many butt joints, staggered course to course and backed with flashing so no seam lines up into a channel for water.
- Wide openings, a picture window or a slider, get a sill pan and a head flashing lapped into the new housewrap.
- Under a low eave an overflowing gutter lands straight on the wall, so the gutter is checked along with the siding.
The same details on every cladding we install.
A township that keeps its canopy, and walls that dry slowly.
Wyckoff holds Tree City USA status and calls itself tree-lined. The trees stay; the siding is specified for them.
Walls the canopy keeps in shade
At the estimate we note which walls hardly see the sun. Cedar there goes over a vented gap on stainless fasteners, and fiber cement, which cannot rot, often earns its place.
Leaves where a low roof meets a wall
On a split-level, leaves pile up where the lower roof runs into the taller wall. Siding held up off the shingles leaves a gap that can be cleared and can dry.
Limbs that come down
A falling branch cracks fiber cement or splits wood. Either is mended a piece at a time in the same profile, so one damaged course is a repair, not a re-side.
Gutters packed with leaves
A clogged run spills down the wall beneath it, and the staining usually starts at the frieze. Fix the gutter with the siding; see gutters in Wyckoff.
Where the wall meets wet ground.
Wyckoff is high ground, about 331 feet up on the slope toward the Ramapo foothills and west of the Saddle River, so the river is not what wets its walls. Its stream corridors are, Deep Voll Brook among them, where low ground stays damp long after a rain.
There, siding fails from the bottom up: the lowest course draws moisture into its cut ends, then the sheathing and the sill behind it soften. So the bottom course gets the clearance its manufacturer asks for above soil and paving, every cut end is sealed, and a drip edge at the base lets water that gets behind the cladding drain out.
Siding cannot correct a yard that slopes toward the house; where one does, the estimate says so.
Dutch-era frame, mended rather than replaced.
Dutch families were farming here by around 1720, and two houses from that era are on the National Register: the Terhune House, at 161 Godwin Avenue, dates from 1737; the Van Blarcom–Jardine House is the other. They are township landmarks, named as history, not as our work.
On frame walls that old, the boards are often better wood than anything sold now. A repair takes out only what has failed, copies the width, lap and nailing of the boards that stay, and leaves sound siding alone. On the stone-and-frame farmhouses of that tradition, a flashing where wood meets stone lets each move on its own.
Their roofs call for the same patience; see roof repair in Wyckoff.
How a re-side keeps the house closed.
The order of work decides whether the house stays dry while a wall is open.
Look before pricing
A small section comes open where the wall looks worst, so the estimate reflects what is actually behind the boards.
Strip only what closes
Each day’s tear-off is sized to what can be sheathed, wrapped and flashed by evening, and anything open when the weather turns is covered.
Breaks before boards
Flashing goes in at every break first: the split-level overhang, each roof-to-wall line, every opening.
Trim, cladding, walk-round
Corners, casings and frieze, then the cladding, then a final walk around the house with you.
If any part of the job needs a permit, we tell you at the estimate and handle the filing.
The roof, gutters and openings around the wall.
Wyckoff
Its houses and trees, and the rest of our work in 07481.
The township →Gutters
Runs sized to each roof shape, so the walls stay dry.
Wyckoff →Roof replacement
Step flashing at the wall, set once for both trades.
Wyckoff →Siding, county-wide
The wall layer by layer, every cladding compared.
Siding →Windows & doors flashed in while the wall is open → · Next door: siding in Franklin Lakes →
Do you install siding in Wyckoff?
Yes, anywhere in 07481, the Sicomac section included. We install fiber cement, wood clapboard, cedar shingle and shake, engineered composite and vinyl, along with the housewrap, flashing and trim that go behind and around them. Every estimate is written and costs nothing. It sets out the cladding, the profile and the exposure, with rotten sheathing as a separate line that is billed only if the tear-off finds it.
My split-level’s upper floor hangs out over the wall below. Does that line need anything special?
Yes, it is the line we look at first. Water running down the upper wall has to be thrown clear of the lower one, so a metal flashing goes in at the break, tucked behind the housewrap above and kicked out over the cladding below. The underside of the overhang is closed in with its own trim. Left as a caulked seam, that break is where a split-level’s siding most often lets water in.
Our house was covered in aluminum or vinyl years ago. Does it all have to come off?
Not always. An intact layer with a dry wall behind it is worth leaving alone, and the estimate will say that. When it is replaced, it comes off down to the sheathing, together with any earlier siding left beneath it, so the wall can be seen and repaired. Then new vinyl, cedar shingle, fiber cement, wood clapboard or engineered composite goes back on, laid to the exposure and trim lines that suit the house.
We live near Deep Voll Brook and the bottom of our siding stays damp. What helps?
Keeping the base of the wall out of the wet. The lowest course is set with the clearance its manufacturer asks for above soil and paving, every cut end is sealed, and a drip edge at the base gives water behind the cladding a way out. Mulch and planting are kept back from that course and nearby downspouts are carried away from the foundation. If the yard itself slopes toward the house, we tell you, because new siding cannot correct grading.
A branch came down on our wall. Can you replace just the damaged boards?
Usually, yes. A cracked fiber cement plank or a split clapboard is cut out and a new piece slipped under the course above it, in the same profile and exposure, then finished to match. Before closing up we look at the sheathing behind the damage, and if the limb also bent a gutter or tore flashing at a roofline, that is put right on the same visit.
Siding detailed for a Wyckoff split-level, ranch or colonial.
The cladding and its profile named, every break in the wall flashed and listed, and sheathing charged only where the tear-off finds it, all in writing.