Don’t “fire, ready, aim” your siding in Seattle.

It seems like lately we’ve had a rash of instances where we’ve been hired to install siding in Seattle and things just haven’t gone as efficiently as they could.  As a Seattle siding contractor my customers depend on me to guide them to the best practices for siding installation that will make their house not only look beautiful but last for a very long time.  This goes for owners hiring me directly and general contractors hiring me as a subcontractor.    I love doing this for people and working through the unique challenges that come up on every siding job in and around Seattle.

Is your project ready for siding in Seattle?

A lot of time siding is just one piece of the project and the coordination between other aspects of the project and other trades is very important when it comes to siding in Seattle.  I’ve been recently thinking about how my work time is spent and how I can make that time more efficient and productive and what I’ve noticed is I spend an obnoxious amount of time circling partially constructed houses, with a contractor or owner, providing actionable knowledge on what needs to be done and the information needed to make the installation of siding an efficient process.  Now, to be clear there is an obvious benefit for me to have the siding installation be efficient in that the more efficiently it is installed the better my profit margin.  There is also a huge benefit to the homeowner or general contractor as well.  For the homeowner playing general contractor it means less cost and more than likely a better put together job.  For the general contractor the siding protects the house from the elements while the inside is being finished and when executed efficiently in a larger building project gives the owner an early sense of accomplishment and confidence in the building process which can go a long way in building good faith with the owner in a construction project.  I’ve worked on projects with multi-million dollar budgets with 50 pages of plans that detail everything down to the toilet paper holder but have very little detail for the exterior.  This isn’t all projects of course but enough that I felt like writing about it.  It doesn’t seem like siding and the exterior get the attention they deserve all the time and its a hugely important aspect of any building or home.  Especially here in the Seattle region!

So when I was thinking about my laps around unfinished houses espousing siding in Seattle knowledge to an owner or general contractor it occurred to me that in very few instances does anyone write anything down or take notes.  This frustrates me as I am a consummate note taker and find it to be very useful.  So basically I’ve wasted many an hour telling people how and what to do to only have them forget half and get half ready for the siding to be installed and as you know close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.  My solution is old school but I’m hopeful it will have an impact.  I’ve written up a contractor’s siding readiness checklist.  The list is meant to inform and educate homeowners playing general contractor and remind the busy general contractor what needs to be done or at least planned out before siding installation can commence.  Sequence is everything in construction and this is just as true for the exterior construction.  If you’d like a copy of my siding installation contractor readiness checklist a link to it is below.  If it’s helpful to you let me know.  Also please help me improve it if you see something missing or a better way to present the info.   Thanks for reading.  Happy siding in Seattle!