Reusing what you remove keeps the job green - and saves the trouble and expense of matching the finish
by Mike Guertin
Flashing consists of metal - which is durable enough to be exposed to sunlight and mechanical wear and tear - plus peel-and-stick membrane like Vycor (Grace Construction Products; 800/354-5414, www.graceathome.com ) or BT25XL (Protecto Wrap Company; 877/271-9661, www.protectowrap.com ), which seals around punctures from nails and bolts.
Tearing into siding is all but inevitable if you build decks on existing houses. It's necessary to remove (and replace) several courses of siding to flash a ledger properly; only then do you have access to lift the building paper and apply peel-and-stick membrane and metal flashing the requisite 6 inches up the wall (see illustration, above). Also removing a little siding beyond the left and right ends of the proposed ledger allows you to apply peel-and-stick membrane there to protect against leaks. The flashing can then lap the top of a lower course of siding, or the foundation, so any water that does get into the joint will be directed outward.
I advocate removing siding carefully so it can be reused. This is both greener and cheaper, and it usually looks better to reuse old siding than to patch in new and try to match the existing finish. Siding can be gently (but pretty quickly) removed with a few tricks.
Face-Nailed Lap Siding
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