Aluminum Trim Coil

[SHADOWFOX]

Hi Folks,

I am in the process of re-doing (hiring out) some of the exterior trims of my house. The current trims are builder spec which are pine boards and poorly primed and caulked so some of them did not fair well and are rotting. A contractor friend of mine recommended to use aluminum trim coil. Anybody have any experience with this material? Do they look nice after its installed? I am concerned that it may look cheap or noticeable from the street. Certainly better than the current rotten trim of course. Any info would be appreciated.

Thank you!

[smc331]

Chris,

Trim coil done by a crew that knows what they are doing can look very nice. My experience with it is pretty limited, but what I've seen is typically a "wrap" around the existing structure. (Of course, replacing anything rotten or suspect).

We just had a buddy of mine replace our garage door header trim boards - the original crew had done a p***-poor job of installing the trim coil over the trim boards. Water got in and pooled between the coil stock and the boards and sat there - and rotted the trim boards.

He bent the trim coil so it formed a one-piece wrap with a drip lip - should have no further problems and it works great.

HTH

[Stytooner]

Thats really not a job you want to take on yourself unless you own at least an 8' break for the bends. It also requires a bit of knowledge or rather skill, to make it water tight and look good. I think it wold cost a pretty penny to hire that done as well.
I have installed it before and a poor installation will always look poor. What I did when my facia boards started to rot, was I replaced them with treated 5/4. I primed them first. Then painted. They look good and will last just as long as they need to now. Not so if you have a leaky aluminum trim install.

[Ed62]

If you never used a brake for bending aluminum, you probably won't have very good results. This is something that takes practice to get it right. Bending the aluminum in the right places will give you a good looking result that won't leak, if installed correctly. If you wrap the bottom of the windows, be aware that some people become annoyed with the noise of raindrops hitting the metal.

Ed

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I don't think it is cheap looking or anything, in fact I thought it was pretty much standard application. Go check out any vinyl sided home built in the last ten years and you can see what it will look like. IMHO looks better than painted wood, particularly after a few years.