Horrible vinyl "shutters"

May 21, 2016 3:41 PM

Buying a an old victorian that needs a lot of work, including the removal of vinyl clapboards and the accompanying fake shutters. Since we can't do the siding yet, we were thinking about starting by removing the shutters -- they are half the reason the house looks so awful. But what would it look like underneath? Would removing them make things worse? Are there big holes where they attach?
posted by mmf to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

As an owner of a 100 year old Craftsman that had horrific things done to it over the years that we're slowly correcting, I have to say... you never know until you look. Can you take one shutter off, maybe in the least-conspicuous place on the house, and see what's underneath?

Prepare yourself to temporarily reattach the awful shutter until you figure out a way to remediate the damages.

^{this is why we have a giant tapestry hung over the hole we eagerly knocked in the plaster only to find out that someone had actually removed the entire front face of the original fireplace and sloppily bricked it over before replastering the whole wall...}
posted by erst at 3:47 PM on May 21, 2016 [4 favorites]

I would think the clapboards underneath will probably be darker than the surrounding area due to not having been exposed to sunlight? Might look worse than the shutters. We removed fake shutters (eww!) and that was the result, but our siding was not vinyl.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 4:04 PM on May 21, 2016

Even if there is discoloration under the shutters (or more likely, discoloration in the vinyl not covered by shutters), it is actually possible to paint the vinyl. So if you really hate the shutters, go ahead and rip them off, just get your paintbrush ready.
posted by beagle at 5:18 PM on May 21, 2016

Don't be surprised if you remove vinyl siding to find peeling lead paint. Be prepared to remediate this peeling lead paint. Be prepared for that remediation to cost at least three times more than you expect it to. Ask me how I know.
posted by mneekadon at 6:29 PM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]