Can a Hole in Vertical Aluminum Siding Be Repaired?

Painted or Raw

• The first thing you need to look at when determining whether you can repair a hole in your vertical aluminum siding is whether your siding is painted or is simply raw metal. While it is fairly rare to come across unpainted or unfinished aluminum siding, it does exist, and in these cases, repairing the hole is a problem. This is because patches are highly visible after installation and are meant to be painted to camouflage the repairs.

Utility Knife Versus Tin Snips

• If the hole is fragmented and jagged, you will need to cut the area out so that you can repair it with a patch kit. There are two options for this. You can use a utility knife for precise cutting, but it takes a while to cut through the thin, metal sheeting and you have to replace the blade multiple times. Tin snips are fast and efficient but can also bend or warp the siding since they are a type of scissors. If you have ever cut a piece of paper with scissors, you know the pieces of paper bend away from each other when cut, and metal siding does the same.

Joint Holes

• For holes along the joints of aluminum siding, you have a far easier time than patching a hole in the middle of a piece. In both vertical and horizontal joints, you can remove the fasteners around the hole to better access it, allowing you to more easily cut the damaged section out and then patch it. After the patch is installed, you can re-set the fasteners and re-caulk the joints to get the aluminum back in place.

Waterproofing Beneath

• Repairing a hole in vertical aluminum siding is more than just patching the hole itself. If you can tell that the waterproofing beneath the siding -- usually tar-based, felt paper or some type of waterproofing membrane -- has been damaged by a puncture, such as with a rock that flies through the air from a lawnmower, you will need to completely remove the piece of siding to patch the waterproofing before you patch the aluminum hole.