The bottom of one of the siding panels on the North side of my house was starting to rot from the bottom. The old siding is made of what feels like cardboard. A number of years ago I got involved in a class-action suit against the siding manufacturer and receive un-remembered thousands.
It’s actually lasting fairly well except certain parts so I’m just replacing what needs replacing with Hardie cement board siding. This particular one has been on my mind for a long time marked as rather difficult because it is on a 2nd story and I have nobody to help me.
I spent the last few months looking at it and designing ways to do it in my head. I was set on using a hand cranked winch and using a pulley on the eaves to hoist it up. The other day, while sitting in the hot tub, I came up with a better plan.
Using two 15 foot 2x4s, cross members and a pulley I could just crank a 80 lb panel up there and slide it right into position all by myself.
Yesterday I built the mechanism and today I removed the old siding and hoisted the new one right into place. My plan worked perfectly and cost me around $50 for the hoist and $30 for the siding.
Damn I’m good. Natural born engineer here. Congratulate me.