Remove a Damaged Siding Board Without Cracking the Course Above

The Problem

Clapboard siding overlaps, so the nails holding one course also pass through the top of the course below. To take out a damaged board you have to free the board above it first — without splitting that board, because it isn't the one being replaced.

Pry the upper course up and the nails come with it. Let it back down and the nails slide straight back into their old holes, sitting flush again with nothing to grip. You end up levering the same board repeatedly, and each cycle is another chance to crack it.

The Technique

The trick is to make each nail unable to reseat.

1. Work a flat pry bar in under the course above the damaged one and lift gently along its length, about half an inch. Enough that the nails pull clear, not enough to crack the board.
2. With the board still standing off the wall, hit each exposed nail shank sideways with the flat bar. You want a visible kink — a small bend, not a bent-over nail.
3. Tap the board back down flat with the flat face of the bar.
4. The nails can't follow their own holes back in, because the kink no longer matches the path. Every head sits proud of the surface.
5. Pull the nails out of that upper course with the bar or a pair of nippers.

With the upper course released, the damaged board below is free to come out.

When It Won't Work

Smooth shank nails bend and pull as described. Ring-shank stainless siding nails, common on newer work, grip the whole length of the shank and will usually shear or pull the wood out around them rather than back out cleanly. Where you find those, cutting the nails with a metal-cutting blade on an oscillating tool behind the board is the less destructive route.