What fails first
Vinyl and older wood siding on Fall River homes tends to fail at the same handful of spots: butt joints that were not lapped correctly, corner posts pulling away from the sheathing, and window and door trim where caulk has dried out and cracked. Wind off the bay drives rain sideways into any of those gaps far more than it does through the face of an intact panel.
Older wood clapboard on the triple-deckers and mill-era houses closer to downtown often hides rot at the bottom courses, where splash-back from grade level and gutter overflow keep the wood damp longer than anywhere higher up the wall.
Installation and replacement
A full siding replacement starts with the sheathing, which gets checked for soft spots wherever the old siding is coming off. A weather-resistant barrier goes on before any new panel, lapped correctly at every seam and sealed at penetrations for hose bibs, vents and light fixtures.
New siding is hung with the fastener spacing the manufacturer specifies for the local wind zone, not the minimum spacing that gets away with it inland. Corner posts, J-channel and trim are set before the field panels so water sheds outward at every transition instead of collecting behind it.
Matching an existing wall
For a partial repair on an otherwise sound wall, matching an older siding profile and color is attempted first using a supplier's discontinued-stock search before recommending a full re-side. Where no match exists, the honest option is laid out clearly: a visible patch, or a full replacement on that elevation.
Trim, corners and window heads
Window and door trim is one of the first places wind-driven rain finds a way in, especially where old caulk has shrunk away from the siding edge rather than sitting flush against it. Trim is reset or replaced with proper flashing tape behind it rather than relying on caulk alone to hold back water for another decade.
Corner posts on older triple-deckers take a lot of abuse from expansion and contraction over the years, and a post that has pulled away from the sheathing even slightly is enough for wind to work rain in behind the whole corner. Those get refastened or replaced as part of any siding job that touches that elevation.