Siding Your Home
You make a first impression when people see the siding, color and finish on the exterior of your house.
If your siding is in disrepair, or if your home needs a coat on paint on the outside, your house will feel and look shabby to your neighbors and to you.
If you are considering new siding or painting or refinishing the outside of your home, you may want to take the time to consider whether you want to go with the same look or change things.
If you have clapboard siding and you are tired of painting, you may want to consider vinyl siding. Perhaps you like brick-face or cedar?
Now is the time to decide!
You should also consider that siding protects the inside of your home by creating a barrier between you and the elements.
It will also help you control heating and cooling costs, so the insulation and siding you choose are, in fact, more important than what you may see from the road.
Even if you have a brick home, you can still choose to change the exterior look and feel of your property. Siding is available in vinyl, wood (shakes or clapboard) and aluminum.
You will buy your siding in 100 square foot batches. Aluminum and vinyl are less expensive and you find them relatively maintenance free.
However once you choose your color, you are stuck with it.
Clapboard and cedar require more maintenance but you can stain or change the color of the siding with paint as you choose.
One way to decide what you want is to drive around and look at the other homes in your neighborhood and in the surrounding area.
Look at color, texture and the ‘curb appeal’ of the house with a particular siding choice.
You can go to a store and look at chips or swatches, but that will not tell you what your house will look like when you are finished with the siding.
Seeing vinyl siding, versus cedar shakes, or blue versus red paint on someone else’s house will help you try out your choices without having to make a commitment and spend a lot of money.
When you see something you like, you will be ready to buy your materials and begin the job.
You can also buy some home design magazines and flip through the pages to see different color combinations and how other people have used siding choices to express their personal taste.
When you are ready to consider the cost of materials, do not be too quick to choose the cheapest choice.
While it may seem like a better idea, the more expensive the siding material, the better quality it is likely to be. If you plan to keep this siding for a number of years, choosing better quality materials is well worth your investment.
If you are hiring a contractor to do the work, talk to them about their recommendations as well.
You can talk to consultants at your local Home Depot and/or Lowes or other store, but a contractor who works with these materials all the time will always have some good feedback for you to consider.
Depending on the choice you make for material, you may find that a large chain store like Sears or others will offer periodic sales and come and do the job for you.
If you are not ready to tackle this job yourself, look at all the options to get the work completed before you make a choice.
Consider warranties and schedules and pricing comparisons for certain material and work, and be sure you are comparing apples to apples.
Here are some siding choices you may want to consider:
Brick - Brick houses will withstand weather and look great
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after many years (probably 25 or more) with very little maintenance. You can find brick in many earthy colors from a deep brown to red and more.
Brick is expensive, but it will pay for itself in the money you will save in maintenance. If you can’t afford brick, but you like the look, you can consider brick ‘veneer’ or ‘brick-face’. It is less expensive but, again, not as durable as real brick.
Wood Clapboard – The use of clapboard siding is frequent, especially in homes in New England. It has been used for hundreds of years and is quite durable as long as you do proper maintenance.
It will require blasting, scraping and painting to keep its crisp good looks but it gives a wonderful old-fashioned homestead feel to any house.
Clapboard is most often made of pine, spruce, redwood, cedar, Cyprus or Douglas fir. Pine is a softer wood but it does hold the paint and/or stain well and will hold up well over time.
Cedar Shingles - Shingles give a great, natural look to your home and look wonderful in a wooded or more natural setting. The shingles (also called ‘shakes’) are stained and you can get them in deep reds, browns, grays and even greens.
Engineered Wood Composite – This siding is made with wood products, scraps and other composite material but it does look like solid wood. It is cheaper than solid, natural wood or cedar siding.
Steel - Steel is durable, and can be manufactured to look like wood texture from a distance. It is weather resistant and it does not shrink or expand with temperature change or humidity change.
Stone - Stone is strong, durable and long lasting. It is weather resistant and can be pre-cast or hand made, as in the case of adobe brick. Stone is high in price, but low in maintenance cost. You can get pre-made stone ‘look and feel’ material.
Stucco – Not fancy but it looks great. Stucco is comprised of cement, sand or lime and water. Stucco is one of the oldest siding materials and is still used today because of its durability and attractive look. Synthetic stucco is more durable than authentic stucco so many builders and contractors use the synthetic material.
Vinyl - Vinyl siding is low maintenance and relatively in low in price, but it does crack and begin to fade after a few years.
Many environmentally conscious homeowners prefer not to purchase vinyl siding because it is not biodegradable and it releases toxic PVCs when it is burned.
Aluminum - Aluminum does not crack or split and it is fireproof. You can use it over clapboard. It may not be as environmentally friendly as wood, but it is friendlier than vinyl. It DOES dent!
Depending on the type of siding you buy, you can plan to pay from $70.00 to $2500.00 per ‘square’ (100 square feet).
Be sure your measurements are accurate so you don’t have to pay for excess material, especially if it is a custom order.
Before you begin your siding job, remove your gutters and downspouts and clean your existing siding with a power (pressure) washer.
Allow the existing siding to dry thoroughly before you put the new siding up. If you have wood siding and there are any holes or splitting wood, sand the wood at that spot, and apply a primer to cover the spot. Be sure all loose paint is removed or scraped from the surface.
While we would not recommend that a newbie try to do a siding or roofing job on their own, if you insist on doing so, get some advice from your local center and follow their installation instructions to the letter.
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