Siding: Steel, Vinyl, Aluminum?

[Dartgod]

Thinking of putting on some siding rather than painting and I know nothing about it. What kind is best? Any siding contractors in KC that you would recommend? Enlighten me!

[Bugeater]

I think steel is a thing of the past, and even aluminum is pretty rare anymore. They all have their drawbacks, steel will rust, aluminum will dent and vinyl will break, and they ALL will eventually oxidize and discolor. And if it gets damaged it cannot be repaired, and if you need to replace sections of it, it will be impossible to match the existing stuff once it's a few years old. If it was me I'd keep the wood, but I paint for a living so painting isn't that big of deal. My second choice would be aluminum because you can at least paint it 15-20 years down the road when it starts looking like crap. I would never own a house with vinyl on it.

[jiveturkey]

Concrete!

http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/products_siding_hardieplankLapSiding.py

[Bugeater]

Concrete!

http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/products_siding_hardieplankLapSiding.py
That still has to be painted.

[Dinny Bossa Nova]

Great thread!

Been wondering about this myself. Except for the KC contractor part. You mean there is more than just Phobs?

Dinny

[LaChapelle]

The just fade or mildew(nasty) in our trailer park

[Bugeater]

Oh, and one other thing to keep in mind, unless you're going to spend the money to wrap your windows, soffits, and fascia and replace your gutters, you're still going to have painting to do.

[DeezNutz]

Paint.

Siding es no bueno.

[BigMeatballDave]

Get the spray-on stuff.
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[BigMeatballDave]

Isn't this fiber cement?Concrete!

http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/products_siding_hardieplankLapSiding.py
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[Phobia]

Fiber cement holds paint 3x longer than wood. It's also a 50 year product. That's what I'll be using when my wood siding rots off my house.

[redsurfer11]

www.jameshardie.com

This has been the rage in the siding industry the last 10 years.

[Kerberos]

The house I just sold in KS was 75% Native Stone and the addition was vinyl sided. (other 25%) Thermal aluminum windows and wraping around windows and eve's and aluminum gutters and downspouts. Solid steel front door. Shed was vinyl sided with steel door as well. VERY low maintenance. Just the way I liked it. :)

[cdcox]

We vinyl sided a few years back. Our original wood siding was installed improperly and was rotting off the house. The whole house was an eyesore. Now it looks great. We aluminum wrapped the windows and all. I don't regret it at all.

I shopped quite a bit to find a good contractor. Champion is waaaay over priced. Ask for addresses of previous jobs and look how flat the walls look. I would want to see at least 3 or 4 reference houses. I finally found a contractor where all of the reference jobs looked great. The guys that actually did the work were easily in their 60s. They weren't fast but they did a great job.

[Fish]

I used to hang siding in my younger years. Mostly vinyl, but I did everything. Did entire houses. Siding, soffit, facia, and guttering.

Each has their benefits. Each has their drawbacks.

If you're worried about cost, go with good vinyl.

If you want the best and have money to spend on it, go fiber cement.

Vinyl is the easiest to own. Usually the cheapest. Easier to install. You can replace sections if you damage anything. You don't have to take all the siding off to get to the damaged piece, you can pop one piece off, replace it, and put the new one on. You get what you pay for though. If you go vinyl, I would highly recommend getting the better quality stuff. Cheap vinyl isn't worth it at all. Builder grade cheap vinyl gives vinyl siding a very bad name. But the higher quality stuff is 100X better. If you go vinyl, get the good stuff or you'll be sorry. Vinyl is actually pretty durable outside of really cold weather. It's pretty brittle when cold, but in warm weather it's very very tough.

Fiber cement is expensive. And it's a real hassle to install, so you usually pay more in labor. Usually takes 2 guys to handle it. But it's very durable and lasts forever. You can get it ready to paint, or have it prefinished. Prefinished is the way to go unless you actually want to paint it yourself and save a ton of money. If you paint it yourself, you'll have to reapply it down the road. It's not easy to replace if you damage a section though. Fiber cement isn't usually a very good insulator, unless it's the think expensive stuff. Be sure they put down the insulation layer underneath.

I got all mine from Certainteed. They offer both vinyl and fiber cement.

http://www.certainteed.com/products/siding

I don't think I'd recommend steel or aluminum.

Either way, ensure that the installer does a good job with the insulation underneath the siding. That's a key step that makes a world of difference. Don't let them get lazy with the insulation underneath, because they often do. That step is easily overlooked if you're not watching them closely, and poor insulation underneath can create a whole host of problems.

There are a lot of shitty siding outfits out there. I don't know much about the ones around KC, as I hung siding mostly in KS and NB.... But watch them close, I've seen a lot of folks get screwed over by shoddy installers.

[Ralphy Boy]

We went with a high grade vinyl. Not the crap that most builders use. Ours is a wider 8" plank.
Wrapped all the sofit, fascia and windows. Very happy with it.
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[Dartgod]

We went with a high grade vinyl. Not the crap that most builders use. Ours is a wider 8" plank.
Wrapped all the sofit, fascia and windows. Very happy with it.
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How much did it cost, if you don't mind me asking?

[threebag]

Street signs

[Stewie]

I have vinyl on the sides and back of my house. It's absolutely no maintenance and has never been a problem. I made a change a couple of years ago to the back of my house and had to get more siding. The vinyl was 5-6 years old on the house and I was worried the new pieces wouldn't match. When I brought the new stuff home and placed it against the existing siding there was no difference in color, at all. My siding is CertainTeed and is heavier with better stabilizers than run-of-the-mill siding, or so I've heard.

[MTG#10]

Thought about creating a new thread but this one looks as good as any.

I'm having a contractor replace my old shitty horizontal siding with some new, thicker vertical. He gave me a quote, I paid a down payment, then when he arrived to start the job tells me my house is foam under the siding and that wont work for vertical. He says I'll need wood sheathing under and my house should have had it anyway for structural support. He basically made it sound like this is very rare, a huge issue and that the builder must have done it to cut costs.

My question is, it it really that uncommon for there to be nothing but foam under the siding? Attached are pics of what he's talking about. I'm fairly sure I've seen this before on houses.

[ptlyon]

Mine has foam sheets like that.

Edit - I have horizontal siding like you have. Sorry can't contribute to it for vertical.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

We're building now. Using fiber cement.

[TinyEvel]

I just visited my 80 year old mom in Ohio. Her house is 3+1 one-story and white vinyl siding on it. She hadn't had anyone out to power wash it in years. It was dirty and moldy green all over.

This California boy decided it would be a good deed and good exercise to wash it myself with one of those "Siding Kleeners" chemical sprayers that you attach to your garden hose, and brush it with any combination of push broom, long handle brush and scrub brush. (because no way does it "just hose on, spray off!" like the bottle says.

Three days later I was done and it looked good but I had invented all sorts of new cusswords.

[MTG#10]

I just visited my 80 year old mom in Ohio. Her house is 3+1 one-story and white vinyl siding on it. She hadn't had anyone out to power wash it in years. It was dirty and moldy green all over.

This California boy decided it would be a good deed and good exercise to wash it myself with one of those "Siding Kleeners" chemical sprayers that you attach to your garden hose, and brush it with any combination of push broom, long handle brush and scrub brush. (because no way does it "just hose on, spray off!" like the bottle says.

Three days later I was done and it looked good but I had invented all sorts of new cusswords.

This was the first year in my house that I didn't powerwash mine as you can tell by the photos...I knew I was getting it replaced in the fall so I said fuck it. Hopefully the vertical siding I'm going wirth stays clean longer like I've heard.

[Perineum Ripper]

Thought about creating a new thread but this one looks as good as any.

I'm having a contractor replace my old shitty horizontal siding with some new, thicker vertical. He gave me a quote, I paid a down payment, then when he arrived to start the job tells me my house is foam under the siding and that wont work for vertical. He says I'll need wood sheathing under and my house should have had it anyway for structural support. He basically made it sound like this is very rare, a huge issue and that the builder must have done it to cut costs.

My question is, it it really that uncommon for there to be nothing but foam under the siding? Attached are pics of what he's talking about. I'm fairly sure I've seen this before on houses.



That stuff is just fiberboard, it’s used as an insulating board and has no structural value. Cheaper builders do that to save money

[srvy]

As long as the nails extend through the foam into a solid base then I'd think it wouldn't matter Horizontal or vertical.

[srvy]

There should be plywood sheathing behind that foam. Cut a small piece out of the foam to see what is behind it.

[Bearcat]

I wonder if Dartgod ever got his answer.

[tyecopeland]

The house I bought is sandstone exterior but has cedar shake siding on the triangular parts where the attic is. Unfortunately it's 70 years old and is need of replacing. Trying to decide whether to replace with new cedar shake (like the look, don't want the maintenance) or go with Hardie board in a shake look (or a vertical hardie siding) which has a 100 year color last.

[Fish]

Thought about creating a new thread but this one looks as good as any.

I'm having a contractor replace my old shitty horizontal siding with some new, thicker vertical. He gave me a quote, I paid a down payment, then when he arrived to start the job tells me my house is foam under the siding and that wont work for vertical. He says I'll need wood sheathing under and my house should have had it anyway for structural support. He basically made it sound like this is very rare, a huge issue and that the builder must have done it to cut costs.

My question is, it it really that uncommon for there to be nothing but foam under the siding? Attached are pics of what he's talking about. I'm fairly sure I've seen this before on houses.

Old ass thread bump. Anyway... That's completely normal and was done with 99% of all vinyl siding installs. Typically the installer would nail something exactly like that thin layer of R3/R5 insulation down over whatever was the base currently covering the house was(wood/stucco/batten/imitation/etc).

He's full of shit saying it won't work for vertical siding. There's really no difference. It absolutely positively does not need any additional "Structural support." That's laughably dumb. Yes, it wouldn't be as energy efficient as applying a wood sheathing lining underneath, but it's not necessary in the slightest. FYI, I've installed vinyl siding and soffit to probably over 60+ different houses.

[srvy]

Maybe your contractor means he needs to install firing strips.

[MTG#10]

Maybe your contractor means he needs to install firing strips.

He offered that as a cheaper alternative but recommended just paneling the whole thing for structural support/r-value.