When the siding looks bad on your house, your whole property doesn’t look right. How can you change your look? Sometimes, even siding that has suffered 
some deterioration, and has peeled and failing paint, can be repaired by an extensive professional paint job, involving sandblasting, specialty primers, and multiple coats of high quality paint. Sometimes, however, you just have to replace your siding. For purposes of this post we’re talking about replacing wood, vinyl, aluminum, asbestos, or hardboard siding and not brick, cement block, or stucco. How do you navigate the many choices and decisions to find something right for your house? Here’s some tips:
- Consider the architectural style of your home. When was it built? How large is the front elevation (view from the street)? Look at the roof lines. Your home may fit into a definite style like a bungalow, a Victorian, a New England saltbox, or a 70’s tract house. Houses belonging to definite period architectural styles should usually be sided in choices from that period and style. Some homes styles might allow almost any siding choice as long as the end look is an integrated whole. You could cover your 1984 tract
house which has T-111 siding with solid cedar lap siding and put off reroofing, but covering the entire front with stone would require a nice architectural shingle and possibly adding something such as dormers for a complete look. - If your home style would be best adorned by stained natural wood and the cost fits your budget, real wood lap siding is a quality choice and, according to national surveys, is the first choice of 65% of contractors for their own homes! Consider the higher maintenance costs of needing to stain/seal every two years compared to five to eight years for painted siding.
- For painted siding the current favorite seems to be fibercement lap siding in either a 5″ or 7″ exposure. The depth of the lap is only the 5/16″ thickness of the board. For this reason acceptance of this siding was slow at first as consumers compared it to the 3/4″ depth of exposed lap common to real wood products. Now its clean lines are accepted across a range of architectural styles. Advantages include lower cost compared to real wood lap siding, and, if paint is properly maintained, it can hold it’s original look for decades. By contrast wood siding moves, grain shrinks and swells, and knots crack and even fall out. Even regularly painted wood siding deteriorates with time.
- Consider mixing siding types for architectural affect. Shingles are often applied to gable ends above the line of wall tops. Though many are tempted to enjoy the natural beauty of the wood it is usually architecturally superior to paint them in a color complementing the body color. Selectively using an alternative siding within the body can also be effective. This might be flat sheet products with raised wood battens on selected surfaces on a mostly lap siding house. Look around in architectural mags or neighborhoods for designs that grab your attention.
- What about vinyl or aluminum? My carpenter’s bias is to stay away. Why? Any carpenter can recognize vinyl or aluminum siding as “fake” from 150 feet away, and it costs up to twice as much. Usually it is sold by a high pressure sales force under the “never have to paint” motive. It doesn’t appear to keep a fresh look as long as “never have to paint” stucco for instance and the savings of fibercement over vinyl can pay for a number of paint jobs. Still some don’t seem to notice vinyl siding’s ”plastic” look and are very satisfied with it.
Call a recommended siding professional to explore your options!
JR Mathwig Builders on HelpHive
