Introduction to Siding

Which siding to choose?

There are many factors to consider when thinking about siding. There are, of course, practical issues such as weather resistence, cost, ease of installation, and durability. However, there are also matters like style and appearence. You want to match the architecture of your home, and you may also want to consider the style of homes in your neighborhood.

Homes out in California or Arizona, where tile roofs are very popular, would want to consider stucco. A home in the Mid-West may want to keep the look of wood siding, but get rid of the regular maintenance of painting by installing vinyl siding. Your personal taste is also a big factor to consider, after all, you´ll be living there. Remember though, you most likely won´t want to make your home an oddball in the neighborhood.

Siding Materials Available

There are basically 7 types of popular siding used today. They are:

• Wood
• Shingles and Shakes
• Fiber
• Metal Siding
• Vinyl Siding
• Stucco
• Masonry (Brick, Stone, and Masonry Veneers)

Save yourself the cost of a good siding job

Even the most difficult siding to install, is not terribly time consuming. You will find that you can save yourself at least half the cost of a good siding job, by doing the installation yourself. With some siding, like vinyl, you can actually save more, like around 75% or better. Vinyl goes up very quickly, is relatively easy to install, and is comparitively inexpensive, so it is a very popular siding treatment. It is also very low maintenance, and can be left alone for many years. On the other hand, cedar siding is very expensive to purchase, and time consuming to prepare. It must also be carefully maintained by monitoring splits and re-staining about every 3 to 5 years.

Maintenance factors

For this reason, maintenance factors must be considered when evaluating siding to get the true cost of ownership. If installing one type of siding is $50 a square and costs you $500 every other year, you might be better off paying $75 per square and $100 every 5 years on a different type of siding.

Important factors of siding and detailed installation instructions

In the other articles in this section, you will find each type of siding treatment listed individually and all of the important factors like cost, installation time, ease of installation, and maintenance, listed in detail along with detailed installation instructions. And this isn´t just something I read in a book. I have personally installed each of these types of treatments. I´ll give you a little insight. The quickest, cheapest, and easiest type of siding to install, by far, is vinyl. So if those factors are most important to you, you can jump straight to Vinyl Siding.