Lots of siding looks nice. Wood is fine but a pain in the ass to maintain over the years. Vinyl you put up and leave up. No rot. Virgin vinyl stays the same color without fading. If you spend the extra cash I rather have the real looking vinyl siding just because the stuff can last a lifetime!
Tom
At 10 yards, chances are you can see the filled in spots and scraped and sanded wood too. Clapboard is nice when new but after a few paint jobs and peeling, it is a PITA. Paint as you wish, but I prefer not to.
There is vinyl siding that looks good at 10 yards or 10 inches. I've had people touch my siding and still not believe that it was vinyl. It looks better than wood, never needs painting, does not chalk and won't break in a hail storm. We've only had one hail storm with golf ball sized hail. No damage to the siding.
Since the pieces are 2 ft by 4 ft there is no issue with wavyness either.
Couldn't agree more. and I'm a modernist. Vinyl siding is cheap junk.
Maintenance free is a lie.
You have to wash it every year to get rid of the mildew and the chalking. And if you do that wrong, you end up with water in your wall's insulation. I've been looking at houses, and every single one that has vinyl siding that wasn't applied yesterday has all kinds of mildew and grime that collects in the poors and so on, and the agent says "oh you just have that washed every year or so"
If you buy the 'quality' stuff and you have your old siding prepped properly for installation of the new, And you are powerwashing it every year to avoid the grime and mildew, And you are replacing the siding every 10-20 years when it reaches the end of its life, And going through the hassle of finding someone to install it properly,
you may just as well have your wood siding scraped and repainted every 10-20 and continue it's indefinite lifespan.
I'd agree if what you are saying was always true. My house is 27 years old and have never had mold on it. It has been washed with a hose every five years or so. Washed properly, the water will not get into the insulation. It gets washed less often than my painted garage.
As for its end of life, I'd at 27 years and expect it will go another 20+. Evidently, your experience has been much different than mine. Maybe you live in a rainy climate or a swamp, but here in the northeast, it is a rarity to have what problems you describe.
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