My wife and I just purchased our first home (well technically the close hasn't happened yet, but it's going through escrow).
The home inspector recommended that we replace the siding, so we are going to do that. Right now the siding is some sort of old composite that is falling apart. We are trying to decide what to put up.
Vinyl is very durable and doesn't need painting but most vinyl that I have seen is kind of ugly.
If we get cedar siding that is stained and sealed, how often will it have to be stained and sealed?
If we get a composite siding, how often will that have to be stained and sealed? And what is the best type of composite siding to get?
Check again. It has improved quite a bit over the years and most is pretty good looking and NO painting. I just hose mine down once a year.
Depends on your climate. Every 2 to 6 years is typical. Looks nice, but depending on your age and interest in climbing and painting, think twice about it.
Vinyl is ugly and cheap looking. Cedar is quite expensive and requires maintenance. I recommend cement siding. I have Hardie Plank on my house and it looks nice. You can get it pre-painted, and the finish has a warranty. It eventually will need painting, but it won't go bad like the Masonite you had did.
Vinyl clad aluminum has looked good here for about 20 years but is beginning to fade. Would still recommend it based on my own satisfaction. Dark colors my wife and I preferred were only available in vinyl clad aluminum and could not be purchased in vinyl, so I was "forced" to go with aluminum if I wanted a dark chocolate brown color. Not sure if this is still true or not.
That's the color I have, and vinyl siding wouldn't come with a warranty in that color, I hear. STill quite a few neigbhors bought it, and it doesn't seem to have faded, in vinyl.
The next n'hood over is a bit cheaper than ours, and the original vinyl goes to the grass, instead of having a brick first floor, and there seem to be several holes in the vinyl, I don't know why. Too cheap? Use of ladders?
I was told, when I called and asked Temna antennas, I think it was, that aluminum (and steel I'm sure) siding could interfere with radio reception. Seems reasonable.
Yes Alu. can dent. Also it can corrode (in Maritime climate) My neighbor replaced with vinyl. But complains it is noisy in windy conditions. He comes to our house which is 10 inch pine clapboard and marvels how much quieter it is. We stain the pine (don't paint it) about every six years and since 1970 I have replaced about 30% on one side facing the sun and the occasional board elsewhere. If I ever did a total replacement I might consider Hardi-Plank. However another neighbour has tried cement based Hardi-Plank; and has installed it on one end of his A frame summer home but has had some problems. He is currently dealing with Hardi-Plank rep because of 'flaking'. We don't know it it was just a bad batch or what?
I have cedar siding, 80 years old. Where I stripped and re-painted, it looks better than new. And I do mean better than anything I've seen on new houses.
few people go to all the work of stripping and repainting plus 80 year old siding was old growth wood. grows slow extra strong and hard. much more stable.
new farm raised wodd is softer, bigger rings less strong rots easier and probably wouldnt make even 40 years let alone 80. its why wood twists bends and such today. its farm raised fast and not nearly as good.
Yes. But it is not 'interference' in the accepted sense. Interference is for example something that radiates a signal or electrical noise that 'interferes with' the operation of other equipment. Devices such as some CFLs, light dimmers, garage door openers (especially cheap products which may, or may not, comply with FCC standards) can be the culprits. I have a shaver that makes clicking noises on our bedside radio; and it's allegedly a good brand too! Of course we bought it at Wal mart so probably made in China anyway!
Bad wiring and or a sparking motor etc can also cause interference.
It's also to try and avoid local interference is why super duper communications radios have outside antenna often supported by towers or poles. Radio amateurs for example. Very useful during some of the emergencies we have been seeing in recent years due to storms etc (Global warming anyone?)
However: Any metal completely surrounding radio/TV equipment can 'shield' it. From desired and undesired signals. That's why radios without an outside antenna often won't work inside a steel/aluminum ship, certain steel sheds, metal campers and RVs etc.
We lived in a US made house trailer at one time and the only way to get TV reception was to run an antenna outside onto a fence. Outside it worked fine even when under a foot of snow! Inside the metal enclosed living unit virtually nothing would receive the TV signal. The windows even had metal mesh fly screens which made the metal shield surrounding us virtually complete.
The uglyness factor is strictly personal preference. Your preference nay vary from mine, but I think vinyl looks ugly. Ny neighborhood is all 1920's houses, mixture of cedar clapboards, cedar shakes, and stucco. Some people get tired of the maintenace of cedar siding, so they cover it with stucco. Some people may argue that vinyl looks OK, but it certainly looks out of place in my neighborhood.
People say vinyl and aluminum are "maintenance free". I prefer to think of them as "unmaintainable". It gets dmamaged and you are often SOL. Yes, you just wash down the vinyl or aluminum siding every year or two, but once it gets damaged, often you are out of luck because you can't find a matching replacement. They don't make the same vinyl patterns for 100 years in a row. Around here, we get windstorms every few years, and it is common to see large pieces of vinyl siding missing from houses. Doesn't happen to my cedar. We also get ice storms occassionally, last big one a tree came down and hit the side of our house. All I did was replace a couple clapboards (exact match to the 80 year old stuff easily obtainable), and then paint that section of wall. If I had vinyl or aluminum, I probably would have had to do an extensive search for an approximate match, and even then probably would have had to replace the whole section of that wall.
Yes, you do have to maintain cedar. Around here, everybody paints it, and once you paint then you have to continue to paint rather than stain. If my house hadn't been painted way back than, I would much prefer stain. Prep work would be minimized, and then you would apply a stain every 5-10 years. In New England, the standard seems to be let cedar shakes weather naturally. Lifetime seems to be 100+ years, way longer than any viinyl siding job will ever last. This is as long as you like the effect of weathered gray cedar shakes.
Cost of cedar will be much greater than vinyl or aluminum.
No first hand experience with cement siding, but I believe it does a decent job of combining all the best attributes of wood vs. vinyl or aluminum. As long as you like the look of cement siding. I have the impression it lasts forever, replacements should hopefully be available 20+ years after you originally install the siding so that you can repair damage. Holds paint well, so you don't have to paint all the time.
If you have environmental concerns, cedar is a renewable resource, however it comes from cutting old growth forests. Vinyl is a petroleum product. Aluminum is recyclable. Cement is probably the best overall because it is a mineral that is not in short supply, and it last a long time.
Agreed. I still have some of the original clapboards on sections of my house, which was built before 1850. Five years ago an old farm was subdivided down the road, and four new houses were built. They were all different styles, and colors, but all used vinyl siding. The white one hasn't faded, but there are vertical stains near one window which look like rust. I don't know what it is, but I know they've had the house washed and the stains remain. The other three are very faded, with the blue one looking particularly awful. My clapboard paint job lasts for 10 years. Can't say that about the vinyl I've seen, which starts looking awful in about three years. However, I am firmly in the "all vinyl/aluminum/non-wood clapboards look hideous" camp, so YMMV.
I like steel siding and roofing. It has that agricultural look that might be called ugly but I bet it out-performs any other material in any category except appearance. Cost per year of use. Ease of installation. Zero mainentance. Last longer and has more colors than vinyl. That's why they use it on barns, it's the best.
I see more often steel used in residential areas at least on roofs anyway. I'm sure steel siding just wouldn't fit in some neighorhoods, hehe, but it seems to be used more often than in the past.
metal kills cell signals in homes, dents pretty easily, neighborhood homes have had to be painted at around the 30 year mark the paint literally wears away.......
"Some" vinyl looks cheap and does not hold up well long term. Quality vinyl does. I wonder how many houses you've seen with good vinyl on it and thought it was some other material.
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