replacing wood siding

[Rita]

Hi, I am thinking about getting our wood siding replaced by something. The house is about 15 years old- however, the wood siding needs to be fixed periodically because of carpenter bee problems.

Personally, I don't think the wood siding is that attractive, so I am wondering if people can give me some suggestions as to find alternative to siding. I don't have much desire in vinyl siding either (besides the fact that carpenter bee can't chew through it) because I think they look cheap.

The house has a brick facade- so perhaps more brick (real or stone veneer type of thing)? How about stucco? How much would they cost?

Last, is it possible to add insulation to the house when the wood siding is removed?

Sorry if the questions are too novice- I am a home DIY person want to be. Any suggestion would be highly appreciated.

Rita

[Randd01]

Rita you didn't say what kind of wood siding you have now. Is it clapboards or red or white cedar? There was a company called Z brick that installed a masonary fake brick over wood. Yes you can add insulation under the siding. There is new vinyl siding called iImpressions that looks a lot better then the conventional cheap vinyl siding. It is three times the money roughly $140 a square 10'X10' not installed. It resembles cedar shakes and looks great.

[Terry]

Seems shame to cover up wood siding? A later owner of our first house covered up the redwood stained cedar clapboard we had originally installed! And later regretted it. There is also a cement plank siding; I've only seen samples in local building supplier. Seems to come in various sizes including sheets and widths same as wood clapboard siding. Neighbour has used it, he said, on one end of an A Frame. Must be painted and/or stained immediately after installation. We hate vinyl, used almost universally here. Looks nice for a while but can fade, difficult to repair if damaged (can suffer wind damage) and difficult to get older styles and colours, thus leading to complete replacing! Reasonably cheap and does not need painting. However I saw a guy yesterday scrubbing his vinyl siding like mad trying to brighten it up, looks like it had some sort of mould/fungus or maybe insect or tree gums on it? I think he needed a pressure washer!

[CAStinneford]

That's probably Hardiplank and it now comes preprimed in a couple of colors. Does not need immediate painting. It has wood grain in it and could easily pass for cedar siding. We've used it in some repair work in our house which is cedar clapboard and when we attached a shed off the garage, we sided it with Hardiplank and used Azek for the fascia and corner boards. Great stuff and if we were to build another house, I'd use it exclusively.

[Jeff Cochran]

Any suggestion would be irrelevant. You're asking for someone to suggest a replacement that you like from an aesthetic point, and while we can suggest a bazillion options we can never know what your preference will be.

If you don't like the look of wood siding, drive around your area and see what you do like. Then call a local contractor for a price on doing that.

Adding insulation can be done when you replace the siding, or any other time. You'd need to know what you have already to know what might be appropriate to add.

Jeff

[Jeff Cochran]

The drawback is that it is a great substitute *if* you like the look of wood siding. I't a poor substitute if you prefer brick or stucco... :)

Jeff