We're moving into a wood home we bought. I'm considering having some kind of metal or vinyl siding put on it, and need some thoughts as to how that compares with painting.
What's a good range for how many years a house can go between paintings?
I've got an estimate of cost of painting, and an estimate of siding cost. What's missing is how often we'd need to paint in order to do a long term cost comparison.
That depends on many things which we have no way of knowing. Is the house in Arizona or on the coast of Maine? What condition is the wood in? How many layers of existing paint is on there, what kind was it, and what shape is it in? What kind of paint are you planning to use?
In my experience, quality paint correctly applied to a good base in an average environment will generally last 7 to 9 years. And IMO, if you have good quality wood siding, that looks superior and adds value to a house compared to vinyl siding, so I would not cover it up.
A job done well, at least here in the northeast, can last up to ten years. That's with not scrimping on prep or paint quality.
You can found out what neighbors' experiences were, and maybe get some estimates, taking the middle of the estimates and only believing the ones that will include a lot of prep. Then make your comparison with what a siding cost would be.
But it's not just cost. Think about what you want/like as far as esthetics, and how important low maintenance is to you.
Banty (will side it this year)
If you do siding, I think metal siding interferes with radio and tv reception, like driving through an iron frame bridge.
The siding companies say no,; maybe, but I called a company (a famous name but I'd have to dig out the antenna and look) that makes add-on radio antennas, and he said yes.
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Metal siding definetly interferes with cell phone reception:( vinyl is a better choice
Honestly your better off with siding, your existing wood probably has lead based paint:( Repaining is a never ending job, and when it comes time to sell low maintence is a advantage.
unless your home is in a historic district!...............
Expect siding to cost about 4 times the cost of repainting.
figure painting abut every 7 years to keep house looking good. every 10 is pushing it. the longer between repaints the more the wood repair. that adds costs too.
Low maintenance may be considered an advantage by some, but many people prefer the look of real wood. Well maintained, quality, real wood, always looks better than siding. If it didn't, you'd see vinyl siding on custom high end homes, yet you never do. Put vinyl on one of those homes and you'd lower the market value, because then it would look like one of the cookie cutter homes.
If it costs 4X the price of painting, then the savings in maintenance costs is questionable. Assuming you paint a wood home every 8 years, it would take 32 years to break even, and that is without discounting the present value of money. Factor that in, and it's probably 40+ years, which is about the life of vinyl siding. Plus, with paint you can change the color periodically if you want a different look.
20 years ago, I was on a tour of one of the famous mansions on the east side of the Hudson River north of NYC.
It wasn't FDR. I'm pretty sure it was the Vanderbilt house.
The front hall walls, or maybe just the thick balustrade to the winding stairway, was made of wood, finished to look like marble.
The tour guide said that this was popular in those days, and was actually MORE expensive than marble.
Personally I think they put it there to SAVE money and she didn't know what she was talking about, on this point.
Do you or does anyone else have an opinion on this?
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Without knowing where you are, the condition of the siding and the quality of the prep work that will go into the job I agree with all the other posters. 5 - 10 years if you want to protect the siding and keep the house looking good. This presumes a quality paint and prep job over siding in average condition.
Colbyt
"RB" wrote in news:1hENf.34144$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews5.bellsouth.net:
All types of siding look ugly.
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