My house has a wooden siding that mostl likele is in a dire need of paint (we bought it 5 years ago). Does it make sense to put a new vinyl siding on it at that point instead? Can one put a vinyl siding on top of woden one? will it enhance the insulation? Are there really any advantages of keeping the wood siding and paiting it over puting new vinyl one? If anyone could direct me to a referende spources/site i would be grateful.
Pawel
around here vinyl on new homes is for budget puposes only. covering wood is for people who either don't have a lot of time to do the regular painting, the wood needs replacing but too expensive or older folks who are not able to deal with the physical stress of painting or the cost to hire someone to do it. vinyl can go over wood. There is little or no R value in it. It is of personal choice. There are some very nice looking vinyls on the market now. Depends on the type of house.
Where I live, a suburb of Dayton, the houses are 30 to 35 years old and most, including mine, have vinyl over the old siding. That is pretty common practice around Ohio.
The vinyl goes over the old siding and is held in place with corner and window channels. Between the siding and vinyl many contractors put a thin sheet of accordion insulation. This helps smooth out the surface for the vinyl so you don't get that wavy look.
I went with the Mastic brand which was 0.048" thick. Proper installation is CRUCIAL. I used an Alcoa master contractor with 35 years experience. My siding on a equivalent one story (I have a raised ranch) with partial brick on the front with soffit trim, facia boards covered in coiled aluminum, and new gutters ran $6,300. This was 4 years ago.
Regards,
Harry
The choice is yours, however, here are the facts. Painting is MUCH cheaper, especially if you fo it yourself. Vinyl siding is ugly and will need to be replaced in 20 years or less. Vinyl adds no insulation by itself, but you can add foam sheets under it and a much higher cost.
That would be good information if it was true.
My house is 27 years old. The siding is in perfect condition. I have no plans to replace it in the next five or more years. Newer siding is even better looking and may last even longer. Most important, I enjoy not having to paint it every few years.
Ditto.
Mine was installed in '89. Looks new and great. It does not look like vinyl siding though:
I know a house that was sided with vinyl around 93. It looked bad when it was installed, all warped and lumpy looking. They have had to replace pieces that blew off in average wind storms, The pieces that came off literally shattered to pieces just landing on the lawn, and the whole house has cracks, gaps, and is just plain ugly. The owner is my neighbor. He has ti inspected, said it was properly installed, but the siding is crap. He plans to reside with wood or aluminum next summer, and at the moment he has several 2x4's nailed vertically onto the siding, with a steel frame standing against the house to keep the siding in place on that side. He said he is not going to spend another cent on that junk to repair it. Also, the vinyl or pvc (plastic) rain gutters had to be replaced when they were 4 years old. Hail punched so many holes in them they looked like swiss cheese. I remember him showing me a piece of the stuff they took off. He took a hammer and hit it, and 5 feet of gutter just exploded into a hundred pieces. I would never install ANY plastic siding or gutters. Give me wood, steel, or aluminum.
If it was lumpy when installed, I doubt it was done properly.
Like ay material, including your favorites, there are different grades and different installations. If every house was like your neighbor's, the siding industry would have been out of business many years ago. I know of houses with aluminum, steel, and wood, that look like crap too.
Painting exteriors is quite a pain indeed.
I felt so, and was glad I did. Vinyl siding is pretty common in my neighborhood/area.
Yup. But... you do want to replace any rotten wood first.
Keeping the existing wood siding in place does help your insulation value. I'd also recommend putting up board insulation on top of hte wood siding before the vinyl goes on.
You're likely to get responses all over the map citing folks beliefs on wood vs vinyl. It's a personal preference, and the market value of vinyl vs wood in your area should be considered.
I have to say though, my 1970 cedar sided shit-brown home was so much more satisfying to come home to after a few days of some good craftsmen covering that crap up with premium grade dutch lap vinyl siding, wrapping the windows in aluminnum, and insalling brand new gutters, soffit, fascia. Place looked brand new when they were done, and the whole job including siding and new windows weighed in under $8000. Best money I ever spent on the place. And I don't get awakened by wood peckers in the summer anymore.
Best Regards,
-- Todd H.
I slapped a few before and after pictures up that also shows the board insulation that went up under the vinyl. The difference is pretty dramatic. Location is in the Chicago, IL USA suburbs where siding is quite common:
Best Regards,
-- Todd H.
The big unknown here is what kind of wood you currently have and what condition it is in. There is big difference between top grade, well installed and maintained cedar siding and something like cheap T-111 that is poorly installed and not maintained. If I had the former, I would never cover it with vinyl. However, if you have existing wood that is cheap and in poor condition, then vinyl could be a reasonable alternative.
And the same is true of vinyl siding. A cheap product, poorly installed isn't going to look like a premium one. IMO, real quality wood will always look better. Think about high end custom homes you've seen. How many of those had vinyl siding? But real wood comes with the higher initial and maintenance cost. Which is right depends on what's there now, what style home it is, what similar homes in the area have, and your budget.
Well said.
It also bears mentioning that, there are often covenants in higher end subdivisions/developments that mandate "must use natural materials" or some such right in their covenants to eliminate the possibility of the homes getting vinyl.
The scope of what's worthwhile to consider depends on the neighborhood and what's considered normal.
-- Todd H.
Vinyl is made from oil, a natural product so it should qualify ;)
At the end of the day, it all comes down to the condition of the existing siding, cost to repaint, cost to side, and your view of the look of siding versus paint. That being said, I paint and hang wallcovering for a living. I also prefer the look of wood siding over aluminum or vinyl. That may well be a subjective judgment. The cost to do an exterior job can be a bear if the exterior needs a lot of prep. But, to do the job right means to do the prep work as the job will only be as good as the prep. I've told many customers over the years to go with siding rather than paint if I believed that there were issues with the siding that would be cost prohibitive or impossible to remediate with paint. I'd rather lose one exterior job than my reputation because a paint job failed prematurely. FWIW YMMV
Steel and aluminum are natural too, but steel and maybe aluminum interfere with radio and and maybe tv reception. The siding company told me they didn't, but I called a radio antenna company (Temna?) and the woman told me they caused problems.
Seems likely to me. Ever drive through a steel frame bridge?
Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.
According to someone that inspected it, and who knows what he is doing, it was installed properly. It was junk siding. Very poor quality crap. As far as the rain gutters, that inspector said he never recommends anyone install them. He said they bake in the sun and just disintegrate !
Personally, I can not stand the look of plastic siding. But thats just my opinion and preference. Plastic is just ugly stuff, what else can I say.
Its funny this came up in this thread, because I was thinking about a friends house. He had cedar shakes over redwood horiz boards, and I always loved the look of that house. It was very decorative and reminded me of a summer cottage where someone would go to fish and get away from the world. Except it was in a small city. However, his family outgrew that small house and because of building codes, he could not add on as he wanted. He sold the place. The next owner covered it with plastic siding. Both of us about vomited ! It went from being a cute house to a boring plastic box with no eye appeal, and now looked like every other house. Worse yet, the guy tore off the front porch, which was all glass windows, and made the house even smaller. We both agreed it looked like shit when he finished. Whats funny, my friend sold the place in a couple weeks. This new guy apparenlly bought it to sell at a profit, and over a year later it's still for sale and empty.
You are correct about the metal siding causing poor reception, but thats what roof antennas are for.
And then we complain about the gas prices !!!!!
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