Vinyl Siding Brands And Thickness ?

[Robert11]

Hello,

Live outside of Boston.

Re Vinyl Siding:

Have been looking all over the web, and, frankly, there's so much, it's really confusing.

Would like to ask:

a. Is there any concensous as to which brand is the "best" ?

If not, which are generally considered as the top quality brands ?

b. Is 0.048 the thickest that anyone offers for residential use ?

c. Is there a very rough price per sq ft that is generally acdepted as a norm for the total of material and labor cost to install ?

Thanks, B.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

You have more to be concerned about that just thickness of material. What exactly is the material? (there are many blends and additives that can be used). Who is going to do the installation? I'd rather have a second tier material installed by a good craftsman than the best material hung by a hack. Talk to the people you will be working with and find out why then like to use a particular brand.

[willshak]

On 1/24/2005 1:34 PM US(ET), Robert11 took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

I have Certainteed double 4 on my house (each panel is 2 - 4" 'boards'). When I built my poolhouse some years later, I wanted the siding color to match my house (I forgot the color, but "Federal Blue" comes to mind). Unfortunately, Certainteed no longer made the color that I had on my house. I found a matching color at HD and used that on the poolhouse. It didn't appear any cheaper than the Certainteed and looks as good as my house. The embossed wood grain is almost equal. The house siding is 20 years old and the poolhouse siding about 10 years old.

[tbasc]

I second Mr. Pawlowski"s comment. I've seen many more problem installations of vinyl than good ones. The crews appear to have been untrained and unsupervised. TB

[Colbyt]

You have been a busy poster!

.044 is the normal builder grade vinyl siding. Some companies sell a higher grade version. I think it is like 20% thicker and about 30% more in cost. The quality of the installation and substrate is a bigger factor than the thickness of the siding. All of them will crack when hit by a golf ball or rock slung by a lawnmower.

Vinyl siding is generally priced and installed "by the square". A square is

100 square feet. One sheet of your old T-111 was 32 square feet (4 x 8).

No one can estimate prices without seeing the job. Siding is about $120.00 a square here. That price does not include the necessary trim pieces or any labor. Your job might have a lot of trim pieces per square or just a few. I am sure that licensed insured contractors charge a lot more where you are than they do here.

Colbyt

[twfsa]

Instead of vinyl check out concrete siding, no problems with hail breaking it, holds paint excellently, need a person thats experienced in doing the install.

Tom