Another look at Vinyl Siding

After great strides in quality and appearance between the mid 90’s and the early 2000’s, Vinyl siding’s popularity grew to capture over one third of the exterior-cladding market for new homes. Since then, vinyl siding’s market share has taken a small hit, but remains at about 32%. Brick comes in as the second most popular siding at 25%, followed by stucco, fiber cement and wood. The low-maintenance benefits of vinyl, coupled with its relatively low fully installed cost, are winning people over left and right. Many new homeowners simply don’t want to spend their weekends painting their house and performing other maintenance on their home’s exterior.

Good Looks

The attraction to vinyl siding’s curbside appeal has never been stronger, with key advances in its decorative textures and color options. In the past, homeowners have been limited to little more than a dozen colors. Today, manufacturers offer vinyl siding in a baseline color palette of 700 colors. Some of the options include colored siding, soffit, fascia and designer accents.

New textures mimic the look of real wood in both traditional panel styles, such as clapboard or Dutch lap, as well as newer cedar shake-style polypropylene siding. Most vinyl siding panels are extruded from a machine.

Weather Resistance

Like with any siding product there are different types, styles and sizes of vinyl siding. For weather resistant purposes, the thicker panels resist sagging that can occur with the more thing panels and tend to better retain their shape. Also, panels with narrow clapboards and folded, doubled nailing hems also resist bending. The more bends in the siding profile, the more rigid the panel. This means the thick panels will do a better job protecting your house from strong winds, while “wimpier” panels might get blown off during a severe storm. If you’re not sure how strong the siding is you’re looking at buying, take a look at the manufacturers warranty, it should give you an idea.

As far as rain goes, the good news is that vinyl is less likely than wood to trap moisture. Tiny weep holes on the lower edges of the panels allow water to escape, and the panels’ “loose” installation provides good ventilation to the sheathing. However, it is critical that some type of house wrap or felt paper covers the sheathing beneath the siding.

Insulated Siding

Insulated siding features panels backed with extruded polystyrene or polypropylene foam, which is designed to increase the siding’s R-value by as much as five times that of conventional siding.

the insulated cladding helps to reduce a homeowner’s energy bills. The insulation makes the panels more rigid and stable and less susceptible to dents and cracks. Another benefit to insulated siding is noise reduction. The insulation around the home acts as a barrier to the noises that frequent your neighborhood.