I’ve been looking into getting vinyl siding for my house. I think it is a bare minimum product in that it melts in fires, can blow off, and is made from the dreaded polyvinyl chloride which both leeches chemicals (i.e. why it smells funny) and it’s made with chlorine which does no good to the environment. I started looking into other products and didn’t like any of the wood products that you have to paint.
I’m not very impressed with cement-fiber products because they seem to be brittle (i.e. would break if hit by a baseball or by hail) plus it appears that you need to paint it.
The next best thing seems to be polypropylene. I know that it doesn’t leech chemicals like PVC (or am I thinking of polyethylene) which is good. It will melt in fires, too, but I’d be willing to risk that. How is it made, though? Is it really bad for the environment in some other way?
Cost is a slight factor … a moderately cheap vinyl job would run me around US$6,000 to US$8,000 and I don’t really want to spend more than around US$15,000. Any pointers … other materials to check out?
I think that we overlook wood too quickly. Properly painted, it really can last 10-15 years.
I don’t know about enviro issues with vinyl and polyprop., but I’ve read a number of times from the This Old House types that wood and paint can be very cost effective.
I hate vinyl. Colors are limited to light shades because darker ones absorb too much heat and flex alot. It’s hard to get any architectural detail with vinyl…it looks cheesey.
I have vinyl. My house was bought new, and I know that in a ‘devlopment’, every house in vinyl covered, lest one look outta place.
I would rather live in a house on my own piece of ground if for no other reason that to have a wood house, maybe some stone, modern durable paint with colors and architectural appeal from real mouldings. So you pay someone every 12 years to paint - big deal…when compared to what really happens with siding, it might be better to paint.
If paint is done right, it’ll last 15 years and look great. Siding fades after 10 anyway, and people rip it off after five years of disgust and 10 years of gradual fading, then pay for new siding.
Vinyl flaps around, looks flimsy and warps in heat. I hate it. And, it’s harder to clean than you think.
I’m in the procees of contracting for a new home. We will be using Hardi Plank lap siding. Goes up and looks like wood, but doesn’t have woods shortcomings such as rot and decay.
More information on Hardi Plank siding can be found here:
Do you use a string trimmer to trim grass near the siding? Medium or heavy trimmer line goes thru vinyl siding like butter. Leaning a ladder on vinyl siding can easily crack it.
I’m thinking my early idea of getting regular vinyl siding is a bad one for many of the reasons mentioned including my own. My current top contender is Certainteed Polypropylene siding … it’s much thicker and has a nice wood-like finish to it. See http://www.certainteed.com/cside/csct00101p.html for information. I think it looks good and would be low maintenance for a long time.
As I said, I was wondering what the pitfalls of that particular product is environmentally. Physically, it seems to have similar characteristics to vinyl siding except that it’s thicker and thus more durable (probably enough to support a ladder, for instance.)
The cement-fiber products are also viable, except for the paint thing. I have painted mineral shingles now and somewhere along the way someone used cheap paint so now subsequent layers just peel after a couple years (not to mention the shingles are very brittle). The cost of painting even every five years five times over (hiring good people and getting good paint) would work out to about the same in the long run as 25 year siding.
I have vinyl on my current home and have not had any problems. There’s a good article in the latest issue of “Fine Homebuilding” about how vinyl should be installed. Unfortunatly the fellows who applied mine 15 years ago had not read the article!
My main complaint about vinyl, aside from the fact that it burns and melts, is all the J channel around the windows and doors. Plus they applied J channel around the porch light! I had to redo that part when I replaced the fixture. Now they make mounting blocks that eliminate that problem as well as products that reduce the use of J channel.
If you are going with vinyl, I’d really recommend that you read the article.
Our first house had vinyl siding and I appreciated it better with time. Sure it is plastic and lacking panache, but vinyl siding is real easy to keep clean, and cheap to repair. After I installed a new window, refitting the siding was a quick and forgiving process. We were always amazed at how many visitors thought we had wood siding.