Vinyl Siding Question...

ovrszd · Nov 20, 2020

Don't buy cheap vinyl anything.

Don't buy from a company that only has one person that can answer a question.

Ask about mold/mildew protection. Good quality siding will have that protection built into the product. Cheap siding won't.

As Moss mentioned, install loosely. This prevents bulging and buckling from temp change. Depresses me to drive by a "high dollar" house and see bulging siding or mold growing on the North side. Wouldn't that be depressing as He**.

I put vinyl siding on our previous house in 1995. It's still straight, no fading, no mold. Can't remember the brand. Builder friend of mine got it for me.

TractorGuy · Nov 20, 2020

My house was done in OSB with roofing felt over then the vinyl siding. Id the current siding isn't rotten you might just cover with tar paper.

Pixguy · Nov 20, 2020

Although we built new, garage at old home and now new home has Certainteed shingles. Top quality product and low maintenance. Do it and enjoy your free time!

MAD777 · Nov 20, 2020

I built a house a couple of year ago in the mountains of NH and everyone recommended CertainTeed Monogram siding. Very happy I went that route.

i7win7 · Nov 20, 2020

Vinyl may not survive a hail storm. Fire prone areas - vinyl melts before it burns

MossRoad · Nov 20, 2020

i7win7 said:
Vinyl may not survive a hail storm. Fire prone areas - vinyl melts before it burns

It won't survive a tornado either. That's why you have insurance.

dodge man · Nov 21, 2020

The shakes work better on a flat straight wall better than in a peak. Sometimes you end up with some awkward pieces when using the shakes, you kind of end up with some small slivers. It does work though and it looks good as accents in those areas. We had our house done roughly 10 years ago and used the vinyl shakes in several places.

Pixguy · Nov 21, 2020

In this pic you can see the 3 different vinyls we used. Is still like the look of natural shakes and clapboard but as I get older I am trying to make the days of 20 gallons of Sikkens a thing of the past.

3Ts · Nov 21, 2020

Leave the T 1-11 on if in good condition, then Tyvek, then the vinyl. The trim is not hard to do, but can take some time to get it right. The rest of it is easy and should go quickly. Be sure you get enough! I chose to do the vertical "boards" on a 9' wall, the boards are 12' long so a lot of waste. My neighbor owns the siding company and did the estimating and used a square foot figure, but didn't account for 30% waste since they'd only done horizontal before. I did the installation under his direction and had access to his tools, including his 12' sheet metal bender. The vinyl was from a reputable national company (I forget which one) but the brown wood grain vinyl planks had changed color and started to turn a moldy green after 2 years and all of it had changed within 5 years (this was 25 years ago) and it was not mold. It was an actual color change. We ended up taking the vinyl siding off and putting Hardi Planks on. They held up much better and the paint lasted a long time. I'm much more in favor of Hardi Plank boards than vinyl or many of the other siding materials.

Richard · Nov 21, 2020

Good comments and I appreciate them.

I don't know her reasoning....but the shakes are already here. Wife already picked them up. I verified yesterday that I will need some kind of starter strip to hold the bottom/starter row... interesting to me that the salesman didn't ask about it....then again, they deal with contractors (only) and might have presumed we knew exactly what we wanted/needed....when in fact, we didn't.

That said, I think I've also figured out that I don't HAVE to necessarily go back there (35 miles away) to buy some starter strips....I might be able to go to local box store and buy some in similar color.

Foundry Siding

As for other brands....I know nothing about the above nor others. (neither does the wife) She is a very visual person and as long as "item x" meets her visual needs, she doesn't really care or put effort into any mechanical/technical aspects of it. (marrying me is a perfect example!! HAR, I kill myself!)

She was at a yard sale or something.... they had a belt sander, so she bought it. Granted, she only spent something like $20 on it but to be blunt, it's a piece of junk that I'll probably toss into the garbage or take to recycling center one day... I'm not saying it's junk.... it is J.U.N.K. I'm not sure I would have taken it if given to me because it's not worth the effort to get rid of... Oh, and by the way.... it currently doesn't work either. (sigh)

So this siding is a totally blind/ignorant purchase. Fortunately the area it's covering is small... this side of house gets hit with sun about 90% of the day.