Vinyl Siding

Vinyl siding is one of those products that middle class homeowners either have or dream about. For people with wood siding vinyl is a dream come true. Just think, no more painting! Wood siding is sometimes cheaper but you'll have ongoing expenses with paint, labor and taking the time to actually freshen the paint every few years. In between your house slowly looks more and more tattered until the next coat is applied.

When we bought our house in 1999 the back garage had no siding at all, just tyvex wrap and the house had painted wood siding that was badly in need of attention. In order to buy the house the bank required us to add siding to the garage. So we immediately went to vinyl. We looked a several neutral color options and picked our favorite. We bought enough to do the entire house, too, but only the garage had to be done before the loan was issued. That was in December. Fortunately it was a fairly warm winter (at least early on) so we were able to get the siding applied without any trouble. If the temperature gets too cold you can't apply siding so we got pretty lucky.

That spring after it warmed up again we added that same siding to the rest of the house. It made a huge difference in the appearance and gave the house a much needed boost to its curb appeal.  The look was finished off with a coat of blue paint on the window trim.

If you watch a lot of educational shows on TLC and the DIY channels you'll see that most house flippers replace wood siding with vinyl pretty much everytime. Not only is it beautiful and easy to install, but the fact that almost zero maintenance is required means the new homeowner doesn't have to worry about paint.

It used to be that every summer I'd see people out painting houses. At least 15 per summer in our small town. Now I'm lucky if I see two. More and more houses are switching to vinyl siding for the extreme affordability, durability and convenience.

We saved a fortune in the price of our siding by installing it ourselves. It's really easy to do, I have almost no handyman skills and even I was able to help. The most difficult part is being sure to measure correctly when you need to cut around windows and doors. Otherwise the sheets go up in one long strip and there's very little to mess with. They lock together and it's literally a snap.

There is a product out in the last few years called seemless siding. Now that looks neat. It has to be professionally installed, but essentially you'll have no siding seems on any siding of your house. Each length is cut perfectly to match from one end to the other. The installer cuts it right at your house and installs it for you. It really is beautiful but it adds a considerable cost to the final price. If you can afford it I recommend it. Otherwise by the cheaper version and install it yourself. You'll be glad you did. I'll never go back to wood siding.