Siding

[Rogar]

I am decidedly naive of some home ownership details. I rented into my 50's as a possible mistaken financial strategy, but in the end enjoyed the freedom for the time. My home was build in the 1950's and has wooden siding. Eight or so years ago I scaped, sanded and brush painted the siding and in the end I said, I'll never do that again. Now, sometime in the next year, a little sooner or later, I will need to pay someone to paint or will need to get some sort of new manufactured siding.

There are obvious immediate out of pocket costs, but in the list of pros and cons the top things I see in the siding pros are less maintenance and increase in home value. I'm not sure if there are any environmental differences. Based on my actuarial age and the probability of being able to maintain a home, I'm thinking maybe a ten to fifteen year time line of living at the same place. My informal survey of neighbors and neighborhood says that wood siding on frame houses is a thing of the past? Plastics.

[Tybee]

I am decidedly naive of some home ownership details. I rented into my 50's as a possible mistaken financial strategy, but in the end enjoyed the freedom for the time. My home was build in the 1950's and has wooden siding. Eight or so years ago I scaped, sanded and brush painted the siding and in the end I said, I'll never do that again. Now, sometime in the next year, a little sooner or later, I will need to pay someone to paint or will need to get some sort of new manufactured siding.

There are obvious immediate out of pocket costs, but in the list of pros and cons the top things I see in the siding pros are less maintenance and increase in home value. I'm not sure if there are any environmental differences. Based on my actuarial age and the probability of being able to maintain a home, I'm thinking maybe a ten to fifteen year time line of living at the same place. My informal survey of neighbors and neighborhood says that wood siding on frame houses is a thing of the past? Plastics.

Hardiboard sees to be the siding of choice now; it's very pretty in person.

[iris lilies]

We have put Hardiboard type siding on two houses in the past few years. It’s very nice.

I still see houses that have vinyl siding and it’s pretty awful.

Oddly, our insurance company knocked down our rate when they learned our old frame house had asbestos siding, before we renovated it. I assume asbestos siding is impervious to hail and therefore costs less to insure.

[pinkytoe]

Our 1960s house had some sort of masonite board and batten siding that was not faring well on the western side. We replaced with Hardi-Plank (?) board and batten since that is the style of the house. I think realtors call it cement board and it may insurance rates over some other siding materials.

[nswef]

We've had vinyl siding on the wooden siding house for 40 years. It has held up well here in Mid-Maryland.Hasn't faded or come undone. I balked at first, missed the wooden German lap siding...but not the scraping and painting yearly. Now WetnForget keeps it looking good with only the work of spraying i on, hauling the hose and sprayer around and leaning out the attic window with the smaller pump sprayer to reach the second floor gable.

[rosarugosa]

We are the only house in our immediate neighborhood without vinyl siding. We have cedar shingles, and we also have wooden windows. At this stage of our lives, I'm pretty sure it would not be cost effective to replace the siding, and we plan to just hire out the painting every several years as needed.

[catherine]

At our NJ house, we never got siding, but we played with the idea now and then. Now my son who bought our house from us is on the brink of hiring a guy to side the house, but he doesn't want the horitontal-oriented slats--he wants something that looks like shakes, but for all four sides, it is going to cost $33k!! Is that what it costs? He's thinking of putting the expensive stuff only on the front.

How much is Hardiboard? I remember looking at it when we were still living in NJ and I really liked it. But I'm thinking that's expensive, too.

I always resisted the siding because I figured it was probably more environmentally-friendly to paint. But it does take a lot of upkeep.

I have no intention of siding the house up here because it has log-cabin style siding. Plus we can paint almost all of it ourselves in a day, There are only two peaks that are too high for us, but we can hire someone to do that every few years.

[iris lilies]

I talked to DH and he said we haven’t used real Hardieboard On either of the houses we put new siding on.

On one we used cement board. On the house we’re living in now we used an epoxy based board, which I guess is the new thing. I believe both are cheaper than James Hardieboard.

Wecalso have a tin roof on this house. I don’t love the look of it, but they are popular around here.

[Rogar]

Things to consider. My 50's house doesn't have insulation in the walls. I had insulation blown into the attic after an energy audit, but adding wall insulation was prohibitively expensive. So I suppose now I could get vinyl with some insulation on the back side. A downside is that we get a big hail roar through every few years and it's damaged the neighbors siding. I'm not sure about insurance in that case. From my bit of early research I had the impression that Hardiboard could require repainting every maybe ten years, but mixed opinions on that. I do suppose it's the way of things that there are some new materials out there.

[littlebittybobby]

okay----up in that littlebittytown in the middle o' nowhere, they have nothing to do but worry about details and conformity and making girls sports more important. So, anyway way---the housing boom there was over in the 60's, and so you have these white cracker boxes to work with, mostly. So, that is the color, right there. Next: you can do one of two things: Cap it with tin, or cap it with plastic.(clap hands when I say "cap"). But see---you really don't wanna cap a residence with tin, because that would not conform to the norms around there. You'd be in Derry Queen ordering a choclatey fudge sundy with creamy nougat on top, and somebody you don'y really know whould ask you why you capped your house with tin? Way it is, there. So anyway-----I realize you have the option o' capping the old siding over with "hardieboard" but why do that? It is just compressed sawdust glued together, and not worth a tinkers' dam. Now you know. So, that leaves plastic. You may as well bite the bullet, and hire a couple guys with new pickups operating under the name "ABC Home Re-New" or whatever ta come over and cap 'er over with plastic, ASAP, (clap hands like I told ja)and it will look like new! See? You've got to conform to the norm anf get 'er capped, ASAP. That's the takeaway. No need for further discussion. Thankk mee.

[Alan]

We built our house 30 years ago with mostly brick and a vinyl siding rear. The vinyl still looks new although I do need to spray the north end with a little Wet and Forget every couple of years. We've required no real exterior maintenance during that time.

[iris lilies]

We built our house 30 years ago with mostly brick and a vinyl siding rear. The vinyl still looks new although I do need to spray the north end with a little Wet and Forget every couple of years. We've required no real exterior maintenance during that time.
Does Wet and Forget keep green mold stuff off? I see houses on my block with vinyl siding that has some of that green mold.

When we renovated our brick city townhouse in 1990 we added a two room addition and at the back of the house we were allowed by the historic code to use non-brick material. At that time vinyl was a standard, so that’s what we used. it never got the green moldy coating.

[Alan]

Does Wet and Forget keep green mold stuff off?
It takes it off but doesn't prevent it from eventually coming back. I have to spray individual splotches every so often to keep it looking nice, easy peasy over all!


When we renovated our brick city townhouse in 1990 we added a two room addition and at the back of the house we were allowed by the historic code to use non-brick material. At that time vinyl was a standard, so that’s what we used. it never got the green moldy coating.
It typically only shows up on areas without sufficient sunlight, that's why it's usually found on the northern side of a house or an area with a lot of shade. As I recall, you don't allow shade generators such as trees in your gardens. ;)

[iris lilies]

It takes it off but doesn't prevent it from eventually coming back. I have to spray individual splotches every so often to keep it looking nice, easy peasy over all!


It typically only shows up on areas without sufficient sunlight, that's why it's usually found on the northern side of a house or an area with a lot of shade. As I recall, you don't allow shade generators such as trees in your gardens. ;)


haha wrong! Our vinyl siding was on the North side of our house and near the most beautiful Pin Oak tree in our entire neighborhood. That tree was like a young Greek God when we moved, we having raised it up from a baby.

This big tree did not interfere with sunshine coming into our flower, fruit, and vegetable gardens tho. These gardens were on the other side of our property.

Trees are perfectly fine when sited properly and tamed.

[Rogar]

I spoke a with a siding installer and asked him to get back with me in March when it's a bit more pleasant. My brief search said that about half of house built in 1990 had wood siding, but it's very much gone now. In 2017 a big hail roared though my neighborhood and every vinyl siding near by had a total or partial replacement due to damage. I just had a few paint chips. Right now I'm tempted to repaint or at least start and see how it goes. The wood isn't damaged, but maybe is less attractive with coatings and scaping of paint going back 75 years.

Thanks.

[Rogar]

Just to circle back after the advice. I ran across a painter who proposed to do special work to scape and sand my wooden siding. He claimed it is tongue and groove siding which is a little special even for the time. I paid a little premium for the extra work. Finding someone to do the extra work played into the choice, as it's not fun work. Consideration was given to the fact that all of my neighbors with vinyl siding need full or parial replacement after a hail storm a few years ago and I couldn't justify the cost of more expensive siding materials. I also considered the environmental issues around the use of more new materials and it sort of fell into the reuse/recycle category. It came out klooking pretty n nice, but will probably come up again on the project list in another 8 or 10 years, which is the down side.

Anyway, end of story. The discussion was appreciated.

[iris lilies]

Just to circle back after the advice. I ran across a painter who proposed to do special work to scape and sand my wooden siding. He claimed it is tongue and groove siding which is a little special even for the time. I paid a little premium for the extra work. Finding someone to do the extra work played into the choice, as it's not fun work. Consideration was given to the fact that all of my neighbors with vinyl siding need full or parial replacement after a hail storm a few years ago and I couldn't justify the cost of more expensive siding materials. I also considered the environmental issues around the use of more new materials and it sort of fell into the reuse/recycle category. It came out klooking pretty n nice, but will probably come up again on the project list in another 8 or 10 years, which is the down side.

Anyway, end of story. The discussion was appreciated.

It is VERY cool that you preserved your tongue and groove siding! House huggers approve of this.Good show.

[catherine]

It is VERY cool that you preserved your tongue and groove siding! House huggers approve of this.Good show.

Amen!

[nswef]

Thanks for the update Rogar! I'm glad you found a painter who was excited to save it! Well worth the money in the long run. In 8 years it may not need as much scraping and restoration.

[Tradd]

Interesting update. Glad you were able to save the unique siding.

[happystuff]

Glad it worked out! Nice to find someone to do the work and seem to actually enjoy doing it.