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The first choice for most homeowners
is wood, because it stands unmatched for beauty and durability. Wood is
available in boards, shingles or shakes. These products are typically made from
red or white cedar but they are also available in pine, spruce, redwood, cypress
and Douglas fir. The benefits to going with wood is it offers some insulation
value, is easy to repair and install, and is available pre-stained, primed or
unfinished in many styles. Some products even come with fire-retarding
treatments. The drawback to solid wood siding is that it must be painted or
stained, which will add several thousand dollars to the cost of the job and to
maintenance expenses in the future. For example, wood shingles cost between $3
and $4 per square foot before staining or painting.
Cedar Shingles
Homes sided in cedar shingles (also called "shakes") are made of natural cedar
and are usually stained in shades of brown, gray, or other earthen colors.
Shakes are very popular on traditional, ranch, historical and vacation homes
that want to blend in with its natural or rustic surroundings.
Engineered or Composite Wood
If solid wood is too much of a strain on your pocketbook you might want to
consider engineered or composite wood products like plywood, oriented strand
board (OSB) and hardboard ($1.50 to $2.70 per square foot), but even the best of
these products won’t give you the look of real wood. Of the group, plywood
(often sold in a reverse board-and-batten design) is the least expensive,
easiest to install and has the longest track record. It works best on
contemporary-styled homes. OSB and hardboard products are sold as 4 x 8 sheets
or are molded to look like clapboard. They are available preprimed or
prefinished in a wide variety of colors, which keeps the cost down.
Fiber Cement
If you want the appearance of wood, stucco or masonry, but can’t afford it,
fiber cement siding offers a strong and attractive alternative. This durable,
natural-looking material is best known by the brand names HardiPlank® and
HardiPanel®. A real selling point is the fact that it’s fireproof, resistant to
rot, fungus and termites (a great perk if you live in an area that is hot and
humid), and may have a warranty of up to 50 years.
The installed costs of fiber-cement are reported to be less than traditional
masonry or synthetic stucco, equal to or less than hardboard siding, and more
than vinyl siding. As always, size matters when it comes to your exterior.
Stucco
You can’t get any more sturdy than stucco. Simply put, you’re covering your home
with a layer or rock. Cement stucco is made up of a small quantity of lime,
Portland cement, and water. This fine grained concrete is attached to your house
using waterproof barrier paper, galvanized wire mesh, and metal flashings (handy
devices that channel water to the exterior wall). While the strength of stucco
remains unchallenged among sidings (it has a track record of say over a thousand
years), it does have it drawbacks because of its rigid makeup. If the wood
framing beneath it shrinks or if the house foundation moves, the cement stucco
could crack. To avoid this happening to your new home, be sure the contractor
frames your house with wood sheathing and allows the lumber to dry for about 60
days before installing the stucco. If you hire a talented plasterer, you have
unlimited surface texture possibilities. If you want to add color to your stucco
be sure to spend the extra money on a masonry penetrating stain, because other
paints may peel after time. Traditional stucco has a low material cost, but is
expensive to install ($12 to $16 per square foot).
Aluminum and Metal Siding
Aluminum and steel siding, may be considered a step up from vinyl in durability,
but it’s plagued with its own limitations. Like vinyl, metal siding comes in
limited colors, is a worse insulator than vinyl, dents easily and is very
difficult to repair. So if you live in an area where you get a lot of hail or
your house is surrounded by acorn trees, you might want to reconsider using
metal.
Vinyl
Thanks to new technology in the vinyl industry, the common stereotype of a
“plastic” home has all but faded. New product offerings wood-like textures,
shingles and shakes, deeper colors and more trim options are making vinyl a
popular alternative to its high priced rivals. Vinyl is made from polyvinyl
chloride (PVC), which makes it immune to rotting and flaking, but even the best
vinyl siding will crack, split and look dingy after awhile. The fact that it
requires low maintenance - it can be washed with a garden hose - and that it is
cheap - $1.50 to $2 per square foot, makes it very appealing. Not so appealing
is the fact that it has limited color choices, provides virtually no insulation,
is not easy to repair, can fade over time and doesn’t stand up well against
Mother Nature.
EIFS (Exterior Insulation and Finish Stucco)
Synthetic stucco, also called EIFS (exterior insulated finish system) consist of
a a polymer-and-cement mixture, which is applied in two coats over rigid foam
insulation and a fiberglass mesh. You might want to double think using this
product, because since it came on the scene two decades or so ago it has been
unable to successfully keep the water out. Water gets behind many EIFS systems
and can’t get out. What that means for you, is that your home will likely suffer
some serious structural wood rot. Synthetic manufacturers are working on
rectifying this problem by using special water management systems which collect
the water and divert it back to the exterior of the home before it suffers water
damage. Being a new homeowner, this may be one worry you’ll want skip. Synthetic
stucco materials cost more than the real thing, but because it’s easier to apply
it costs less.
The biggest trends in exteriors are vibrant colors and a wood look
Interior design has always been the big “in” when building a home, but now
homeowners are starting to look outside. Let’s face it - first impressions go a
long way, so your exterior home should really stand out. People are looking for
something different and unique, but at the same time want low maintenance - in
walks vinyl. Vinyl manufacturers are hard at work to meet the demands of
homeowners who want a higher quality and more stylish vinyl siding. The big
change to vinyl is that it’s coming out bright and colorful, now that it’s
adding acrylics into its mix. Most color palettes for vinyl used to be very
similar and pale, but now homeowners can find deep rich colors like forest green
and barn red.
Another new look by vinyl is dressing up as cedar shingles. These cedar shingles
come very close to looking like the real cedar. The real beauty to these
shingles is that they won’t split, rot, flake, peel or chip like the real thing.
Over the last several years, almost every vinyl manufacturer has come out with
some sort of replica cedar product.
With everyone trying to simulate wood products, it would only make sense that
someone would market a real wood siding product. That’s what Georgia-Pacific,
who makes vinyl and fiber cement, has done with its Catawba hardboard siding.
Catawba is 100 percent hard wood made out of pulp-grade wood chips pressed and
bonded at very high temperatures. This process makes the wood very weather
resistant. If you use two coats of paint you won’t have to paint it again for 10
years - double the time of traditional wood products.
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