Vinyl Siding Information
DEAR TIM: The wood siding on our 70-year-old house needs to be painted, again. I have mentioned to my husband that vinyl siding might be a better alternative. He tells me that the siding will not last more than 10 -15 years. He also would like to paint the house in the original period colors. If I prevail in this decision and the vinyl siding performs poorly, I will never hear the end of it. I need your advice. Would you install vinyl siding? A. D.
DEAR A. D.: What is it worth to you to keep your husband's lips tightly sealed for the rest of his life? If you take the time to select a high-quality vinyl siding, you will have peace and quiet for a very long time. Vinyl siding has come a long way in a very short period of time. It is a great product.
Vinyl siding is a better alternative to painting for any number of reasons. Because of the age of your house, there is a 90 percent chance that there is lead in some of the original paint layers. If you decide to paint your house again, scraping and sanding of the old paint could create toxic lead dust. Paint chips containing lead can contaminate the soil around your house.
To keep a wood siding finish looking like new, it may require repainting every four years or so. Depending upon its size, you may spend in excess of $30,000 in the next 20 years repainting your home. High quality vinyl siding, on the other hand, will require simple periodic cleanings.
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Vinyl siding, when installed with half-inch insulation board, can actually help insulate your house. This could produce up to an 11 percent savings annually on your heating bills. You will actually recapture part of the installation cost by using foam insulation beneath new vinyl siding.
The magical performance characteristics of vinyl siding are based in its formulation. All vinyl sidings are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins. Flexible acrylic resins are often added to make sure the siding doesn't become brittle. Vinyl siding exposed to cold weather, hail storms, or baseballs needs this flexibility.
Ultraviolet (UV) light will break down vinyl siding. Without adequate protection, low-quality vinyl sidings will suffer from severe chalking and color fade. Virtually every vinyl siding has UV inhibitors, but some have more than others. At least one manufacturer has gone a step further. They add an additional layer of sun screen UV protection on the surface of the vinyl.
Recreating the period colors of your house should not be too difficult. Several vinyl-siding manufacturers have developed color coordinated product lines. These products allow you to mix and match different colors, many of which may duplicate your period house colors. Vinyl manufacturers have gone to great detail to recreate period accent pieces such as columns, fancy cut shakes, and dentil moldings. With minimal effort, you can make your Victorian style home look like the grand lady that she is.
Author's Notes:
The Vinyl Siding Institute has a voluntary certification program for vinyl siding manufacturers. Those manufacturers who want to prove to you that they indeed make a quality product now have a mechanism to do just that.
If you want to find out more about the certification program and manufacturers who participate, visit the Vinyl Siding Institute's website.