Any siding experts on here?

[Need4Speed]

Had a hail storm go thru the hood here a few weeks ago. Golf ball and bigger stuff. Insurance is going to cover the roof in full.

Now the siding is a different story. We have steel siding, and only the north side of the house took damage. We had a few peices of the siding in the rafters, so we gave them a slab...and the insurance company found a match to our 25 year old steel siding, surprised the hell out of me. Because they found a match they will only cough up for the damaged stuff.

MN has a law that the new siding has to "reasonably match" the old stuff, or they have to go over the whole thing. We made the mistake of painting the steel stuff about 5 years ago, so there is no way the new stuff is going to match, and because we painted it we're screwed. To be fair that's understandable.

The way we see it we got 2 options. Go ahead and replace the north side and try to paint the rest of the house to match....or put that siding money towards a complete tear off and put up vinyl instead. I know next to nothing about siding, but I THINK vinyl is much cheaper and easier to work with. We would also have the benefit of putting up tyvek and some insulation, both of which are not under the original 25YO stuff.

Any opinions? Is steel that much better than vinyl?

 

[Disco Dan Richter]

Vinyl is the cheaper stuff, both quality and price.

 

[Jeff C]

Vinyl is the cheaper stuff, both quality and price.

Yep Dan is right.

I would go with steel again. We replaced some old steel siding a few years ago with much imporved steel siding. Had a real bad hail storm come through, and the siding did not take a beating at all. The aluminum gutters, well that was a different story....

Hardy board = very expensive, but the best siding available for durability.

 

[6Mile]

I got to go with the others here. Stay away from the vinyl. Put up the steel again and repaint, or take the check pull it all and put the money towards Hardy board.

In 2001 my privous house was hit with baseball sized hail in May. The vinyl siding did not hold up too well. It had holes the size of golf balls to chuncks blown out the size of basketballs. There were even 2" holes blown through the aluminium gutters. We lost glass in 7 windows as well.

The house being 5 years old at the time it was not hard to find a match for the original siding. The the insurance company paid for my contractor to replace the damaged sheets if siding. Wich turned to be about 45% of the total siding. The problem was that there was 5 years of sun fade to the original siding and then brand new stuff that was darker in color. My house looked like crap due to inter mixed colors of siding. It took over a year fighting the insurance company to get the funding to make it right and replace the faded sheets of siding.

Seriously if it had been a tornado that would have leveled the house, it would have been an easier process. The insurance policy that I had was to cover the replacement cost of the house. So if it would have costed 200k to replace the leveled house, they would have paid, even though it costed 150K to build it new. But because it was just exterior damage the process was quite different. That and they felw in assessors from TX that had no idea what the local market as like. God I am glad that is over...

 

[Blu Du]

hardy board

 

[mattymac]

hardy board

yeah, another vote for hardy board!

 

[Need4Speed]

So what would be the average price per sq ft for Hardie board vs steel siding?

 

[Mafesto]

Advice on the roof.
Go with "Decra" Steel shingles.
Looks like asphalt, but should last the life of the house.
Wind will never lift a tab.
I'm very happy with it.
I'll never use an asphalt shingle again.

 

[Flying Snow]

hardy board

YEPO

Contrete board the same? either way will last along time. And silicone everything if you do it your self.

 

[94fordguy]

Another vote for the Hardi plank siding, I've installed it on a few homes and it is some good stuff I don't know the cost of it tho

 

[buck50]

So what would be the average price per sq ft for Hardie board vs steel siding?

about 2x as much as vinyl here in canada anyways!!!

 

[EricW]

Hardi-Plank worked great for me. I had the stain put on by a coatings company in Spokane that mechanically sprayed and rolled 2 3mil coats. Lifetime on the Hardi-Plank, and 25 years on the stain. Can't beat that. Good luck. EW

 

[94fordguy]

Hardi-Plank worked great for me. I had the stain put on by a coatings company in Spokane that mechanically sprayed and rolled 2 3mil coats. Lifetime on the Hardi-Plank, and 25 years on the stain. Can't beat that. Good luck. EW

D@^^n thats a nice place... Didn't know you could stain hardi Looks awesome

 

[HUNDO]

Hardie or Certainteed are the way to go (pretty much the same thing but Certainteed is a bit cheaper and has a better warranty on the primer). Make sure that all joints are caulked with a high quality siding specific polyurethane or you'll be re-caulking and repainting next year or sooner. Alot of contractors have gone to adding a flashing strip behind each joint for even more protection.

I did mine for about $.35/sq ft but you'd be at least double that to have a contractor do it.

 

[Rmk900rider]

Hardi Plank

I put on alot of Hardi Plank. I would never use vinyl. Used it on my first spec and it just looks cheap. Hardi has a great warranty. Thats what i would recomend