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loucie_gw

vinyl siding vs fiber cement

loucie
12 years ago

We are about to start constuction on a colonial style house. We have always thought we would go with hardie siding painted white. Someone asked why we weren't using vinyl. When I think of vinyl siding, I think of the houses built in the 80's. I'm hearing they make nice vinyl now??? Has anyone here used the newer vinyl and love it? I like the option of changing the color of the house one day, but seriously doubt I will ever stray from white for this style.

Comments (9)

  • klabio
    12 years ago

    We used Craneboard. I don't think you'll find anyone who "loves" their vinyl siding. If you have the budget for Hardie in addition to all the other things you want to do then go for it. Vinyl was a tradeoff in my case to the tune of about $10K in labor.

    The Craneboard is very nice for vinyl and they have accessories that limit the visual impact of the J Channel. There are corner boards and trim boards that all incorporate the channel so it looks pretty good.

    Mine was installed in 2006. It still looks good. My only complaints relate to the crappy install job my builder did. The product is holding up well. It has a foam backer which allows the edges to be sharper than typical vinyl and there is no waviness.

    But it is still vinyl and the appraiser didn't care that is really nice vinyl. We got docked vs. some comps that were brick. I believe fiber cement usually commands a little more value at appraisal time and definitely at resell time.

    Here is a link that might be useful: CraneBoard

  • PRO
    Epiarch Designs
    12 years ago

    Alto
    that loosk great...and your images prove exactly what I was going to comment on.
    Vinyl can look as cheap as you want it. If you go with all of the vinyl trimmings, J channel and preformed corners, it can look cheap. However use Alto's example. They saved on the vinyl, but put a lot of nice trim work up to really dress it up and make it look not cheap at all.

    Besides Hardie, you can also check out LP smartslide. It sometimes comes cheaper, but looks great.

  • fish7577
    12 years ago

    We went with white hardie. It depends if you want it to look good from the street or from the front walk and the overall budget of the house. As an examle, if you're finding a $10K difference on a $500K house, you should do hardie. If you're $10K different on a $200K house, stick with vinyl.

    Vinyl looks like vinyl. There are some nice products and it can look nice, but it certainly doesn't say colonial.

  • dejongdreamhouse
    12 years ago

    alto, thank you for sharing your pictures. It's beautiful!

    Our house will have a contemporary craftsman style exterior with Certainteed granite gray and white fascia, trim and soffit. It's so nice to be able to visualize it now. It's perfect!

  • alto
    12 years ago

    Thanks lzerarc and ICFgreen. We are quite happy with the results.

  • joyce_6333
    12 years ago

    Alto, well done! Great trim work on the exterior.

    We had many discussions with our builder on which siding we should use. Hardie was our first choice, but our builder has had alot of trouble with it, and issues with warranty claims. He suggested SmartSide. At the time, I really didn't like their color choices. I did alot of shopping around before we decided on Certainteed Impressions polymer shakes, and felt it appropriate for our modest home. We really like it. The guys who installed it said it went up easy, and they felt it was a great product. All the subs loved it, and we've received so many comments on it. Sorry I don't have a great picture. Now that we've moved in, I really have to get some better pictures.

  • Kristen Hurst
    8 years ago

    Can you tell me what color shingles you used?

  • rwiegand
    8 years ago

    The idea of a Craftsman house with vinyl siding surely has the likes of Ruskin, Morris, Wright, Stickly, and Greene and Greene spinning in their graves. :-)

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