It helped me tremendously. You just take a photo of your house and using the software, outline areas and apply the siding. It takes a little bit of playing with, but it's not hard. It offers a very wide variety of their styles and colors.

I'd be glad to do it for you, but my CD drawer won't open, and you need to use the CD when using software to access styles.

Second best choice might be to see it on a sample house. At Certainteed's site you linked to, click on Idea Center at the top, then next screen "Visualize your home". You can pick a style home as similar to yours as possible, hopefully. (Why they don't have a photo import feature is beyond me.)

dlm2000, yes, I know there are a bunch of colors, but I have walked around my neighborhood which is older homes and seen some of the beige-y colors and I just don't like them that much. I had actually picked a paint color (copied from zipdee, a poster here with a great cottage-house) and was so happy, but it looks like paint won't work.

lindac, I know, I know. Plastic. Lasts longer than 20 years though, we know part of the issue with plastic is that it never goes away. My house is nearly 100 years old and the original wood is showing its age. Repair, replace, repaint (and then paint again) is turning out to be way more expensive than I could have dreamed. Also we are coming to the part of life where we don't want maintenance issues. Old-home lovers absolutely have a point about originality and aesthetics, but I have been around and looked around and the truth is plastic lasts longer than a paint job, and the wood siding here is in seriously rough shape.

I will take another picture of my house without snow, the roof is actually brown which is another reason why some of the brownish/tannish colors are not striking me as so good.

My house is also over a hundred years old and I cringe at the thought of you using vinyl. I know that sometimes we have to make less than ideal choices, but I hope you do some research before proceeding. Hardiboard would be a much better choice if you really have to replace the original siding. I our area, replacing the original siding with vinly would negatively affect the resale value of our home.
Diane

Something must be done and in a perfect world I'd put cedar shakes out. But the financial and practical realities are leading me to vinyl. If someone can point to a non-DIY option that is not vinyl, I am all ears, believe me. I love paint, but I am not going to be doing this work myself.

pamelas I live in a 80 year old house that had beautiful wood siding. We made the choice to go with vinyl almost 20 years ago due to cost to restore then maintain the original. The cost to try and duplicate those non standard clapboards for an addition we planned was astronomical. Ultimately we chose vinyl and it's been a good choice for us. Now that we've resided with the vinyl shake it's been an even better choice - better looking and even easier to maintain. I have tons of in progress pics if you need to see anything. If your contractor is trying to limit you to one product, find out why - there may be compelling reasons to do so. But don't be afraid to talk to someone else who may be familiar with other products. What part of the country are you in? I'm guessing NE because of your lead abatement issues.

Here's what we started with - you can't see the rot or peeling paint.

First siding- a narrow clapboard. Please don't ask me what I was smoking when I picked that color. I didn't want boring!

I have snow pictures, too - close shot

And distance

I am in the Midwest. Lead-abatement rules are from the EPA--so national, being implemented here, now.

It's funny that I'm reading your post today because just last night I came home from work and asked my husband to walk down the street to look at a neighbor's home. I'm still trying to puzzle out why their house is more attractive to my eye than my own. They have siding as well and we had spoken with them about theirs before we went ahead. I like how their house looks. What they have are upgrades that I don't, and I can't find it online to give you the specifics, are a color that is three shades in one (not just plain old green) and the longer pieces. I can see all those cuts when I look at my house (funny, I don't see them on Certainteed's website)(and now that I've added my photos to this message I don't see them there either) and my husband thinks I'm nuts.

I keep telling myself that we just couldn't afford the upgrades but I so wish I'd let my unpractical side rule that decision.

Dlm2000, the shakes look fantastic! Beautiful home!

Pamelas_kitchen, did you get multiple quotes for wood/fiber cement? That sounds really high. If you really are stuck with vinyl, the shakes do seem like your best option. What colors are your neighbors' houses? That would make a difference which color I chose, if it were me.

thanks hoosiergirl - we're very happy with it.

pamalas kitchen I hope my little rant didn't throw you off! It's tiresome defending a choice that is made for reasons that are personal to each homeowner. Vinyl is a very uncommon choice where we live - there are no subdivisions, only old housing stock or one at a time new builds (which lean heavily to stone) from tear downs or subdivided estate property. We wrestled with the choice but in the end it was the right one for us. Some things we learned after doing this twice; your house, my house and sorriso's house all have substantial window and door trim - that's a huge plus and goes a long way towards making the look. You could even beef up your door trim a bit so it's in scale with your window trim. You have nice large fascia boards and overhangs - another plus. Don't let your roof color throw you - unless it's a really strong red/brown, you have lots of options. Can you get a shot that shows it so we can see that color? Makes it easier to make suggestions. Here's a link to another company, Foundry - they do a weathered siding that has an applied layer over a solid color - looked great in the samples we had but it hadn't been around in our climate long enough that we felt confident to use it. Each company I contacted got the same story from me - I'd like to use your product but unless I can see larger pieces of the shakes and the actual corner pieces we won't consider it. Every company sent me at least a 4' sample and most sent 8' x 2 courses in one or 2 colors that I had narrowed down. Made it a lot easier to figure out.

And here's a link to Nailite

I drove past the house a few years ago. Somebody has covered the house with vinyl or aluminum siding, and it looks great. Don't feel bad about having it sided with vinyl.

Sherry

pamelas_kitchen, dlm2000 brings up a good point and one which I had forgotten. I did pay for wider trim and the trim above the front four windows...forgot about that, and it does make a BIG difference.

We need to re-roof over the garage and the mudroom (where the side door is). We're considering doing the whole thing over with a better (looking) roof on the whole house instead of putting the same basic asphalt on just those areas.

I am going out now but will respond to all tomorrow on a quiet Sunday. Thank you all for comments and pictures. At a quick glance I can tell I love the cypress and natural clay and the richness of dlm's house--thank you so much for the pictures! It is impossible to figure out anything from those little chips.

More tomorrow!

You want to see the structure and know it is intact. A wall is a system and the siding is your first course of defense and you don't want hidden stuff to negate your new siding job and the biggest reason of all.....

All your windows and doors and corners will be "out" if you side over old. They just won't look right unless you go to even more expense and extend the jambs, put new trim up, etc.. Like a man with an expensive but poorly fitted toupee, it all may have cost a lot but if its not installed correctly it just looks off.

And specifically:

Thank you dlm for your comments (not rants!) and pictures. I love the way your house looks and I appreciate your thoughtful balancing of different siding options.

Sorriso I love your house and don't see the cuts. I like the clean line of the boards and I especially appreciate that you showed the cypress--green is really hard to judge from a tiny chip. I think yours looks fantastic. Putting the extra banding above the windows looks great and was not anything I had thought about, but I will now!

hoosiergirl, my neighbors' houses are pretty pastell-y, yellows, beiges, pale greens---and one pumpkin fellow. I am looking at cypress, sandpiper, sterling gray and now that I saw scanmike's house, natural clay, which looks way more fantastic than I would have guessed.

scanmike, love your house, and thank you so much for the additional picture. I am a blue lover, but you actually helped me rule out the blue certainteed,--I like the color of your house much better.

lestard and others who talked about proportion window trim, soffits, overhangs: all the details on the house will be either replaced by or wrapped in aluminum to avoid having to paint in the future and to bring the trim into proper proportion with the siding which will stick out more if the house is wrapped.

shermann, I hear you on maintenance. Thanks for letting me know your old house looks good in vinyl.

nanabella, I'd heard about the darker colors fading but also that the technology has improved and they don't fade so much any more. In any event we're looking at the mid-range colors.

old house lovers, I do hear you. My neighborhood is a big mix of siding types and even though the houses are old, I cannot honestly say that those with the original wood look the best. Some are slick as can be, but in many cases the wood (like mine) is obviously multiply painted and needs maintenance. The variously sided houses (vinyl, aluminum, asbestos, tar paper, fiber cement and on and on) look varied too--I can't say that the vinyl-covered houses look worse as a class than the ones with original siding. Also, we will not be siding the porch. That will remain painted wood so the first thing you see on the house will be the old wood porchfront, floor, bead-board ceiling, columns, which we will continue to paint and maintain (we figured we could handle ground-level maintenance).

metaxa and dlm, not taking off the existing boards is now my worry since the "looks" issue has been laid to rest by the wonderful pictures and encouragement. I wonder why my contractor and others here are fine with just wrapping the house? I need to do some more research on this. I am assured it is often done this way.

Thank you all again!

Abbey

But I was impressed with some of the vinyl products out there. Nailite does make a beautiful shingle (dlm2000, your home is gorgeous!) and Certainteed's vinyl shingle is really good looking too. Neither look like plastic.

awm03, fiber cement was the other choice, cost difference was truly significant, so vinyl.

Thanks again!

Pamela

I missed this thread in April entirely, & I really enjoyed reading the replies you received & seeing the photos. It was a very interesting, informative thread!

Dlm, Sorriso, Scanmike, & Hostalover, your houses look great! You all made excellent choices. I was amazed to see from all your pics what beautiful, quality results can be achieved with siding these days!

Thanks for the GW compliments too! I'm going to quit responding to this thread now because there are many new decorating issues and I don't want to keep bumping this old thread up--I'm sure I'll have some new home decorating dilemmas myself!

While I would love to have wood siding, it just isn't practical with the cost for maintenance in this area of the country. Within 18 months, it would already start looking worn. The same is true of wood decking. Maybe in some areas of the country wood is more durable, I don't know. Most people in my area have vinyl siding. Some have brick or stone, but only the very old homes typically have wood siding, and it's not necessarily well maintained. It's just so costly and difficult.

Given the cost and practicality, I think you can find a vinyl product that is pleasing to you.

Jan