Composite siding for a house

[bort]

Back in December, I bought a house.

Currently, the house has 50-year-old cedar shingle siding, that are beyond their life expectancy, and need to be replaced. New cedar is beautiful, but the regular maintenance is a deal breaker for me. I'm looking to replace this old siding with something that is low- to no-maintenance. In this case, looks are important.

Does anyone have any recent experience with new composite siding materials?

A few of the options we are looking at:
* James Hardie boards (cement fiber) -- looks good, 30 year warranty on the siding itself, but needs painting every 15 years or so
* LP SmartSide -- similar to the Hardie, but longer warranty, still needs regular repainting
* Enviroshingle -- composite cedar shingles -- 50 year warranty, zero maintenance.

Any first-hand experience with any of these? Or other similar products? Thanks!

[Donn]

I wonder if you're overestimating the maintenance issues with cedar shingles. Don't paint them (stain as proposed above is OK, I'm talking about real paint. Don't get me started.)

[iiipopes]

I wonder if you're overestimating the maintenance issues with cedar shingles. Don't paint them (stain as proposed above is OK, I'm talking about real paint. Don't get me started.)

What Donn said. The reason you don't paint cedar shingles or cedar or cyprus siding is because they have a natural resin or tannin in them that becomes part of the aging/patina process. Even oil based paint will slough off and/or discolor from the natural resin or tannin.

Next issue: because of the natural resins, some homeowners insurance policies have something to say about fire risk of cedar or cyprus shingles or sidings. Check with your agent before roofing/siding the house in cedar or cyprus.

[bort]

Thanks guys...

Real cedar -- first, my understanding is that re-sealing the cedar would cost a few thousand, every few years. I like the look, but not that much. I'm pretty sure these original cedar shingles were not maintained, and they still have been made to last 50 years (but really, were probably ready to replace around 40 years). I've also been told that the quality of cedar shingle products has decreased over the years, so the older cedar has lasted longer than the new stuff would. That is, old shingles were from older growth trees, that had more resin/tannin in them, and thus were more durable products. New cedar products are generally from newer growth trees that aren't as mature, and don't carry that benefit. If we had the cedar replaced today with new shingles... it might just wear out a lot faster.

Cypress -- thanks for the suggestion, Joe. That looks really nice, but I don't think we'd do the entire house in wood. Another idea is to mix materials, and do most of it in one material, with accents of another material, such as real wood. Such as cypress. I can handle a small amount of real wood to maintain.

And yes, I totally get the analogy between the siding and the types of tubas I pursue. Makes sense to me, and real wood is an ideal look. However, a few things here that are different: 1) Mrs. Bort also is making this decision and 2) we sort of want to play into the neighborhood norms a bit as well; I'd expect to be in this house for around 15 years, and when it's time to sell, I don't want to deal with too many siding issues. Also, composite siding seems to be the expectation in the area, so we have to be mindful of that as well. It's a neighborhood with high property values and lots of older homes. Probably 50% or more of the sales are teardown/rebuild to get a new house in an established neighborhood. But our house is pretty cool, and we chose to preserve it instead, while modernizing it to get with the times.

[Donn]

A lot of houses around here went with some kind of asphalt or asbestos 80 years ago or so - apparently it was the emerging neighborhood expectation for a while. Today, nothing could look worse than that stuff. We're seeing a mix of everything from the cheap kleenex-box new construction, painted fiber cement panels with a badge of natural wood decoration somewhere on the front, to 80 - 100 year old houses, often craftsman bungalows that have been fixed up to look like a million bucks and may literally sell for that. One of the new boxes up the street had a little owie with a delivery truck or something, a panel corner tore loose just a month or two after the the units opened, and it still hasn't been fixed? Does anyone even know how to fix these buildings? In 20 years, these buildings will be well on their way to shabby 2nd rate housing stock, while the 80 year old craftsmans will just be 100 year old craftsmans and ever more desirable.

[Three Valves]

Some of my neighbors have converted their homes to faux shingle top and clapboard or stucco first floor, from all shingle or all stucco for instance. Ours is an established community with most of the homes built prior to WWII and they don’t mind spending money to do things right.

It’s all dependent on the style of the home. It works with former Tudor style homes, but would not work with ours, a Spanish Colonial (stucco) or work less successfully with an Arts and Crafts style.

I’m all for maintenance free provided it isn’t tacky!!

[iiipopes]

And the great things about doing home improvement projects yourself (apologies to David Letterman):

1) You get to buy more tools, although that may lead to more projects as you figure out where to put them all;
2) You have more things to talk about at cocktail parties;
3) Who needs a health club membership?
4) It is exactly as you want it, even if it does take more than one extra trip to the hardware store or lumber yard;
(yes, all projects take at least one extra trip, sometimes two, three or more, or more than one store, to get exactly the supplies/tools needed or wanted)
5) Significant other actually sees you working, or at least hears it;
6) Assuming all safety precautions are taken, it can be much less expensive than a contractor, especially if you are willing to shop (for small projects) overstock, end-of-roll, or discontinued patterns;
7) The only wait is your own time schedule and, if applicable, delivery of supplies or tools, instead of waiting on someone else's schedule;
8 ) The rising pride of home ownership and the "Yeah, I did it myself";
9) "Showing off" (in a good way) the finished project to family and friends (including in-laws!);
10) And the best one of all: after a period of years or decades, when you do get to a position you can't or don't want to anymore, you will know exactly what to tell the contractor and keep an eye on him.

Just remember Harry Callahan's advice: "A man's got to know his limitations."

[Three Valves]

Nice corners!!

[bort]

Thanks for all the great information! Is far more than I can reply to individually, but I truly appreciate all the input.

however, for me, I think I would gladly pay somebody else to do this work. I see little payoff investing the time and energy into figuring out how to do something exactly once. Especially when I compare the time needed to time with my small children and hopefully eventually completing my PhD. And to be honest, this is a pretty massive renovation project begin with, so if I tried to do myself it was pretty much never get done. That's not going to fly.

[Donn]

We had some initial work done by a carpenter, to rebuild a corner of the house to deal a problem uncovered in the inspection, and past that all the carpentry type work I've done here myself - and practically all that work was tearing out and replacing stuff that the previous owner did himself. He would make his own custom windows, which were poorly sealed and rotted the surrounding framing. He built shower stalls by applying tile to "green board", with no moisture barrier, which rotted out the surrounding framing. There are some things where moral fiber doesn't help a bit - you know what you're doing because you learned it from somewhere, or you don't know what you're doing and you're making a mess down the road.

[sweaty]

If I were in your shoes, I would replace the siding with composite materials that look like cedar. It has the beauty of stained wood and has the exterior resilience of composite. Plus, when the old stuff is off, you can see what's underneath and seal and insulate better.

[Three Valves]

I think I would gladly pay somebody else to do this work.

I can clean, demolish, haul, mend, mow and paint. (Indoors)

The rest of the work is sent out.

A man gots to know his limitations!!