September 18, 2016 / Author: Colin Gibson
Siding is responsible for keeping your home safe from the elements while also making up a significant portion of your house’s aesthetic presence, making it one of the most important aspects of your home’s exterior.
Good siding will prevent water from entering your home, provide adequate insulation, and will complement your windows, door, and roof. Bad siding will cause a host of problems, be costly to maintain, and represent an eyesore for years to come.
There are three main types of siding to choose from. When installed properly, each of them will function as a guard against the elements, leaving your choice down to budget, look, and maintenance.
Skip the Imitators; Get the Real Thing With Wood Siding
There’s a reason most other forms of siding are judged by how well they imitate the look of wood. Wood siding is beautiful to look at and provides a feeling of authenticity that can’t be beat.
However, there are a number of reasons that the popularity of wood siding has declined. Wood requires regular maintenance (chalking, painting, staining) to prevent weather damage, and as other forms of siding like vinyl and fibre cement become better at imitating wood, the appeal of wood siding diminishes.
Vinyl: The Most Popular Siding Material for a Reason
By far the most popular choice in York Region, vinyl siding is durable, cost-effective, and comes in a dizzying array of colours and styles, making it the perfect choice for most homeowners.
Most vinyl siding comes with a lifetime warranty and is maintenance-free. Unlike other economical forms of siding, such as aluminum, vinyl siding won’t corrode and is much less likely to dent.
The most varied siding manufacturers offer a wide range of styles that come in almost any colour you can think of. Gentek, the vinyl siding manufacturer used by Edmunds, offers eight unique styles of vinyl siding, each with a range of colours to choose from. Gentek siding comes backed by a Lifetime Limited, Non-Prorated, Transferrable Warranty with hail protection and lifetime fade coverage.
Fibre Cement: A Low-Maintenance Alterative to Wood, Stucco, or Masonry
Fibre cement siding is often offered as an alternative to wood siding. Requiring less maintenance than wood with a similar look and feel, fibre cement offers great protection from the elements with the look and feel of wood. Fibre cement can also replicate the look of stucco and masonry in a way that vinyl often can’t.
Beyond the more rigid durability and stucco/masonry look and feel, there aren’t many advantages of choosing fibre cement over vinyl. Although it appears more durable, it hasn’t been shown to perform any better than vinyl equivalents. Further, fibre cement often requires maintenance in the form of repainting and caulking.
When compared to wood, fibre cement is priced similarly, low-maintenance, flame-retardant, and termite-resistant. For these reasons, we recommend it over wood. In most circumstances, however, vinyl siding will provide all of the benefits of fibre cement at a fraction of the cost.
Still not sure which type of siding is right for you? Come visit our showroom to see samples. We can also recommend homes that you can view where the products you are interested in have been installed. For more information or to get a free estimate, call Edmunds at 905 472 0276.
