Helpful Tips on Shopping for Home Siding, by old home improvement contractors who love to talk about home siding.
Shopping for home siding is not a fun experience. There are literally dozens of distinctive styles, colors, textures, and qualities out there. It can quickly become a nightmare just trying to pick out he perfect siding for your house.
As a contractor I often tell people to do a little research before calling anyone for a price. Drive around the neighborhood a few times and notice the nicest looking houses. Take pictures of the homes with your phone camera. Have a notebook and make noes on the different types of siding people use on their homes. Clapboard on some, board and batten on others, and some use two or three different types on the same house to create a unique look.
Once you have spent a few hours checking out other people's houses, you will come up with some ideas on what you think will look best on your house. Example, you like Cedar Shakes on the main house with Board and Batten on the garage. Or you could want the nice clean look of smooth clapboard. Once you decide on the type of siding, you like, you have eliminated about 90% of all the other products out there and can focus on finding the right cedar shake and board and batten that is for you. That is what you want to go shopping for.
Next, head to the local home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowes. Look at the many different brand of, say cedar shake and board and batten. Get all the brochures they have and bring them back home to read. Compare the textures, thickness, and colors of each of the assorted brands.
Write everything down in a notebook. Brand A is this thickness, and it comes in 30 assorted colors, Brand B is not as thick but has 41 colors. Take your notebook with you when you go shopping at other stores to use as a reference. If you see something you like at one store, make notes so you can compare it to the others produces you have looked at.
Keep this in mind, the labor to install siding is the same whether you buy economy brand siding or premium brand siding. So, the only real differences in the prices you are going to get when you do call a contractor is the quality of the siding and trim the contractor uses and the quality of the installation that he does. The price to install the siding is the same, but the prices for the siding and trim varies greatly.
A contractor needs to know the quality of the siding you are interested in. If he knows you are looking for a premium brand with a good warranty, and that can withstand tropical storm winds, he can help you find the right product. He is less inclined spend hours going over different color combinations with you. Color does not affect the price as much as the thickness of the siding and whether it is insulated or non-insulated siding.
The only way you will be able to compare the different quotes form the different contractors is to make certain that each contractor is bidding on the exact same siding product. If each contractor is giving you a quote for a particular siding, then the only difference in price should be his labor.
Thak is the only way to compare apples to apples.
It is particularly important for the homeowner to have done a little research in products and picked out the siding type that they think will fit their home before calling several contractors to come out and give you a price.
We will show you how to pick the right home siding for your house that fits your budget, weather concerns and curb appeal.