The Top Three Benefits of Vinyl Siding

Home remodeling may seem like a dead area of interest with the current financial disasters rolling over us. However, for the majority of Americans who actually live in their own homes, the truism remains: You don’t own your house, it owns you ? and it’s your single largest investment. It makes sense, when doing home renovation, to look for things that are inexpensive to do and will give long-term benefits.

One of the best for that is vinyl siding. Vinyl grew out of the chemical research from polyvinyl chloride in the 1930s, and the Germans in WWII invented PVC pipe when metals were running short for construction purposes. By the 1960s, bi-layer extruded vinyl siding hit the market in the US and in Europe. Sales of this material for housing took off in the mid ’80s.

Since the mid 1990s, vinyl siding has been the contractor’s choice for a material for setting up the frontage of a house. It’s water repellent, lasts longer, is lighter, and is easier to work with than traditional wood or aluminum siding. It’s easier to fasten to a house, and easier to maintain. (Prior to the ’90s, there were a few quality control issues and a public perception that it was the “cheap alternative” rather than a high quality material).

The major benefits of vinyl siding are these:

It’s much less expensive to buy and to install, than conventional wooden siding, and is competitively priced with Aluminum siding. The typical costs to side a house in vinyl are roughly half of what wood siding will cost to install, and about five percent less than what aluminum siding costs.

It’s easier to maintain. Vinyl siding is weatherproof and waterproof. It needs no special treatment to get these properties, and because of how it’s attached, it doesn’t offer as many ways for water to come in and help it de-bond. Because it’s lighter as a material, it’s easier and less expensive to install as well ? the installation takes less time.

Cleaning it is easy; the cleaning solution is inexpensive, and cleaning it doesn’t involve sanding or other abrasives. Because of this, vinyl siding is rated to last in decades, rather than years, like for conventional wooden or aluminum siding. It can even be recycled, rather than thrown into a dumpster.

It’s attractive. Vinyl siding, because of how it’s made, can be made to have any texture or color combinations desired. Because the pigmentation is embedded into the siding itself, it never needs repainting, or retouching to keep its like-new properties. You can even get it made in patterns of wood grain or terra cotta finish.