SIDING

Acumen Renovations offers three types of siding.

Engineered wood siding
Fiber cement siding
Vinyl siding

SIDING

Acumen Renovations is one of Kansas City's trusted siding contractors. We understand that your home's siding is an important investment. It protects your home from the elements and plays a major role in its overall appearance. That's why we offer a wide range of siding options to choose from, all installed by our experienced and certified contractors.

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GENERAL OVERVIEW

Engineered wood siding

Chances are you have already seen many styles of this product on a home if you live in the Midwest. There are several different manufactures, such as LP Smart Side, that make all types of engineered wood cladding, including lap or bevel siding, panel siding, as well as some specialty siding options like shake, shingle, and scallops.

Engineered siding is more durable and weather-resistant as well as more cost effective to install and maintain than real wood. Engineered siding can be a great option for someone who wants the rich look of wood without the cost and effort!

This kind of siding can also be purchased pre-primed, ready to paint, or pre-finished, which can cut some labor costs if you find the look you want! Cost-wise, engineered wood is going to be in the middle of the other two and generally is about 10% less than fiber cement.

Fiber cement siding

This type of siding has grown in popularity over the past ten years, and while it’s not as widely used as vinyl or wood, it is starting to capture its market share. Manufacturers, such as James Hardie, offer a low maintenance, non-flammable, and termite-resistant option and have a vast range of styles and finishes that can replicate most styles and trims (like engineered wood). Fiber cement siding is the most expensive out of the three due to the amount of labor and specialty tools it requires to install this product.

Vinyl siding

Vinyl siding has been around for forty-plus years now and still holds its own. It’s made from PVC and is pretty lightweight. Vinyl siding has a vertical panel that is much easier to remodel if a vertical look is what you want. This product is going to be the least costly when looking at your budget and most of the time is about 35% less than fiber cement or engineered wood.

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER

All the products listed above have their own accessories, such as trim, mounting blocks, and receptacle covers. These accessories should be used for the specific products that they were designed for.

That’s not to say that you can’t interchange them, but if you have a failure of one product, you don’t want the manufacturer to dispute that the other product is to blame. You will find yourself with one manufacturer blaming the other, and you’ll have to fix the issue yourself.

If you are using a product that requires painting, you need to keep all your paint cycles the same over time. This seems easy, but fiber cement products need to be painted more frequently than engineered wood or vinyl siding. You don’t want to waste product and labor by painting only certain areas of your home or waste money painting areas that don’t need to be painted just to keep it all looking uniform.

Listed below are a few more things to think about when residing in your home.

Insulation: Adding insulation to the siding or into the stud wall cavity.
Ventilation: Gable vents, soffit vents, or ridge vents.
Railings: Porch, patio, or deck?
Doors: Patio, entry, or garage
Painting: Concrete foundation, doors, shutters
Updating: Exterior light fixture, house numbers, or doorbell
Specialty Trim: Drip caps, crown molding, bead board, etc.

Engineered Wood Products

Roof Pitch

12/12 or higher
9/12 to 11/12
6/12 to 8/12
4/12 to 5/12

Roof Pitch Factor

1.3
1.2
1.1
1.05

Vinyl Siding & Accessories

Pros

Has a proven track record for many years and is very consistent in its performance
Color of the product is throughout the product and requires low maintenance
Will not rot
Has a very large range of products to include color, accessories, and accents
Is lightweight and easy to replace if sections become damaged
Most economical and easiest to work with

Cons

Depending on the thickness of the panel and how it’s installed, vinyl siding can be damaged the easiest of all the listed products due to impact
Expands and contracts with the seasons due to temperature
Over many years, the product can start to fade, chalk, and become brittle

Fiber Cement Siding & Accessories

Pros

Is very thermal stable and has the least amount of expansion and contraction of all the sidings listed
Will not burn; has a class 1 (A) fire rating
Termites and woodpeckers will not eat or affect the siding
Is easily painted and maintained
Is very dense and helps reduce sound

Cons

Fiber cement is heavy when compared to other materials and is the most labor intensive of all the sidings listed
Requires special tools to work with
Has limited options for trim
Contains silica, which can be a harmful

Aluminum & Steel Siding

Pros

Can be made into unique shapes and profiles
If the correct equipment is available, planks can be made up to 50′, eliminating all seams

Cons

Is a conductor and can reduce efficiency
Highly susceptible to dents
Difficult to repair a single section or component

PANEL SIDING VS. LAP SIDING

It is possible to remodel existing home exteriors with panel siding, but we do not recommend it. Here are the reasons why.

When the home was built and the siding was installed, there were no penetrations on the exterior of the house. Penetrations include items like hose bibs, lights, HVAC lines, and so on. So to go back with panel siding around these penetrations, it must be negotiated. Most panels on a two-story home are 4’ x 9’, so if you have a penetration that lands somewhere in the middle of that, there are only a couple of ways to handle that and both require cutting a long strip into the siding.
Trim is installed after panel siding, so to replace all the panel siding, you would have to remove all the trim on your entire house. A lot of time the trim on the windows and doors can be left when doing lap siding because it butts to the trim.
You are far more likely to encounter issues with panel siding. The first concern is all the exposed fasteners. If you install the siding according to manufacturer specifications, you will have about 48 fasteners per panel, and that is a lot of exposed penetrations into the side of your home. Most lap siding is only nailed where the piece above it covers the nails.
Another area of concern is stud layout (stud layout is the framing of your house that is supposed to land on 16” centers). If one of the studs is even off by ¾”, depending on where that panel needs to land, it can create a lot of extra work, and it’s not terribly uncommon for stud layout to be wrong. With lap siding, this isn’t an issue because your planks are 12’ to 16’ in width.
Lap siding is the original siding for good reason. It’s been around for as long as siding has been installed. There is less waste involved with lap siding because of the dimensions of it. If, for some reason, you need to replace just one piece anywhere on the wall, it’s an easy task, and you only have to replace a small section compared to panel siding.
If you like the look of a vertical siding, there are some products that can be used that don’t have all the exposed fasteners that you would have with traditional panel siding.

PREFINISHED VS. PRIME

We offer prefinished versions of all of our siding products. Most people already know that vinyl siding is a finished product, and it’s just a matter of picking a color and having it installed. L.P. and James Hardie also offer all their products prefinished and ready to go. In the sections below, you will read the pros and cons of prefinished and prime siding and what each will require for maintenance in the future.

Prefinished Paint Advantage:

Prefinished painted products are formulated for the substrate that they are applied to, creating maximum adhesion. For example, if you were to purchase paint from Sherwin Williams or a box store, that paint is made to go on multiple substrates, such as concrete, drywall, and wood. In short, having a paint made specifically for the substrate creates a much better lasting bond.
Paint made specifically for the products are made from natural pigments as opposed to synthetic pigments, which makes for a longer lasting color. An example of the durability of natural pigments can be found in cave paintings. Thousands of years ago, cavemen drew on walls with natural pigments, and those paintings are still around to this day.
Paint is applied in an environmentally controlled factory. If you read the side of a can of paint, the manufacturer would want it to be applied with a relative humidity of 40% to 60% and between 50 and 80 degrees. Those are just the ideal conditions to apply it. It should also be noted that it is susceptible to anything that may blow into the paint during the drying process, such as bugs, dust, cottonwood fuzz, and so on. The paint process is done in a controlled environment that is not obtainable in the field.
Vinyl siding is a little different in the way the color is incorporated into the product. The dyes are blended into the product so that the color is consistent throughout the panel. Even if you were to scratch the panel you would only see the same color.

Prefinished Disadvantages:

Limited color selection is the first reason most people don’t opt for the prefinished siding.
Depending on the size of the job and the scope of the work, the prefinished siding could cost up to 30% more than a traditional paint job.
Because the siding is prefinished in another location, it could be scratched or damaged in transit, and it does take an experienced crew to install because there are sections of cut siding that must have paint applied in the field.
Although both L.P. and Smart Side make prefinished panel siding, Acumen doesn’t recommend doing prefinished panel because of all the exposed fasteners.

LET'S TALK

If you are considering a siding repair or replacement in Kansas City, contact Acumen Renovations today for a comprehensive consultation. We will work with you to assess your needs and budget, and we will recommend the best siding option for your home. We also offer financing options to make your siding project affordable.

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CALL (785) 979-3636

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