Siding is important!

There is no stage of home construction that you should rush through, but if there were, it shouldn't be siding. Whatever type of siding product you choose, purchase and installation is not cheap, so you don't want to do it again anytime soon.

Your siding needs to protect your home from the weather, while at the same time allowing air flow so your interior wall can shed moisture from outside and humidity from inside. And it has to accomplish both these tasks with style, as your choice of siding will be the first thing you see every time you come home, and rightly or wrongly the surface finish is what drives perceptions about the quality of the home. With siding though, it's important to remember that beauty is more than skin deep.

Depending on the profile of your site and design of your home, gaining access to some higher parts for the siding installation might be difficult. In construction, 'difficult' translates into either dangerous, time consuming or expensive depending on how much of your own maintenance you do.

For that reason, in the page below we have given an overview of a variety of siding products, giving you an idea of the performance you can expect, cost, general maintenance requirements and durability.

Siding installation tips:

Whatever siding you choose, creating an air space behind it where water can drain and moisture can dry is the key. The following video is about wood siding installation, but includes simple tips for creating a breathable air space to allow walls to dry. You can also read ourGuide on Siding Installation here.

Solid wood siding

Exterior Siding
Wood siding fitted horizontally © Ecohome
  • Pros of Wood Siding:It makes for a great looking traditional finish to the siding on a home. Certainly with FSC wood siding, extraction & manufacturing can be sustainable, and very little pollution is generated in production and manufacturing. Wood is abundantly available to us in Canada & North America, provided that forests are managed properly.
  • Cons of Wood Siding:It is not the most durable choice to protect your home from weather, and clearly wood siding isn't the best for fire resistance. Wood can be susceptible to damage from insects and rodents, as well as mold and rot from moisture & humidity.
  • Cost of wood siding:每平方英尺8到20美元，取决于木材的类型、风格和工作的复杂性。
  • Expected siding lifespan:Durability of40 to 55 years if the wood siding is regularily & carefully maintained

Note: There are companies that offer pre-painted wood siding products, a quality that you cannot match on a ladder with a brush. Several coats of paint are applied, to both sides, so your job is simply to cut the siding to length, paint the ends, and install it. A reputable company will give your siding a warranty up around 15 years, and potentially up to 30 years if you apply a coat of paint within that first 15 years.

If you prefer to paint your wood siding yourself, it will be a lot easier (and a better quality) if you do it on the ground before installation. It will require significant space to paint, but also the time to build drying racks for your siding to sit on while the paint finish is drying off. For more information ontimber choices for framing a house, see here.

Composite wood siding products

Exterior Siding
Composite wood siding © Céline Lecomte

Composite wood refers to the repurposing of waste wood into usable siding products. Small chips and sawdust can be steam pressed into a very close likeness of actual wood siding, including the addition of realistic looking 'grain'.

  • Pros of composite siding:It makes use of post-industrial waste that might otherwise head for a landfill. Installation of composite siding can actually be easier than installing conventional wood siding, due to not having knots to contend with for cutting and fitting.
  • Cons of composite siding:Composite wood siding faces the same challenges as solid wood in regards to performance and risk. Though raw material use is effectively eliminated, there is higher pollution during manufacturing than raw wood and you might want to look closely at the bonding agents to avoid plastics, formaldehyde & other toxic content.
  • Cost of composite siding:$6 to $15 per square foot installed.
  • Expected lifespan of composite siding:25年以上，如果维护制造商的规格。

Cedar shingles for house siding

雪松是一种漂亮的木材，通常用于户外，因为它具有很强的抗腐性。如果不进行处理，它的寿命不会像其他木壁板那样受到很大的影响，但外观肯定会受到影响。雪松壁板会在天气和紫外线的照射下变成灰色，因为这不会是均匀的，所以最终的颜色也不会是均匀的。所以所需的雪松壁板的维护在很大程度上取决于您的品味和您的家所需的审美。

  • Pros of cedar siding:Wood is a natural product, and due to the length of cedar shingles (approximately 18"), they can make use of shorter pieces of wood such as stumps that would often be left in forests, or post industrial waste.If you don't mind the look of greying cedar siding, you won't need to do a lot of maintenance.
  • Cons of cedar siding:安装非常昂贵和耗时。如果你介意灰色雪松壁板的外观，像所有的木制品，它将需要定期重新油漆，染色或上油，以保持一致的颜色和完成。(see here foreco-friendly wood finishing products)
  • Cost of cedar siding:Due to the size of shingles and the cost of cedar, you can expect to pay around $27 to $40 per square foot installed.
  • Lifespan of cedar siding:In and around 50 years, much longer with treated shingles and proper installation.

Note:In this writer's experience, a step that is often missed in the installation of cedar shakes is creating an air space and drainage plane. One of the cheapest and most effective spacers can be a dimpled foundation membrane cut into 2" strips. This method allows for an air space, but also allows vertical drainage, where a strip of solid wood limits air flow and drying.

Brick and stone exterior finishes for homes

Exterior Siding
Rustic Brick Wall Finish © Marlon Bunday

  • Pros of brick wall finishes:Very low maintenance and its performance is excellent. Brick and stone resist weathering, and are virtually unassailable from pests, insects, mold, and fire.
  • 砖墙饰面的缺点:Regarding brick and fabricated stone products, production is very clean but demand a significant amount of embodied energy throughout the extraction and production process. Moreover, it is not easy to install.
  • Cost of brick wall finishes:Very expensive - "If you have to ask..."
  • Expected Lifespan of brick wall finishes:longer than yours!

Stucco wall finishes

Exterior Siding
Stucco Wall Finish © Yanni Milon

Stucco refers to a thin coating of troweled or sprayed on cementituous surface finish that is applied to exterior walls to keep them waterproof and protected.

  • Pros of stucco:Performs well against pests and rodents; raw materials are relatively abundant; fairly resistant to fire.
  • Cons of stucco:Concrete is highly polluting and energy intensive in its production; poor resistance to weathering; difficult to install and maintain.
  • Cost of stucco: $3 to $12 per square foot installed.
  • Expected lifespan of stucco:50 - 75年。

Acrylic wall coverings

Exterior Siding
Acrylic wall coverings © Céline Lecomte

丙烯酸壁板材料由混凝土、玻璃纤维和聚苯乙烯组成。供应商有时声称，除了站在一边，他们还充当绝缘体，但这种说法不太符合事实。如果安装得当，它可能具有的任何绝缘价值都是无效的，这包括它和主墙系统之间的空气空间。

  • Pros of acrylic wall coverings:Performs well against pests and mold and it's quite versatile.
  • Cons of acrylic wall coverings: High pollution and embodied energy in the extraction and manufacturing process; materials can be scarce; poor resistance to weather and fire; not easy to install and maintain.
  • Cost of acrylic wall coverings:$9 to $14 per square foot installed.
  • Expected lifespan of acrylic wall coverings: 25 years and over.

Fiber cement siding (Hardie board)

Exterior Siding
Fiber Cement Siding (Hardie Board)© Céline Lecomte

Fibre cement siding board was developed by James Hardie industries over a century ago as "Hardie Board". The original product was made from cement and asbestos, modern day production has replaced the asbestos with healthier alternatives. Fiber cement board can be molded to any style, even to look like wood.

  • Pros of fiber cement siding board:Very strong and very durable; resistant to fire, insects and decay.
  • Cons of fiber cement siding board:生产过程污染大、能耗高。这种产品在温暖干燥的气候中很受欢迎，但在北方气候中就不那么好用了。虽然产品本身很耐用，但在冻融过程中，油漆经常会脱落。
  • Cost of fiber cement siding board:$10 to $20 per square foot installed, depending on style.
  • Expected lifespan of fiber cement siding board:40 years or more

Metal siding

Exterior Siding
Metal Siding © AA Architecture

  • Pros of metal siding:Highly resistant to weathering, excellent performance against mold and parasites, easy to install and maintain. It's durable and fairly versatile, and when the day comes that someone is taking down your home, it will unquestionably be recycled.
  • Cons of metal siding:Production (mining) is not at all green, metal has a high embodied energy.
  • Cost of metal siding:$8 to $20 per square foot installed.
  • Expected lifespan of metal siding:50年以上。

Many types and styles of metal siding can be found. Pre-finished steel, galvanized steel, copper, zinc, most commonly of course would be aluminum siding.

Vinyl / PVC siding

Exterior Siding
Vinyl Siding © Céline Lecomte

  • Pros of vinyl siding:Highly resistant to weathering. Very good against pests and mold. Fairly easy to install and easy to maintain.
  • Cons of vinyl siding:Cons: It is derived in part from natural gas, which is not renewable, however the largest component that goes into its manufacturing is salt. For consideration in developments and construction that require fire ratings, vinyl siding may need to be used with other building materials to achieve certain fire ratings. Vinyl is technically recyclable but very rarely recycled.
  • Cost of vinyl siding: $4 to $ 12 per square foot installed.
  • Lifespan of vinyl siding:40 years and over.

Siding options; final thoughts

无论你选择哪一面墙来完成你的家的外部，你可以保护你的家的最好的方法之一是通过良好的设计。大量的悬垂意味着大部分的雨水甚至不会接触到你的墙壁或壁板，这一事实本身就会大大增加你选择放在你家外部的任何包层的寿命。

Rain, UV rays and humidity are the three main factors that will cause the siding of your home to age and deteriorate, sizable overhangs can help protect you from the first 2 out of 3. Along with protecting your siding, shading techniques play an essential role inpassive solar designorPassive House designsto avoid overheating.

在选择和安装墙板时，重要的是要记住，你家的外墙表面需要能够能够干燥。That means allowing any water that gets in to drain out, and letting humid air escape - inmodern energy efficient green homes using sustainable home design, the siding's principle role is to protect theair and weather barriersfrom deterioration while looking beautiful, effortlessly.

Siding Products, further reading:

From the EcoHomeGreen Building Guides- inNorth America's favorite Sustainable Construction website... EcoHome.net