“Vinyl siding has risen in popularity due to home improvement contractors and home-owners for many reasons and here’s why. The biggest reason has to do with vinyl siding prices and most importantly, durability. Vinyl siding cost have remained the cheapest siding option due to its manufacturing process speed, and for the high demand of vinyl siding. Not only for that reason, but for the many vinyl siding colors available to choose from. When you combine the vinyl siding cost, colors, durability, and low-maintenance, it’s know wonder why many new and older homes are having vinyl siding installed…”
How much does Vinyl Siding Cost?
The cost of vinyl siding can vary from supplier to supplier, so, to answer this question can be a little tricky. There’s no “one size fits all” scenario here, only ballpark figures. Having said that, when you’re out shopping for vinyl siding prices, you must consider that vinyl siding cost will be solely dependent upon the quality, thickness, manufacture, insulated backed siding, or not insulated, colors, siding installation prices, etc..
For ballpark siding prices, you can expect to pay anywhere from $4 – $8 per linear foot to have a siding company do the installation for you. However, if you’re looking for real cheap vinyl siding prices, you can expect to pay $1 -$2 per linear foot, but expect to do the siding installation yourself, keep in mind that this would be for cheap vinyl siding and not something many siding contractors will recommend you to install.
How to calculate the total vinyl siding cost for your home
Since we’ve already discussed what you can expect to pay for vinyl siding price $4 – $8 per linear foot, let’s figure out how much this will cost you when it comes time to have vinyl siding installed. As a siding contractor in Massachusetts, we give siding prices by the “square” but I’ll explain that later. What you want to do to figure out is the total area coverage of your homes exterior walls, by adding ( width ) x2 + ( length ) x2 x( height ) equals..
For a better more clearer example, try this:
Let’s say your house is a one level ranch that is 60′ feet in length and 10′ feet in height and 20′ feet in width, take those numbers and calculate like so, (60 + 60 + 20 + 20) x 10= 1,600 total linear feet..
Now, let’s take the total linear exterior foot coverage and calculate your total vinyl siding cost based on the ballpark numbers above…
1,600 x $4 – $8 per square foot would equal $6,400 – or – 12,800, this wouldn’t include extras or any unforeseen problems that might arise during the siding installation process. But, just as any other type of house remodeling project, there are almost always something unexpected that can’t bee seen until the old siding has been removed.
Going back to the part when I stated siding contractors use terms like “SQUARE” what do I mean by that? Instead of saying your home has 1,600 linear feet, we say your home needs 16 square of siding. A square to a siding company, is basically ( 10′ by 10′ square foot area of siding equals 1 square or 100′ linear feet squared) it’s a shorter version of the math we did above.
What to Look for in Vinyl Siding
To have the best possible outcome and most importantly, a professional grade A curb appeal, one must start with the vinyl siding quality. We’ve all heard “you get what you pay for” well this principal holds true for the quality of vinyl siding you choose. So, how do we choose which vinyl siding is low, to mid, to high quality grade vinyl siding? The first thing you’ll want to look for is the thickness of the vinyl siding. Vinyl sidingusually comes in thicknesses of .035 to .055 inches thick, and the more high quality top vinyl siding brands have a thickness ranging between .040 to .048 inches. A rule of thumb would be, the thicker the better when it comes to vinyl siding and that holds true to the Northeast where we can see high winds from nor’easters in the winter. Other more important things to consider is proper siding installation. Having the thickest vinyl siding panel won’t stop the wind from blowing the siding off in a storm if it isn’t installed correctly! You want to be sure of proper nail spacing, vinyl panel spacing, temperature of the day you install your siding, etc.. If you feel you can handle this job yourself, you can save a lot of money of the total vinyl siding cost of installation.
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Vinyl Siding Prices and “Extras”
Take into consideration that the above example on vinyl siding prices doesn’t include “extras.” What are extras? You should expect to pay more for certain vinyl siding colors, trim packages, insulated vinyl siding, corner-board details, shutters, etc.. Trim details are different for every house, so we have to custom bend aluminum or use azek trim boards to give you the complete low maintenance package. And when it comes to vinyl siding colors, make sure you buy a product that is has a true color through out or extruded for sun protection. One of the biggest faults of vinyl siding is fading, when vinyl siding colors are exposed to sunlight. Buy a vinyl siding brand that has UV protection that will keep your new siding from fading over time — When it comes to vinyl siding colors, this is one extra that is definitely worth the extra cost.
Resources:
http://www.vinylsidingresource.com/
Great online siding calculator that will calculate the cost by square footage for all types of siding projects, amongst other home improvement projects:
http://www.remodelingexpense.com/costs/
http://www.remodelingexpense.com/costs/cost-of-vinyl-siding/
