Keep Your Siding Looking Great with These Tips

 

Has the time come for your home to undergo a siding replacement? You should leverage this opportunity to revamp the exterior appearance of your home and boost its curb appeal with one of today’s top modern siding trends. Besides vinyl siding, wood, stucco, and metal siding also offer attractive and easy-to-care-for options that you’ll love just the same.

Moving to a new siding style lets you boost your home’s appearance while protecting its underlayment. Consult with a siding professional about whether exterior panels or planks would work better for your house. Siding walls protect the plywood sheathing beneath, which comprises the structural components of your home, along with its framing. Siding does on the outside of your house what hardy board does on the interior: Protection.

Putting aside traditional siding options, brick and stone also offer long-lasting and great-looking options for resurfacing a house. A general contractor can surround the home’s structure using brick, stone, or a veneer that looks like either. These options last longer than siding and require less maintenance. Veneers are installed in a way similar to siding but don’t require the homeowner to treat them with waterproofing every few years as wood siding does. No matter what you choose, be sure to research your options thoroughly.

Many homeowners pick the materials for their roofs and the siding for their homes based on how difficult it is to maintain them. At least 72% of all homeowners report that they picked their residential roofing material based on this. No matter what kind of siding you have on your home, proper maintenance of it can prevent you from having to deal with siding repair costs. Here are tips for maintaining your siding.

How to care for vinyl siding:

This is one of the easiest materials for siding to care for. Vinyl siding repair is not needed all that often, it was developed to not need a lot of care and feeding. From time to time, a piece of the vinyl siding will loosen. When this happens, you need to fix it as soon as you can. When you have loose pieces of vinyl siding, they can be warped by the elements such as rain and wind. This will make the siding repair costs for this kind of siding for homes much more expensive. One thing you can do is pay close attention to your vinyl siding.

Spending some time and money to power wash your vinyl siding. Insects and spiders often try to make their homes in the vinyl siding. You can get rid of most of them with a good power washing job. Most experts recommend doing this either before the summer season starts or after it has ended. If you see that you still have problems with these pests, you can remove the nests with a broom. An annual power washing of vinyl siding will make a huge difference in how it looks. You may not notice it day by day but a lot of dust and dirt can accumulate on the siding over the course of a year.

How to care for wood siding:

Wood siding can look great on your home but it will need more maintenance than vinyl siding. Once every four to six years, you will need to treat the wood. This is very much dependent on the weather conditions where you live. There may be more siding repair costs associated with this kind of siding if you live in a part of the country that sees a lot of severe weather. If the weather conditions are more temperate, you may need less in the way of repair and maintenance.

Doing a good cleaning of wood siding is important to maintain the look. Paying close attention to the siding is also a key part of keeping it up. If any holes or cracks develop in the wood siding, those areas can be attractive for pests and can let dangerous moisture in. These need to be repaired as soon as you see them to prevent larger problems from developing. Most of these repairs are easy to take care of so the bigger issue is just paying close attention to the siding. If you can catch problems when they are small, you will reduce the siding repair costs.

For homes that are more than one level, having good siding contractors come in and handle repairs for you can go a long way in keeping it looking great.

How to care for metal siding:

The main problem homeowners report with this kind of siding is rust. If you see any on your metal siding, you can remove the rust and then use a sealant to coat the siding and prevent more rust. Often people paint their metal siding. It is important to watch your paint for any peeling or chips. If you see this, you should remove that paint and paint it again.

How to care for stucco siding.

Stucco is a very porous material. The main thing you need to look out for is mould growth on the siding. It is also very easy to stain stucco siding. Once every six months or so, you should examine your siding and remove any stains you find. There are several products you can buy for this (always test first). Another issue that raises the siding repair costs is the woodpecker. These birds love to attack stucco siding. Unless you want a family of woodpeckers in the walls of your home, you will be diligent about repairing the holes they make.