Siding Replacement - Average Cost To Replace Siding On House

These days with the housing market in the dumps and the current state of financial affairs ravaging the U.S. economy, people are looking for value-added materials and projects to increase their home values for one or two reasons. They either want to make it better than their neighbors so they can sell it as houses for sale right now are a dime a dozen or the latest housing market woes have really hit their house values hard. Either way, doing a little maintenance and replacing the siding on your current home could add a way for you to conquer each of these scenario's.

How? Well, let's break it down. Doing siding replacement not only updates your homes exterior to look fashionably new, but it's also very cost effective in that gains/ROI of the actual job rank very highly.

Remodeling has released its latest Cost vs. Value report, covering the return on investment for dozens of home remodeling projects. Once again, the best return on investment is siding replacement using fiber cement siding, which returns 867% on average nationally.

Remodeling Magazine releases just about every year some of the top remodeling/renovation projects done by homeowners and breaks them down by cost versus value. In this years report, siding replacement was in or at the top in both mid-range and upscale remodeling projects nationwide showing just how much on average siding replacement cost and your actual return on the investment of having the siding replaced.

For the upscale projects, a person that replace siding on their home saw an average ROI of 86.7%. That's a pretty phenomenal figure to have for a home improvement project as you'll typically never completely recoup the costs of an actual project. As a side note, this was actually down some from the 2007 numbers but still good enough to rank number 1 in these trying times. Duly noted though, vinyl siding replacement actually is on the rise and sits #2 with an 80.4% ROI. Siding replacement costs for the two categories averaged out between $12.5 K to $13k with an outstanding resale value between $10K - $11.5K for the more upscale projects.

For the mid-range projects, siding replacement holds a respectable 2nd nationally in the overall cost/ROI ratio at 80.7%. Nothing really fancy here as vinyl was the predominate material in use, but what makes it stand out in this range is again the actual siding replacement cost ( about $10k nationally averaged) versus it's return (about $8.3K) which could loom very handy for someone looking to either sell or upgrade their home.

Vinyl siding replacement is definitely one of the trendy things to do these days as an excellent home renovation project. Not only that, the results are pretty dang slick and can totally make-over a homes exterior. Plus, this project is a do-it-yourselfer's dream as it's fairly easy to work with and much less expensive installing it yourself than having a contractor install it.

First let's talk about the cost as that's what most want to know up front. Vinyl siding is really inexpensive compared to other materials that are used in siding today. You can typically pick them up between $2 - $6 per square foot if your having somebody else do the job for you. Just for observational purposes, lets say average homes have between 1300 and 2500 external square feet. You could wager a guess that on the lower-end the job would cost somewhere between $2600 -$5000 and on the upper end between $7800 - $15000 all dependent on the type of material being used. One of the major positives for being able to hang the vinyl siding yourself is that you don't have to pay the overhead of the installers which is typically built into the price per square foot. This definitely makes this job much cheaper than others.

Here's a quick way to estimate your homes exterior square footage. It's a fairly simple length times width times height equation that will definitely get you close. Say for instance your home is 50 feet long, 30 feet wide and 10 feet tall. You could safely say that your home is probably around 1500 square feet. But that's not the exterior sq. footage. To get a good estimate of that, you'd simply take the height multiplied by the sum of the sides. Considering that all sides are equal here, our little equation would end up like this: 10*(50+50+30+30). Doing it this way you could feasibly say that you've got approximately 1600 exterior square feet to your home. Find this and use the figures above and you'd get a pretty fair estimate of having vinyl siding installed on your home. Don't forget about all the accessories though which should be included in an estimate from a contractor like crown molding and trim, soffit work, etc.

Vinyl's also really good because you never have to paint it like you do hardiplank. The colors actually mixed in when it's manufactured, so choose wisely. One thing to point out is that you'll typically not find too many dark colors for vinyl siding, instead you'll see a lot more earthy and lighter tones. Oh shucks, you say, you really wanted a dark blue or black to make your house disappear at night. Well, there's good reason for it, the darker colors absorb the heat which in turn makes your utility bills go higher. Since that's not a really popular choice to purposefully make your utilities cost rise, they don't manufacture it to frequently.

Another valid point with this siding is that materials matter. Cheaper is not always better. You're going to want a thick, quality vinyl siding that preferably with some form of insulation backing. If you're going to do it you might as well do it right as you'll be looking at it and reaping the benefits for quite a long time.

Maintenance is a breeze. No painting. Inspect it every once in a while when you're outside bar-b-queing or something and just see that's it all in tact. Break out the waterhose every now and then and give it a quick rinse and she'll be good as new.

Replacing your current siding with aluminum siding holds many benefits, but does have a few drawbacks. Dependent on the size of square footage of your home, aluminum siding can range in price from $3000 to $8000 for houses between 1000 to 3000 square foot. It really depends on the brand and the actual size of your home.

Benefits of aluminum siding:

When looking at it, it's relatively inexpensive compared to other siding projects. You'll still get your money's worth ROI wise. The siding itself is fairly easy to install. There's not really that much maintenance involved to keep your home looking beautiful. It's fireproof. Bugs like termites won't be a problem with the actual siding as they can't really eat away at it. Plus, if it's installed properly, you can expect it to last a very long time.

One huge benefit of using aluminum siding is that it comes in a very wide range of colors. But you're not really stuck with it say in four or five years if you decide to paint the house. This siding is very versatile and can take a coat of paint really good as long as the surface is prepared carefully first. So you're wide open if you decide to take that white and make it blue.

Cons:

One of the biggest problems with aluminum siding is that it's really easy to dent. So if you ever get up on a ladder to clean out your gutters or do some minor roofing repairs, you have to be careful as the ladder could dent it. Plus, you might be mowing the yard and have a rock or something fly out and smack it, that'll put a really good dent in them. You'll also hear that they have a tendency to chalk-up a bit, but that's nothing that a good cleaning can't take care of. One thing though to keep in mind, if you do live in heavier, humid climates, the elements can take a toll on them.

Out of all the materials to replace the siding on your current home, these two are definitely the most striking. Not only does wood siding or fiber cement siding make a home look extraordinarily unique in these times where things keep getting more and more cookie-cutter, but they have the possibility of adding that needed value to your home overall. The real problem with this type of siding remains the overall cost of the project, and if you do select wood, the overall maintenance.

This siding alternative is not cheap. In fact it's the most expensive of them all. To do roughly 1000 square feet of siding using these materials can run you roughly between $6000 - $8000 (or $6 - $8/sq.ft) depending on the make and brand you select on the low-end. It could be a little higher if you go with high-end material or a little lower using a more standard touch.

One major issue using wood siding is going to be with the maintenance involved. This is one material that you're not going to be able to simply "wash-off". If you don't take care of it, it could warp or rot, possibly even crack leaving all that time, energy and money you shelled out to go to waste. This material requires upkeep. You'll have to paint it or stain it, possibly using a good oil-base product every 4-5 years. If you don't mind painting, I wouldn't rule out the wood siding.