Types of Siding for Your Calgary Home

Welcome to the neighbourhood. Perhaps you just bought the home of your dreams, a fixer-upper, or maybe it’s simply time to renew the exterior of your current home. In many cases, homeowners are encouraged to ‘get the same thing’ as their neighbours. But what about individual taste, creativity, and budget considerations?

While some of our competitors only offer vinyl siding installation, Century Roofing Limited offers siding in a variety of materials to better suit your home, including aluminum, composite, steel, vinyl, and wood. There are many reasons, mostly personal or financial, in making major home renovation decisions. To help you in your decision process, let’s compare vinyl siding with composite or fibre cement board.

Introduced in the 1960s as an alternative to aluminium siding, vinyl siding - made from polyvinyl chloride, or PVC - is long lasting, durable, can be made to match the style of most homes, and has since become quite popular.

Cement board siding is also extremely hard wearing, durable, and is much heavier, but many homeowners prefer its authentic designer look. It was introduced by James Hardie in the 1980s, hence its popular name Hardie Board.

Durability

Cement board siding has a definite edge in durability. This product will typically come with a 30 to 50 year warranty and remains one of the more dependable home solutions for siding options on the market today. Vinyl is less durable and will need replacing much earlier as it becomes brittle after long exposure to a hot sun, making it much more easily damaged. Vinyl siding will typically come with a 25-year warranty.

Energy efficiency

Vinyl siding is no better than cement board when it comes to energy efficiency, however it is now possible to buy vinyl with built-in insulation. However, cement board is a much more eco-friendly product than vinyl.

Maintenance

When it comes to maintenance, vinyl definitely has the advantage. It can be cleaned with a garden hose, it never requires painting, and vinyl will never rot or disintegrate. Cement board needs painting every five to ten years (so you can change the colour), and because cement board contains wood fibres, it can degrade over time if it is not installed properly, or not properly cared for through regular painting and caulking.

Cost

Vinyl prices vary, but should be at least 10 percent lower than cement board. However, cement board is generally recognized as having the greater overall quality, and is usually chosen with the long-term view.

Installation

Vinyl is usually the easier of the two materials to work with and install on a building. Cement board is heavy and requires at least two men to handle a board. Cutting is also more difficult, requires special cutters, and it releases a toxic dust when sawn.

Call your Calgary Roofing Contractor Today

Both vinyl and cement board have their advantages and disadvantages as a siding material. Since 1981, family-owned Century Roofing Limited has been installing strong, durable residential and commercial siding throughout Central and Southern Alberta and Eastern British Columbia. Contact us today in Calgary at 403-235-5457 for a free estimate on your siding project.