Is It Time for Siding Replacement? How to Tell
From siding to roofing to windows, each component of your home’s exterior is individually important for several reasons. Together, they create an invisible protective thermal envelope that helps regulate the temperature inside your home during extreme and moderate weather.
To keep your siding in good shape over the years, it’s important to keep up with regular maintenance and repairs, especially when storm damage occurs. Eventually, however, there comes a time when continuing to repair your siding year after year becomes more costly than siding replacement.
At Powers Premier in Minnesota, our exterior remodeling contractors help homeowners make informed decisions about siding replacement. Keep reading to get our best advice on deciding whether your siding should be repaired or replaced.
The Importance of Siding Performance
When you move into a home, there’s a good chance you won’t have much information about its exterior remodeling components, particularly how long ago the siding was installed. This is especially true if it’s been many years or even decades since it was replaced, and it may even be possible that the previous homeowners don’t have that information.
This could make deciding if your siding needs to be replaced challenging. However, you can follow some simple guidelines to determine without knowing the age of your siding.
The trick is to assess the condition of your siding and determine if the structure is essentially intact or compromised.
The Role of Siding
To determine the condition of your siding, it’s important to understand its form and function.
Beyond its structural function, siding creates an attractive exterior for a home, which is why siding is so highly customizable.
Siding also insulates your home by creating a seal against wind and moisture infiltration. This is crucial to the safety and structural integrity of your home.
When moisture is allowed to seep into your home, it can cause the structure the siding protects to become warped or rot. Worse, mold can begin to increase, damaging your home’s interior and causing health problems for its inhabitants.
7 Signs Your Siding Requires Replacement
These are the most common signs your siding is beyond repair!
1. Outsized Energy Bills
One of the most obvious signs that your siding is not serving its purpose is also one of the most often overlooked. That’s because homeowners don’t automatically associate high heating and cooling costs with their siding. High energy costs typically accompany a drafty or uncomfortable temperature inside a home.
In fact, escalating monthly energy bills frequently indicate that your siding, roof, or windows need to be in better condition or simply not up to the job. Today’s siding is more insulated than the siding of decades past and can help to reduce your energy costs, which is also better for the environment.
You’ll also notice more comfortable temperatures even during extreme weather.
2. Signs of Impact Damage
Even if your siding is fairly durable, hail and high winds can often create minor damage that becomes more serious over time if overlooked. Walk around your home and look for signs of damage due to impacts.
It may be difficult to notice, but if you identify denting indicating hail damage, it’s a sure sign that your siding may have additional underlying problems. Cracked or chipped siding boards are also hallmarks of impact damage.
3. Warped & Bulging Panels
As some types of siding material age, they can begin to warp or bulge. This typically occurs when the siding has been exposed to moisture or high heat. Inspecting this type of siding damage by a professional is important as it may indicate that water has gotten into your home underneath the siding panels.
Once mold and mildew begin to grow, they can be difficult to stop. If you suspect this is the case, it’s best to consider total siding replacement and prevent potential health hazards.
4. High Maintenance Costs
If you’ve had to replace panels several times over the past few years, consider installing new siding. With new siding, you’ll have the added benefit of a warranty and the confidence of knowing your siding still has many years ahead before it needs significant maintenance.
Even if your older siding seems to be working well, you may be annoyed by having to repaint chipped and flaking siding panels year after year. New siding gives you a fresh start, so you don’t have to keep pouring money into paint, which can add up over time.
5. Faded Siding Color or Peeling Paint
When siding is exposed to solar radiation day after day, year after year, the UV radiation can create bleaching due to oxidation. This can leave your once-beautiful siding looking faded or discolored.
And over time, paint can peel, flake, and chip. You won’t have to worry about fading or discoloration when you update your siding with high-performance vinyl siding. Your siding will continue to look great for years to come.
6. Water Staining
Over time, most siding will eventually look a little dirty, especially if you’ve had an issue with your gutter system. But if cleaning your siding periodically doesn’t improve the discoloration or streaking, it might be time to consider investing in new replacement siding for your home.
7. Market Listing
If you’re considering moving sometime soon, replacing your siding is one of the most significant ways to add curb appeal and increase your home’s market value. Outdated siding can slow a home sale, and an outdated or unattractive color can make a home stand out for all the wrong reasons.
Replacing your siding with quality vinyl siding is also a great way to get a lasting color that won’t fade, flake, or chip over time.
When to Opt for Siding Repair vs. Replacement
Although siding replacement is the best way to update your exterior and add to your home’s value, if you’re not ready to invest in siding replacement services, we also provide a full range of siding repair services for fiber cement siding, vinyl siding, and steel siding.
If your siding has any of these issues, ask our siding repair contractors if repair services are your best bet.
Water Stains
Water stains can show some discoloration and streaking. If the problem is visible and limited to a small section, it should be promptly fixed by replacing damaged siding boards with new panels.
Failure to do so will create the beginning of mold issues.
Minor Mold Issues
As professional home repair contractors, we never want to downplay the potential for safety hazards and structural damage that mold represents. Once mold gets into your home and walls, it can spread its spores invisibly, creating a serious health risk to your home’s occupants.
However, occasionally we encounter a small spot of mold located only on the exterior of a home that hasn’t yet spread to the inside of your home. In these cases, siding repair services may be an option.
Speaking of the effects of water damage, moisture has infiltrated the space if your walls feel soft or mushy behind your siding. Although vinyl siding is intended to be watertight, if water seeps around cracked or damaged areas, it can get behind your siding and create bigger problems that can seep into your interior spaces.
A Single Cracked Board
If your siding has impact damage from an errant baseball or a summer storm but looks all right, simply replacing that board may be on the table. It’s fair to mention that older vinyl siding might be more susceptible to cracks or punctures, especially from hail.
However, broken or damaged siding can lead to water getting into your home’s structure, where it can cause significant damage over time.
Dented Siding
Not all impacts end up cracking your siding. If your siding becomes dented from an effect, a minor repair should be all it takes to make it look great again.
Awkward Nail Popping
Are the nails on your siding jutting out? Ideally, the nails in your siding will be nearly flush with the siding itself.
When moisture is underneath the siding, it can infiltrate the studs inside your walls. This can cause the nails to push out and visibly protrude.
House Settling
Vinyl siding should withstand minor settling, but significant settling over the years can cause the siding to shift. The siding itself may not be at fault. However, you should have your siding checked for its performance.
Popular Siding Options
At Powers Premier Contracting, we offer a complete range of siding solutions to match every budget and architectural design. After selecting your siding material, choose from an array of trending colors, such as timeless whites for contrast, dark neutrals, or tones of green.
To determine which siding material is right for your home, share your siding goals with your siding contractor and ask which materials they recommend.
Fiber Cement Siding
Fiber cement siding is manufactured using cellulose, wood, and cement composite. The end product looks like real wood without the problems that come with natural wood products.
Fiber cement can last several decades with regular maintenance and is highly resistant to impacts, pests, and moisture. Maintenance may require caulking to be redone and can experience minor shrinkage over time.
Vinyl Siding
When it comes to a tighter budget, vinyl siding is hands-down the most affordable option for great-looking siding that doesn’t require much maintenance.
Vinyl siding is also a great alternative to wood siding since the vivid siding colors won’t fade, peel, or chip as the years go by.
If you like that wood look, vinyl comes the closest to successfully mimicking the look of natural, painted wood behind fiber cement siding and is the lightest weighing.
Steel Siding
Steel siding is your best option for the most durable, ecologically-friendly siding material. Metal is immune to pests, mold, and fungus and is available in many opportunities. It is the most moisture-resistant type of siding.
Steel siding is cleaner and simpler to install, doesn’t shrink over time, and requires minimal caulking upkeep. It’s lighter in weight than fiber cement siding.
As far as fire resistance, steel siding is better than fire-resistant: it’s fireproof. While fiber cement contains materials that can become deformed or combust past a certain heat point, steel siding won’t become deformed even when exposed to high-heat sources.
You can’t go wrong with steel siding style choices. Steel siding is manufactured with sustainable materials and is available in Dutch lap, shake, traditional lap, or vertical siding profiles.
Call Our Minnetonka-Based Home Exterior Contractors Today
If your siding is chipping, cracked, or outdated, our home exterior contractors at Powers Premier Contracting in Minnetonka are here to help. We offer various siding solutions, including vinyl siding, fiber cement siding, steel siding, and composite.
We can help you choose the right siding for your budget and the style of your home. We also offer siding repair if your siding just needs a little help. To start your new siding installation project, learn about our options, and request a quote, call and speak to a team member at 612-710-7283.
You can also connect with us online and learn how we can help create a beautiful new siding look for your home.