Wood siding is one of the top choices for those who are replacing the siding on their homes, and also a top choice for new construction. House siding is available in many styles and materials, including vinyl siding, wood siding, and hardy plank siding. Whichever you choose for your own home siding is up to you and your budget. Here, we’ll talk about prices for wood siding, and the basics of installing wood siding on your home.

Find Siding Contractors

Most siding contractors are well experienced with installing wood siding on your home. When they quote you the siding cost, the quote should reflect removal and disposal of the old house siding, prep work for the new wood siding, and cleanup of all house siding debris afterward. The prep for your new home siding will include a moisture or vapor barrier, flashing around all of your doors, windows, and bases. You should get more than one quote from siding contractors to insure that you’re getting the best deal on siding for house. If you find a siding contractor who is significantly lower than the others, he may be low-balling the quote on your house siding in order to get the job. Make sure permits and inspection of your house siding are included in the estimate.

Basics of Wood Siding

Once you’ve decided on your choice of siding contractors, it will help if you know a little about wood siding, so you’ll know what to look for when choosing your home siding and as the siding contractors do their job.

Wood siding is very popular in remodels and new construction, but it does take a little more maintenance than some other types of home siding. Wood siding certainly is beautiful, and makes it presence known from the street, greatly increasing the curb appeal and value of your home. You’ll find, too, that wood siding is very durable. The designs available in wood siding give you great flexibility in styles, enabling you to match your home siding to the style of your home. Usually, if you’re committed to the beauty and quality of wood siding, you’re probably committed to maintaining your wood siding, too. The most popular type of wood siding is clapboard, or lap siding. Lap siding will last 30 years if it is maintained well. This is well beyond the live span of other types of manufactured siding.

Wood siding is manufactured in several different patterns that are designed to overlap or interlock. This keeps the elements from getting behind your home siding and causing structural damage. Wood siding is made from soft wood, such as pine or cedar. Cedar and redwood are the more expensive choices, but they are even more durable than other wood siding because they repel bugs. Termites, carpenter ants, and wood boring beetles will leave cedar and redwood wood siding alone. The siding cost for cedar and redwood is quite a bit more, but you have the security of home siding that will not be subject to destruction from wood eating pests. Cedar and redwood wood siding, while being higher siding prices, certainly pay for themselves over the 30 year lifetime, providing you with one of the best home siding products on the market.

Your wood siding should have sealed edges to keep moisture from saturating the siding and causing rot. You’ll probably have to re-apply sealant or paint every few years to maintain the integrity of the siding, and to keep the wood siding and the house it protects from rot.

Termites love wood siding, so you’ll have to keep it protected with preservatives. You can avoid wood-boring pests with the use of cedar or redwood wood siding, because termites and other wood-borers won’t eat these types of wood siding.

Maintenance of Wood Siding

If you install painted wood siding, you’ll need to maintain the paint job. Scrape, prime, and paint your home siding every 4 to 6 years. If the paint starts to peel from your home siding before then, go ahead and paint. If you wait, the siding will begin to deteriorate, and the structure of your house won’t be far behind.

If you have the siding contractors install stained wood siding, you’ll need to re-stain it on a regular schedule of 3 to 5 years.

House siding should be power washed every year. This will break loose any algae or moss trying to get a foothold on the wood siding, and discourage bugs and birds from nesting in nooks and crannies in your house siding.

You should do a visual inspection of your wood siding at least once a year, looking for cracks or loose boards. If you power wash your home siding every year, you shouldn’t have any problem with algae and moss. You may consider having a siding contractor inspect your home siding once every year or two.

Durability of Wood Siding

Wood siding on your home is very durable, if you maintain it well. The wood grains swell and contract in the moisture and weather, and your home siding “breathes”, in a sense. This helps your wood siding to recover from dents that occur from hail storms or minor accidents. When your wood siding is properly sealed and weather proofed, it will “breathe” properly, retaining its strength and beauty.

Wood siding brings a touch of nature to your home, giving it an expensive, classy look. You’ll find, too, that wood siding provides superb thermal control, helping to keep your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Home siding greatly affects the energy efficiency of your home, and provides noise control as well, because wood siding will reflect much of the surrounding environmental noise.

High quality wood siding, installed by experienced siding contractors, will improve the value of your home as well as the curb appeal. Your home will be protected by quality home siding, which will repel the elements and bugs as well. Ornamental accents will be the finishing touches to siding for house, making siding prices worth every penny. Hardy Plank Siding. Siding for house.