Do you advise removing aluminum siding to install vinyl, or would you just paint it?

[Kolesar]

We had a contractor quote new siding for our garage with failing composition board siding. The garage siding would be vinyl.

The contractor contended that we should pay them to tear off the aluminum siding that covers the original lap siding and put vinyl siding on the house. We had planned on painting the house someday. It is faded. He contended that we will soon be in an endless cycle of increasingly expensive paint jobs. He said that the paint will fail and bubble in a short period and it will need to be repainted. Each paint job will last a progressively shorter period of time.

He claimed that a $10,000 siding job will add twice that to the value of the house (not that we had planned to sell). He said that this would be an opportunity to add some attractive design details, but was vague on specifics.

This is all new to me and I have not done a lot of research. I do know that there is a lament about the environmental impact of vinyl.

So, the question for the forum is: paint or vinyl?

[NMDemDist2]

1. get a paint contractor and make sure they prep well

no worries eh?

[hippywife]

2. We had the composite panel siding on our house, too.

It and the paint didn't hold up well to the intense OK sun and we also considered going with vinyl siding to replace it.

What we did instead, because getting into that cycle of painting and repainting was something I did not want to do, is go with Hardiplank cement fiber lap siding. It comes pre-primed and is supposed to hold a paint job for 15 years as long as you get the top coat of paint on within 6 months of hanging it. It is also supposed to last 50 years and is fire resistant. I'm really glad we did it. It looks really wonderful. It also comes in panel siding if you want to stay with that. The price was totally comparable to vinyl siding so I think we made the right choice.

[goddess40]

4. Some composite siding was replaced by the company

When we were looking at houses we took one off our list because the composite siding was spongy - the homeowners contacted the siding company and they replaced the siding.

Although I really like the choice you made - if only people in the fire zone in CA would use materials like that it might have saved a few homes.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. He's right, the paint job won't last on aluminum, no matter how much you prep. the surface.

But I also have an aversion to vinyl. It just looks tacky. The suggestion of getting Hardiplank instead is good. You do have to paint every 10-15 years, but you aren't stuck with one color, and if you ever do sell, it will be a better payoff than vinyl. imho.