Vinyl Sidings – Low Maintenance, High ROI Investment

Undoubtedly the best investment you can make to add value to your home while being a low maintenance option, vinyl sidings protects your home from water damage. If properly installed and sealed, it protects against rot, mold, mildew and insect infestation. Vinyl has over the last few decades proven to be great contender in home improvement arena with its track record of reliability and longevity.

A great advantage vinyl siding has over its competitors is in the expensive and time-consuming area of maintenance, as it only needs to be washed once a year with a mild detergent. The newer versions now have pigment baked in and not applied on the vinyl so it does not show scratches, will not peel or flake and does not need to be repainted like some other options do. Titanium dioxide is also being added to protect the color from fading due to exposure to the sun as well as to prevent fading and chalking. A vinyl siding is also more durable, will not crack, split and does not make a good home for insects, and therefore once again, is low maintenance. The amount of different colors available increase frequently, with manufacturers having the attitude of constant improvement, design modification and colour matching options. Vinyl sidings are truly becoming more versatile with hundreds of different options in texture and looks closely resembling more traditional types of siding such as cedar wood and oak.

The thickness or gauge of the vinyl siding panels are important when considering strength. You should not consider anything less than 0.042 mil, but 0.048 mil is obviously better. There has also been a huge improvement in the resistance to heat and vinyl sidings now easily stand up to any test against wooden ones in this regard.

Price is another advantage with vinyl siding and installation costing less than 10% of the price of more traditional (expensive) options. It can save you a bundle in this regard.

Right now mega improvements are being made in the area of recycling of vinyl. Where before only clean unused off cuts could be used, old vinyl sidings are now being recycled into municipal benches and bins and can be made into safety barriers for the highway.

The real advantage of vinyl siding lies in the fact that it is completely synthetic, owns over 30% of the market and is in a highly competitive market forcing manufacturers to constantly improve features. These would be colors available, resistance to the elements of weather, ease of installation and replacement, environmental concerns, design options, fading and chalking, impact resistance and price. Thus, this gives the home owner a massive range of choice with one company always trying to outdo the others in all these different areas.

Contractors are also affected here often advising clients on the best and proper choices due to the fact that if something goes wrong, they will be the first to be blamed. This is in an industry where your reputation can be difference between living comfortably and struggling to get by.

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