To lend character to your home and accentuate its design, you must choose the right type of siding material. The siding provides an identity to your home besides enhancing and upholding its aesthetic appeal that clearly underlines the theme of the design and style.
Sidings give endless opportunities of creating special looks for your home exterior by adding colors that complement the style of the building. You can create a façade for the building with siding to meet your objectives in styling and enhance curb appeal.
Siding protects your home from termites and the elements of weather by covering the walls, and it conceals the structural imperfections too.
Although siding beautifies homes, it also creates a common exterior theme and depending on the location can help to improve security. On coming across any advertisement that loudly expresses its identity as We Are Storm Pros, you should know that it relates to a company that offers services in roofing as well as siding installation and its upkeep.
Compared to siding, painting homes offer limited protection to buildings against weather exposure, and by using siding, which has weather-resistant properties, you can enhance the protection of the building exterior many more times.
In addition, siding improves home insulation and adds value to the property, which can fetch a good price when you sell it. But everything depends on the type of siding material that you choose.
Some Popular Siding Types That You Can Consider for Your Home
In this article, we will discuss some siding materials commonly used for homes and commercial buildings to create an attractive exterior that looks beautiful.
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Brick Siding
Brick can create the most suitable siding that lasts for centuries. Since brick is made from fired clay, it becomes fire resistant and does not burn.
To install brick siding, the building structure must also have bricks, and if not, then you can accomplish the task of adding brick by installing a brick veneer commonly what people call a brick face.
The brick veneer forms the siding, and there are two broad categories of brick veneer. Traditional brick veneer comprises of solid bricks like those used for building construction. The other type is the brick tile or thin brick veneer made from concrete like brick pieces about 5/8 inch to a ¾ inch thick.
Stucco
There are different methods of installing stucco, but the best is to use the hand trowel for creating it. The texture can either be smooth or rough, and it is even possible to keep it somewhere in between.
Stucco must be completely watertight because seepage of water inside the stucco can be dangerous as it would easily separate the material from the building exterior.
When applying stucco for the first time, you must spread the stucco material over wire mesh, paper, wood slats, and sheathing but giving adequate time for drying between the coats. Only if you have original stucco that you can think of re-doing it.
Aluminum Siding
From the looks, it is hard to distinguish aluminum siding from vinyl siding because the looks are so similar and you need to touch it to know that it is aluminum and not vinyl.
Since the Second World War aluminum siding started gaining popularity because of its lightweight and corrosion-resistant properties as well as the ability to create the desired looks by painting it with oil-based paint that stays for long as compared to latex-based paint.
But aluminum is a soft metal that can dent and its surface texture can fade with time. Moreover, there can be issues with expansion and contraction of the metal with temperature fluctuations.
Vinyl Siding
Vinyl siding made from PVC or polyvinyl chloride is the most popular siding because it is durable, does not require any maintenance, and lasts long. Vinyl siding is available in a wide range of colors, and it can resist the elements of weather that ensure its long life.
The siding installation consists of installing from the bottom row and then moving up while fixing the sections by using galvanized roofing nails with enough allowance for panel movement. Sideways movement of the panels helps to take care of the effects of expansion and contraction during hot and cold weather.
Stone Siding
Stone is perhaps the most primitive material for building construction, and it is even good for siding. The siding products that are now available are either natural or synthetic stone. Synthetic or artificial stone siding is lighter and easy to install, and natural stone or real stone siding is the most expensive.
The installation consists of laying the first layer that forms the wall sheathing with water-resistant paper placed over it above which the metal lath remains secured at the top. Finally, the stone is laid on it by using mortar.
Glass Block Walls
Glass block walls are non-load bearing and its installation consists of installing panel anchors to the jambs and then placing expansion strips around the opening followed by using panel reinforcing stabilizers after every third or fourth row. A special mortar made of glass helps to set the glass blocks.
Glass block walls have a maximum size of 144 square feet, and you must maintain the limit to ensure safety. Glass block walls allow controlled entry of light and the shadows on the street are visible from the inside. Regular external caulking of the glass surface is part of the maintenance.
Wood Siding
From shake to clapboard and from shingles to lap, many types of wood siding are available. Wood siding consists of applying the panels vertically or horizontally, and many kinds of finishes from paints to stains to sealants are available.
Installing wood siding over a moisture barrier is the norm and even better is to prime the back and sides of the wood to make it completely water-resistant so that there is no chance of water seeping inside. Wood is susceptible to rotting and requires good maintenance but looks beautiful.
Some people might opt for log siding to give the looks of a log cabin without rebuilding the home, and use of composite material can recreate the wood like looks at a lower cost.
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