A s it turns out, re-siding your house with fiber cement siding is your best return on investment project forecasted this year.

“How can they forecast the rest of the year, when we haven’t even hit the peak of summer yet?”

The answer to that question is simple: Remodeling magazine’s annual Cost vs. Value research has listed it as the top “bang for your buck” project the past 8 consecutive years.

Now let’s preface this before going any further…your kitchen and bathrooms are important aspects of your home too, but none of that matters if your house is falling apart on the outside! Regardless of whether you’re planning on living in your home for the next 30 years or are looking to sell, there are many great reasons why a re-siding project simply makes sense.

One of the biggest benefits of having new siding installed on your house is the huge curb appeal affect it adds. You may have a beautiful house on the inside, but a potential buyer may be turned away due to the appearance of the outside. In Micheal E. Gerber’s book,” The E-Myth”, he states that a person will buy something within the first 10 or 15 seconds of the first impression. Hold the phone for a moment, 10 or 15 seconds is longer than it takes for most people to park their car in the driveway! The goal of selling your house is, selling your house, the first impression is critical!

F rom a practical standpoint, NOT knowing what’s happening under your current siding doesn’t mean that “ignorance is bliss.” In fact, ignorance to what’s getting behind your siding will end up costing you more in the long run, hands down. The LP siding of the 1990s is still hanging around these parts, much of it is in dire need of full replacement. It’s not uncommon to have an additional 10-20% or more added to the total of a re-siding project, if major water issues have been ignored for long periods of time. The amount of damage that is caused to the plywood, studs, insulation, and sometimes electrical work is a chore to repair when it’s been rotting away for years.

Although there are many types of fiber cement siding, James Hardie™ tends to rise to the top of the conversation. Many of our clients request it by name because that’s the name that is nearly synonymous with fiber cement siding products. The attributes of this siding are really incredible and I’ll share a quick story about an experience I had with it a few years back…

W e were re-siding a house and I had a pressure washer come and take care of some cleaning for the homeowner. Of course the loud annoying “lawn mower” engine sound was nearly overbearing, so I took a piece of Hardie panel and laid it against the pressure washer’s muffler to divert some of the sound away. The siding remained there for a couple of hours. Once the pressure washer’s work was done, he came over to turn off his machine and pulled back the piece of siding. The muffler had been pushing out fire hot exhaust onto the piece of siding and the siding didn’t combust into flames. As a matter of fact, aside from some slight discoloration of the factory applied primer, I couldn’t see any visible damage to the piece. Unfortunately, the plastic shroud around the muffler housing wasn’t so lucky, the siding deflected the heat and melted a portion of it! That is some serious durability!