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Wood.
Now the decision was do I put it up or have someone else do it. Yeah, I
know... "you'll
have to paint it in a few years" or "vinyl costs less and lasts
forever". Yeah, well I seem to see all these plastic houses springing
up all over town and they look like crap in a couple years and yet their
are 200 year old houses that look better even if they are in need of a
paint job. I don't want to spend too much time up on my soapbox but I
can't stand the look of a vinyl sided house. I don't care how advanced the
technology is getting, you can spot a vinyl siding job three houses away.
 I
choose to have the guy who did my roof also do the siding. The only
problem was he was really busy and obviously good at what he did... so
good it was almost two months before he got to my house. This wouldn't
have been such a big deal except the New England winter was fast
approaching and we wanted to be buttoned up tight before the snow started
to fly. Once he got started he was done in a few days.
We
went with cedar clapboard siding. Our house was originally a little cape
(cabin) that had vertical ship lap cedar. The previous owners put on a
great room addition which used the cedar clapboard. We decided to match
the newer siding and the back of the the house still has the vertical
which was still in good shape so why rip it off. We used some trim skirt
boards to divide the two sidings on the back which looks fine and is in
back anyway. One good tip I found out too late was you can order siding
pre primed on all sides and if you give them enough time they can tint the
primer to match the homes final
paint color. This makes for a nice one coat paint job. My wife pre painted
a bunch of the siding on the ground so some of it went up pre painted.
We'll still have to paint the entire house in the spring but this was
helpful for the high peaks (you want to spend al little time up there as
possible)
The
guy who installed it hand nails everything. His thought is with the gun
you can over drive nails and he likes to hit framing for better hold and
with a gun you have no idea if you hit a stud or only plywood since their
is no feel. Make sure you let your sider know what you are looking for in
trim details. Windows and overhangs can be very simple or very ornate.
Being a remodel job we followed the existing  house
trim details so it was straight forward.
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