I have watched the siding business from the front row for 13 years. I’ve found it interesting to watch which siding works and which siding fails in Portland’s unique weather. Obviously, the OSB type siding failed. (OSB includes LP, Masonite, Weyerhaeuser siding products.)
At 1st Oregon Exteriors, we don’t install vinyl siding…and I’ll tell you why.
When the re-siding frenzy started and the class-action lawsuits were in full stride, it was interesting to see what all the homeowners began to choose. At first it was a mix of 40% choosing cedar siding, 50% going with fiber cement siding (like Hardie Plank) and 10% opting for vinyl siding. During the heyday of the siding market, at 1st Oregon Exteriors, we had 8 siding crews and only one that did vinyl. We chose as a company to only use the best, highest-grade siding products in each category. For vinyl that meant Wolverine’s thickest, toughest siding available. In Portland, everyone else was using some of the thinnest, cheapest stuff that I have ever seen. I am aware that the rest of the nation was in love with vinyl and expected the craze to arrive here but it never did. There were a handful of builders that used it but soon stopped after 5 years and Wolverine doesn’t even make the good stuff anymore.
So far, the problem with most vinyl siding is that it looks cheap forever. The seam…I personally cannot get over the seams, they just stare at you. For years, vinyl was used to hide problems; like old growth cedar siding painted with lead-based paint. Told that it was too costly to remove, folks in Portland were convinced to just cover it up. You can’t do that with the OSB products, because the siding products themselves were rotting and had to be removed.
Most of the vinyl siding in Portland was installed to make a profit for the siding company. It was not installed to look good, work right, and be a homeowner’s lasting solution to their siding needs. The end result is that in a very short period of time it looks seriously shabby. The color will fade on the southwest sides and the mold and mildew will grow on the northeast sides. And that’s for the siding that stayed on! Just try and match one or two siding pieces in a wall after the manufacturer decides that your style and color is to be discontinued. You cannot paint it, so you’re stuck.
The wind is also a factor in Portland. Just ask anyone whose 3-year-old vinyl panel ends up down the road. Most likely on inspection, it is determined that your vinyl siding was not nailed to the studs. If your home’s siding was nailed incorrectly, it will continue to blow off. Finally, when you can’t find the wind- blown piece, your contractor tells you that your color has been discontinued.
How about in your ourdoor entertainment areas? Loads of people put their barbecue too close and melt a piece of vinyl! Have you ever seen a new piece of siding in a field of old vinyl? No offense, but redneck comes to mind!
The area behind your gutter and under your roof is called a soffit and fascia. At the ends of your roof- line are gables. What do you do with those areas? These areas are big profit centers for the vinyl industry. Here’s how it works: They show up with their crew to do your siding and tell you that you will need to have a painter pre-paint everything not covered in vinyl. (As if you have a painter on standby!) The fact is you’re asking the painter to do the gutters, soffits, facia, and barge rafters. All of these are high cost and low profit centers to the painter, because everything you’re requesting is tedious work with little chance for profit because it holds little value to the homeowner in the big picture of things. You can make the request and get a lot of response but once the painter finds out what you want done he will not likely submit a bid. If he does give you a quote, it will be high because he doesn’t want to do it.
Now you’re ready for the close: You decide to have the vinyl company close in the soffits, and wrap the fascia and barge rafters in vinyl-coated lead. This is a huge profit center. Personally, I find the entire charade a bit too slick for laid-back Portland.
How about those box elder bugs and the bees? They love vinyl siding; they get under and behind it with little effort and then find their way into the interior of your home. I have replaced many a home’s siding for this very reason. The vinyl siding industry claims “hey it’s not the siding product; it’s the installer that caused that.” I think it’s all a package. Remember, along with those east coast siding experts comes the “Tin Man” sales guy into your home with the slick sales pitch. No thanks!
The actual vinyl product is very inexpensive and the installation process in the fastest in the arena of all siding products. All of the profit in vinyl siding is made in the sales. You are paying a guy a lot of money to give you an inexpensive product with low costs of installation that will actually cause you grief for a very long time.
These are the facts for vinyl siding in the great Northwest. You are now an informed consumer!
Sincerely, Patrick D. Morin, President and Founder of 1st Oregon Exteriors, since 1996.
PS…We’d love to side your home. Just don’t ask us to use vinyl. Call us or get a free estimate.
