Vinyl Siding
in Washington
and North Idaho

Modern vinyl holds color far better than the vinyl that gave it a reputation in the eighties, and the fade resistance is written into the manufacturer warranty rather than being a promise from the installer. Darker colors work harder in the sun than lighter ones, which is worth knowing before you choose. Ask to see the actual warranty wording on fade, because it is the one claim where the documents differ most between brands.

It does two things, and only one of them is insulation. The foam backing adds a modest R-value, which matters less on a wall than people assume. What it really does is make the panel rigid, so it lies flatter, sounds solid rather than hollow when you knock it, and hides minor unevenness in the wall underneath. On an older house with a wall that is not perfectly true, that second thing is usually the reason to buy it.

This is the single thing that separates a vinyl job that looks right in fifteen years from one that ripples in two summers. Vinyl expands and contracts a surprising amount with temperature, so every panel has to hang from its nailing hem rather than be pinned tight, with the fastener centred in the slot and left fractionally loose, and a gap left at every end where it meets trim. Nail it tight like a board and it has nowhere to go, so it buckles. If you have seen wavy vinyl on a house, you have seen this mistake.

Vinyl gets more brittle as it gets colder, which matters for impact rather than for the weather itself. Our winters are mild and wet rather than severely cold, so this is much less of a concern here than in the Midwest. Where it does matter is installation: fitting vinyl in genuinely cold conditions needs bigger expansion gaps, and a crew that uses the same gap all year round is not paying attention.

Look here first on any vinyl job you are shown, because this is where the money and the skill went or did not. Corner posts, J-channel and window trim are where water is directed away from the wall, and they are where a rushed job announces itself: gaps, mismatched cuts, channel that traps water instead of shedding it. Ask any contractor for a photograph of a finished window surround rather than a wide shot of a wall.

No, and you should not paint it. The color goes through the material rather than sitting on the surface, and painting it voids most manufacturer warranties and can cause the panel to absorb more heat than it was designed for. Maintenance is washing it down. That is genuinely the whole list, and it is a large part of why people choose it.

We do not recommend it and we will explain why on your house. Siding over siding hides whatever is happening to the wall underneath, and the weather barrier and flashing are the parts that actually keep the wall dry. Taking the old material off is what lets us find and fix a problem while it is still cheap.

We work with Kaycan, Ply Gem and LP Building Solutions. We also fit James Hardie fiber cement, so if vinyl turns out to be the wrong answer for your house we will tell you rather than sell you the one we happen to stock. Finished work is on our siding projects page.