How to Improve the Look of Your Home with New Siding

By Susan M. Keenan

Whether you are looking to sell your home or you are planning to remain living there, a new facelift is an excellent idea.  Every good realtor can tell you that improving the curb appeal of your home is one of the fastest and easiest ways to improve your home’s chances of selling.  In fact, a nice looking home that has been well maintained will sell much more quickly than a home that is a bit dingy around the edges.  Every home deserves a facelift, even yours.

New siding will give your home an entirely new profile, to the point that you may even give it a second look.  The purchase of new siding can make a tremendous impact on your home.  The homeowner has an opportunity to upgrade to a more user friendly maintenance free type of siding or to an upscale style that may be more costly and less maintenance free, but that is more attractive and unique.

Siding is available in a variety of materials including wood, vinyl, brick, aluminum, and fiber cement.  Obviously, the choice is yours to make.  Many homeowners decide to go with a change for aesthetic reasons, while other homeowner’s simply want a maintenance free option.  Whatever you select, take time to make your decision since you will have to live with the results.

Maintenance free types of siding include vinyl, composite material, and fiber cement.  Vinyl siding, constructed from PVC or polyvinyl chloride plastic, is extremely durable and easy to clean.  The newer form of vinyl siding is available in a variety of colors that hold their color and are resistant to fading.

 Fiber cement siding, a relative new comer to the siding market, is made from a combination of Portland cement, cellulose, and sand.  It is used to imitate the appearance of other types of siding including wood, stucco, and some styles of masonry.  Moreover, it is extremely fire resistant and virtually maintenance free.

Aluminum siding, a bit more expensive than vinyl siding, is also fire resistant and durable.  However, it will dent given the opportunity and the sun is rather harsh on its coloring.  Power washing is an excellent option to promote a nice clean look for this siding.

Masonry siding, quite possibly the most expensive option, is a durable, long lasting way to face the outside of your home.  The bricks used in siding, different from the bricks used in paving, are available in a wide variety of colors and types.

Wood siding has long been used for the exterior of homes and is definitely a traditional choice.  This is also one of the more expensive options available to homeowners.  The options with wood siding are clapboards and shingles, or shakes.  Clapboards are typically stained or painted, while shingles are left to weather naturally. 

Although you may see it simply as a cosmetic change, adding new siding is much more than that.  It opens the door to so many opportunities.  Anyone who has ever painted a room a new color knows that one upgrade typically leads to another.  This domino effect can become quite an expensive venture, so it is wise to plan ahead rather than move impulsively.

The opportunity to add more insulation to the exterior of your home is a real plus when it comes to heating and cooling bills.  Additionally, simply replacing old siding with new can be a real boost to the efficiency of your home’s energy.

Additionally, the opportunity to change the architectural appearance of the home is a real plus when it comes to upgrading curb appeal whether for a sale or for your own sense of aesthetics.  Adding brick wainscoting, decorative pillars, or intricately designed and decorative columns to complement the siding is a wonderful way to change the old to simply fantastic.

Address the windows and doors of your home when you upgrade the old siding to a new one.  Their characteristic visual appearance may benefit from an upgrade as well.  This can include the addition of trim contrast with the color of the siding to accentuate the window and doors, a replacement with a completely new set of windows, the addition of new shutters for a distinctive look, or an upgrade in the style of doors that your home currently has.

Tasteful changes to your home’s exterior appearance can be the difference between a home that sits on the market for months and a home that barely sits on the market at all.  In fact, these changes may be all it takes for you to reconsider your impression that the change you have been looking for is the move to a new home.  Now that you have incorporated all of these changes to your home’s exterior, why not incorporate a few to the interior and create an entirely new look there as well.

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