Suggestions for mounting exterior mailbox onto house siding

I recently closed on a newly built house. Seems that during the inspection period, I forgot to look for and request the builder put in a mailbox! Which is fine, because I suppose this can be a fairly stylized choice.

I've attached some pictures of the siding of the house, as well as the mailbox I purchased. The mailbox is from:
Solar Group MSK00000 Large Lockable Security Wall Mount Mailbox, Black - Amazon.com

Sorry to say I don't know exactly what the siding is made of, but I included some decent resolution photos of it.

My research says if it's vinyl siding, one could theoretically try S hooks that jam underneath the panels. The mailbox is 8.5 pounds, so not sure that would work long-term or if it's even recommended. Another site recommended finding studs and drilling through the siding to mount the mailbox, with the option of caulk in the drill holes to prevent moisture from entering the wall.

The mailbox came with 4 screws, maybe 1" long, that can supposedly be used to mount it to a wall. The inner vertical rows on the back of the mailbox are for a post, the outer rows are for a house wall.

Suggestions?

 

Welcome to the forums!

Have you double checked to make sure the mailman will deliver to a house mounted box? Unless the neighborhood currently has a postman that walks the route you might be required to have a mailbox at the road.

Vinyl siding is somewhat flexible and the siding in your pics looks more solid. That and the wood trim at the corner says it's not vinyl but some type of hardboard or cement siding product. The guys that know more about siding than me should be along shortly.

 

It's a product like or is James Hardie siding.
Any idea what's under it?
If it's OSB or plywood you would just mark and drill the holes through the siding with a masonry bit and mount the box with ceramic coated decking screws or any screws that resist rusting.

 

Thank you for the welcome and analysis of the siding. This makes it a lot more straightforward!

All the mailboxes in the neighborhood are house mounted. The builder also confirmed this was required.

I came upon the house after it was completed, so though newly built, I did not see it while under construction.

 

Update!

Being somewhat inexperienced in this type of thing, I marked and drilled the holes with some trepidation. The mailbox was too large vertically to be mounted on a single piece of siding, and thus it was not possible to make it flush to the siding.

I had read conflicting things regarding the use of anchors, so I decided to hold off and just used the 1" screws that came with the box to attach the box to the siding. Hope that'll be okay in the long run. I'll post a picture when I get it.

 

Photos of the finished project. Hope the attachment to the siding can weather the opening/closing for years to come.