Home Repairs/Improvements

[HSKR]

I have installed vinyl siding on probably 250 houses and I would almost hesitate to put it on now with the large size hail that seems to be common in the midwest (assuming you live in the midwest). The formulas have improved as far as fading and appearance and if you aren't in a hail zone you'll be alright. They have lots of "beige" colors. If you tackle it yourself have someone who knows how to install it help you get the first two rows on and you should be fine. Just make sure EVERY piece gets snapped in place. Get at least an .044 thickness or better, not the cheap stuff sold by the box stores.

I have never understood why anyone in Nebraska would choose to put vinyl siding on whether it be a new home or or replacing old siding. At the same time if I was an insurance company, I would jack the rates up if the house had vinyl. A house with vinyl on can easily get damaging hail every five years. Heck I knew a homeowner that got damage three times in five years. The new stuff may not fade as much but it still fades. If the vinyl has been on there more then a couple of years, replacement pieces stick out big time. There are so many other problems too. Being able to even find the same product. So many of those vinyl sidings get discontinued and then you are left find something close. Had a neighbor get hailed on one side of the house. The siding was about 7 years old. They couldn't even find anything close and ended having to redo the whole house all because one side got damaged. Don't get me started about all the times I have seen people put there grill up next to the house when they thought it was cooled down and come out the next morning to see a big square of vinyl melted behind. Then you have kids hitting it with balls and putting holes through, people hitting it with a mower or weed whacker, on an on.....

Some type of hard siding seems like a no brainer to me if you live in Nebraska. Yes painting sucks but a good quality paint will last you at least 10 years and some of the hard sidings have really nice prefinished products that are supposed to last 15+ years before you need to repaint. I have a wood lap siding on my house. It's probably getting close to 40 years old and is going to need to be replaced soon. Since I plan I living in my house for a long time, I want to spend the extra $$$ and do some kind of concrete siding so I will never have to worry about replacing it again. Bring on the hail.

Now that I have made my vinyl siding rant, it amazes me seeing brand new $400K house covered in cheap vinyl. If was spending that kind of money for a house, put something on there that lasts.

 

[HSKR]

The best thing about doing your own work on your house is it does justify to the wife why you need all those tools.

Spend $6000 remodeling your bathroom or do it yourself for $2500 and tell her the additional $1000 of tools you bought still saved her $2500 on the remodel, plus you have those tools for the rest of your life.

BTW, I have saved myself a lot of money doing things myself that I wasn't so sure I could do but then did after I found some very helpful tutorials on youtube. It can be a great resource for the doityourselfers.

 

[carlfense]

I have installed vinyl siding on probably 250 houses and I would almost hesitate to put it on now with the large size hail that seems to be common in the midwest (assuming you live in the midwest). The formulas have improved as far as fading and appearance and if you aren't in a hail zone you'll be alright. They have lots of "beige" colors. If you tackle it yourself have someone who knows how to install it help you get the first two rows on and you should be fine. Just make sure EVERY piece gets snapped in place. Get at least an .044 thickness or better, not the cheap stuff sold by the box stores.

I have never understood why anyone in Nebraska would choose to put vinyl siding on whether it be a new home or or replacing old siding. At the same time if I was an insurance company, I would jack the rates up if the house had vinyl. A house with vinyl on can easily get damaging hail every five years. Heck I knew a homeowner that got damage three times in five years. The new stuff may not fade as much but it still fades. If the vinyl has been on there more then a couple of years, replacement pieces stick out big time. There are so many other problems too. Being able to even find the same product. So many of those vinyl sidings get discontinued and then you are left find something close. Had a neighbor get hailed on one side of the house. The siding was about 7 years old. They couldn't even find anything close and ended having to redo the whole house all because one side got damaged. Don't get me started about all the times I have seen people put there grill up next to the house when they thought it was cooled down and come out the next morning to see a big square of vinyl melted behind. Then you have kids hitting it with balls and putting holes through, people hitting it with a mower or weed whacker, on an on.....

Some type of hard siding seems like a no brainer to me if you live in Nebraska. Yes painting sucks but a good quality paint will last you at least 10 years and some of the hard sidings have really nice prefinished products that are supposed to last 15+ years before you need to repaint. I have a wood lap siding on my house. It's probably getting close to 40 years old and is going to need to be replaced soon. Since I plan I living in my house for a long time, I want to spend the extra $$$ and do some kind of concrete siding so I will never have to worry about replacing it again. Bring on the hail.

Now that I have made my vinyl siding rant, it amazes me seeing brand new $400K house covered in cheap vinyl. If was spending that kind of money for a house, put something on there that lasts.

I don't like the look of vinyl either but if we're comparing the costs of re-painting wood siding to the costs of having vinyl installed then choosing the vinyl is an easy choice. It's often only around 25% more expensive to side a house with vinyl than hiring professional painters to paint a house a single time. As you pointed out, so long as an insurance company doesn't charge more to insure . . . it's an easy choice. (Aesthetic complaints aside.)

If I were building a house without any cost restrictions I'd definitely do a combination of brick and hardi-plank. That said, it's probably not an option for a lot of Nebraska homeowners.

 

[darkhorse85]

Right now I'm working on the basement. I'm doing everything besides the plumbing and drywall finish so we'll save a good chunk of money down there. I get to buy a new tool about every week which is nice.

Yeah, my basement remodel is sort of stalled right now. Other projects keep coming along and playing through (to borrow a golf term). Do you happen to have any good sources for basement remodel ideas? Websites and such?

This one is pretty decent. http://www.ifinishedmybasement.com/ The only thing I didn't like is he says that he finished his own basement but didn't do a lick of drywall work. That's the biggest part!

And I know all about "palying though." My wife is mainly to blame on that end. Now that we;ve got all the landscaping we wanted done this year I can get back inside. She also took up two weeks of my time when she said she wanted me to build he an outdoortable big enough to seat ten. So I built her a 9'x5' table out of cedar. That's two weeks I could have been down in the basement. We've set a date to have the basement done though so we can have a party for the Michigan State game.

 

[carlfense]

Right now I'm working on the basement. I'm doing everything besides the plumbing and drywall finish so we'll save a good chunk of money down there. I get to buy a new tool about every week which is nice.

Yeah, my basement remodel is sort of stalled right now. Other projects keep coming along and playing through (to borrow a golf term). Do you happen to have any good sources for basement remodel ideas? Websites and such?

It's not specific to your project but http://www.familyhandyman.com/ is a great resource. I don't think that any of the articles are paywalled and their search function works pretty well.

 

[darkhorse85]

Family Handyman is great too. I get their magazine as well.

 

[Stumpy1]

Teachercd...If you are looking to stay in the house for some years, I would look into hardiboard instead of vinyl siding. It is probably twice the price but comes with a 50yr warranty and if you have it painted at the factory, the paint comes with a 15yr warranty. It is maintenance free and if you want to change the color, it is very easy to paint unlike vinyl siding.