What Does Vinyl Siding Cost? The Truth

So how much should I be paying for vinyl siding?

You should know what fair prices for installing siding onto your new home using vinyl should be, right? I mean it’s YOUR HOME and you’re the one paying for it so YOU should be in control, not the contractor.

Don’t let someone charge you more than what’s a fair price! I do know however, that it’s difficult for most homeowners to find out exactly “what the fair price for vinyl siding is,” because let’s face it… we don’t really spend much time researching vinyl siding throughout our daily regimen!

There’s nothing to be ashamed of if you don’t really have a clue about home remodeling, home improvement, or vinyl siding brands. That’s why we hire contractors, or say auto mechanics to work on our cars: it’s just easier to have a specialist take care of it for us if it’s priced reasonably.

So you want to know how much to pay for vinyl siding right? I wish the answer was really simple but it is fairly complex and variable. I want to make it as straightforward for you as possible, because in fact I do have your best interest. There are some variables that come into play when you’re pricing exterior home improvements like siding though and here they are in a nutshell:

1. Location
2. Age and condition of home
3. Existing siding material
4. Time of year
5. Brand of siding
6. Type of installer
7. Brand of siding
8. Color of siding

All of these above factors MUST be taken into consideration when you’re researching vinyl siding for potential purchase. You cannot arrive at a fair price until you’ve taken in these variables and accounted for them. Let’s begin.

Location:

Different parts of the country will have higher or lower costs, this is also applicable to whether you live in a metro area or rural area. Cities tend to cost a lot higher for remodeling costs and some areas may require difficult licenses that contractors will need to charge more to cover.

Age and condition of home:

The older your home is, the more potential for it to be warped or rotted. That means that extra labor may be needed to make sure everything is flat and in good shape to be able to hold the siding.

Existing siding material:

Some siding materials such as wood clapboard and simple shakes, can remain on your home safely and still allow new vinyl siding to be installed over it. When there are uneven siding materials such as rough sawn shingles, aluminum and batten board, it will need to be removed (which in turn costs more).

Type of installer:

Some installers are vinyl siding specialists that work for themselves, these are usually the best choice because they actually do the work themselves and they may take pride in it. Siding companies that advertise a lot may be a decent choice but unfortunately you will probably be paying quite a bit to offset all that advertising they do! General contractors will subcontract out the work to cheaper laborers so you should absolutely be cautious when hiring a “general contractor” to install your vinyl siding. Subcontractors can mean big problems, and typically those involve the “nightmare” scenarios we’ve all heard about in the vinyl siding industry and home remodeling field.

Brand of siding:

Look for good well known brands. Some examples of established brands of vinyl siding that are good are: Mastic, Alcoa, PlyGem, Variform, Napco, Alside, and Certainteed. Crane is also a pretty good siding manufacturer. Keep in mind that nearly all siding manufacturers will include a “low end” siding grade that you should avoid. Usually these are the cheaper versions and will be classified as “builder grade,” “contractor grade,” or “value” type sidings.

So anyways, here’s what you should be paying for vinyl siding to be installed: Roughly $375 to $500 per square is accurate. There is SO much more information out there though, so look around!