Finding and Hiring Siding Contractors

Putting siding on your home is a great decision. Siding can improve your home’s appearance dramatically and increase its value in turn. Siding can also change the look of your home in a significant way, making you almost feel that you have moved into a brand new place. But putting siding on your house can also be a big decision. Depending on how large your house is and the kind of siding you wish to put on it, siding your home can range from costly to a major expense. Also, you will want to work with a contractor that will do a quality job and not charge you more than is reasonable. Finding and hiring a siding contractor can be difficult, but it can help to keep a few things in mind.

Before you start looking for a contractor to install siding on your home, you should make the decision as to what type of siding you want. Not all contractors work with all types of siding, so figuring out what kind you prefer can help narrow down your contractor choices.

Siding these days usually comes in fiber cement, vinyl, and various woods. Although aluminum siding can still be found, it is much more rare than other siding types, especially vinyl siding. Vinyl and aluminum siding is an extremely durable and convenient way to augment your house. These types of siding require little to no maintenance—they never need to be scraped, sanded, or painted—and are relatively inexpensive compared to wood siding. Wood sidings such as cedar or redwood will cost you a bit more but can be extremely beautiful on the right house. These sidings will add a deep, rustic charm to your home. They will also require staining and periodic maintenance to avoid fading, rot, and general disrepair.

A good way to decide on the type of siding you like is to take a tour of your neighborhood or town and look at the houses sided in the various materials. You can also visit home building stores to look at the showrooms and samples that are usually available for siding types. Home and life magazines are also great to look through to get ideas on siding.

Once you have made your siding decision, you can start to look for a contractor that handles that variety of siding. Ask around to friends, family, and neighbors if they have had good experience with any siding contractors. Ask your local home building store employees for recommendations. Also, you can perform yellow pages or online searches to find siding contractors.

Once you have located several likely siding contractors, you will want to find the best one for the job at hand. When you call the contractors, you can ask for customer testimonials and references. You should call some of these references and ask whether they were satisfied with the work performed for the price paid. Past customers are often happy to give a thumbs up to a good contractor or a thumbs down to a lousy one.

If you like what the contractors have to say about your specific job specifications and they have positive reputations with past customers, have these contractors out to the site to inspect it and provide you with an estimate of costs. Make sure when getting estimates that all contractors are bidding on the same specifications by putting them in writing. Make sure that costs include removing old siding if that will be necessary and also clean-up of the site after the work is finished.

After estimates have been made, chose a siding contractor that will do the job you wish them to at the price that seems most fair for the work. Have the contractor draw up a written contract that specifies in detail exactly what they will do, what materials they will use, and how much all of this will cost.

The specific costs of siding installation will depend on the type of siding to be installed and the rates charged by your contractor. However, there is a standard by which costs are calculated, and this is known as the square. A square of siding covers 100 square feet of exterior wall space. Both materials and labor are quoted in terms of squares. A general ballpark figure is to expect a cost of between 130 and 300 dollars per square.

Of course, these costs will not factor in the increase in value of your home that will occur after you have sided it. It may even be said that siding your house will pay for itself. In any case, finding the right siding contractor—one who will do the job well and for a reasonable price—can make all the difference.