So Farmer and I have been SLOWLY working on our siding for a VERY long time haha. We started our siding in mid September of 2017. It was right in the middle of harvest season, and the bad weather was approaching quickly, so I worked on the siding mostly by myself, for about 6 weeks.
First, let me tell you that the quotes we received to put siding up on our house were everywhere from $30,000-$45,000 including the materials. These were for a few different types of siding from vinyl, to metal seamless, to cement board. This did not, however, include the soffit or facia.
After the initial shock of those numbers (I honestly was expecting $15,000-$25,000) I started researching what our other options were. Vinyl was the cheapest in our area, but got bad reviews because of the strong winds we get and the heat in the summer which can melt vinyl.
** Side note, I am sooo glad we didn’t go with vinyl because we tried out a window trim on one side of our house that was vinyl, just to see how it held up, and after 1 summer it’s already completely warped and we are replacing it. It wasn’t even a particularly hot summer. Thank goodness we didn’t do more than a few windows with anything vinyl!***
Another option was the metal seamless siding, which is supposed to be super durable and long lasting. (The guy claimed 30-50 years but I haven’t talked to anyone who has had it for very long) The problem with this option is that there is no way to save money on this one because you have to have the crew come do it with their special machine that manufactures the siding on site. If it really does last as long as they claim and look great, then it might be worth the extra money, but we had a third option that we liked better.
Option number 3 was to purchase the higher quality cement board siding and put it up ourselves to save on labor costs. The labor costs alone from the quotes we received were between $15,000-$25,000. So for me to cut our cost as much as I needed to, we had to pick an option we could install ourselves.
So, long story short, we chose to purchase high quality cement board siding (because I didn’t want to have to replace siding any time soon) and do the labor ourselves, even though we knew dang well it was going to take us a long time to side a 4,000 square foot house.
Because we already had the moisture barrier house wrap on, we weren’t super worried about overwintering with the siding not finished. We made sure to finish the two walls that get the brunt of the bad weather first. Many of our other walls were protected by the deck overhang anyway. Also, we had talked to several friends who had done the same thing and hadn’t had any problems.
After that initial 6 weeks of working hard on the siding by myself, we found out I was pregnant and the morning sickness quickly set in. I literally didn’t do any more siding the whole time I was pregnant, and for 8 weeks after having my little guy, so I could heal properly and safely lift the siding boards again. Farmer did some, but his non busy times are in December and January, when the weather is horrible, so he worked on other projects that were inside the house through the winter.
I got back to work on the siding in August of 2018, but this time I had a newborn baby. I could no longer spend all day outside with the kids while they played and I put up siding. Needless to say, the work has been VERY slow. It is now November 2018 and we aren’t quite finished, but we are getting very close! We have two gables left and then need to finish up around some of the edges that are up under the roof overhang.
Now that you have that load of information, I can tell you the whole point of this article!
When comparing prices, we determined that it would be cheaper for us to purchase pre-painted siding, than it would to put up the siding and then have to paint the exterior of the house. After over a year of working with this pre-painted siding, in all types of weather, and under many different circumstances, I have a pretty decent idea of exactly what I like about it and what I don’t like about it. And since everyone LOVES a good honest review of something, that’s what I will be doing today.
The pro’s and con’s of using pre-painted siding
PRO’S
- The cost
The pre-painted siding was not a whole lot more expensive than the plain primed siding. We considered the extra cost of matching color caulk that we would need. When we ran the numbers for it all, we determined it would save us between $1,000-$3,000 on painting depending on whether or not we hired someone to paint the exterior of our house.
2. The time saved
Yes, you have to fill in all visible nail holes, imperfections, and edges with color matched caulk, but you would have had to fill it all in with caulk anyways if you were painting the whole thing. Buying pre-painted siding saves the time it would take to tape off all windows and doors, and to paint the exterior of your house.
3. How it looks from day 1
This might make a difference to you, or it might not. Because we have taken so long to put up our siding, I absolutely LOVE the fact that it’s already painted. Each time we work on it, there is a noticeable difference and that area looks finished. If we had been working all this time on our siding, and none of it was painted, our house would basically still look like a framed up shell. No it’s not finished, and yes it still looks like a construction zone, but at least we have areas of our exterior that look great. And it sure feels great to put something up and know that it’s finished, not that you still have another step to do before it looks good. We get tons of compliments on our siding even though it’s not finished. It still makes our house look better the more we put up.
On the other hand though, if you didn’t take more than a few weeks to put up your siding, this “pro” wouldn’t matter to you. If all of your siding is put up in three weeks and then on week 4 you had it painted, then that’s not a long enough time for it to really matter how it looks as it’s going up.
CON’S
- It get’s dirty
Oh boy, this is a frustrating one. Even if we had put all of our siding up pretty quickly, we are still on a construction site! You can’t keep things perfectly clean, it’s impossible. Many of the boards have to be wiped down as you put them up because they got dust on them and look dull compared to the one next to it.
Every time you have to cut one, the cement dust gets all over it. Here is a picture of what it looks like before I wash it down:
Also, if they get very dirty at all, even when you wash them they sometimes still look different than the piece next to them.
In our case, taking a year to put up our siding made this problem a lot worse. Even when we protected the piles over winter, they still got dust blown into them, they got spiders making webs inside, and they accumulated some moisture. This fall, we have some SERIOUSLY dirty boards to work with. It takes a lot of time, and is super annoying, to wipe down the boards.
If the boards were not prepainted, I think they wouldn’t have required as much cleaning, or at least we could have done it differently like with a pressure washer or a hard bristle broom. Then they would be ready to paint and all the painting would look even.
2. You still have to fill the holes or knicks
Obviously they can’t eliminate all the work haha, but it is annoying to have to go back and fill any place you knicked with a hammer or got scraped with another board or something. Things that would have just been easily covered when you spray painted the whole thing, have to be meticulously filled or painted with a brush to make it look nice.
3. You can see the flashing
This goes along with con #2 because it’s just another imperfection that would have been covered if you spray painted the whole thing after installation. Let me explain:
The instructions that we found on the website for our siding (jameshardie.com) told us not to caulk the joints in-between each piece of siding. We were supposed to leave a tiny space, maybe 1/16 of an inch in between each piece of siding to allow for expansion. We were also supposed to use a piece of metal flashing behind each joint so that any moisture would run down and out instead of getting underneath your siding. This was an easy process and it was nice to not have to caulk each line.
However, metal flashing is shiny! So when following these instructions, we now have a tiny sliver of shiny material reflecting in between each and every piece of siding on our house. When the sun hits it in the afternoon, if you are at the right angle, you see a mirage of shiny lines all over the side of our house. It’s not a huge deal, but I can tell you I certainly notice it whenever we pull into our driveway in the afternoon.
If we had installed it the same way, and spray painted the whole house afterwards, I don’t believe you would see these lines because I think the paint would cover all of the exposed metal flashing.
4. Paint matching is not always perfect
I was happy to find out that Lowe’s already had our paint color logged into their computer. Because many people purchase James Hardie brand pre-painted siding, they have many requests for the matching color. Since they didn’t sell pre-painted trim in that color, or black (which was the other color of trim I wanted) we ordered non-painted trim and painted it ourselves.
However, two things happened with our paint matching.
First, it was not 100% exact. Maybe that was because the sheen was off, I don’t know. But what I do know is that the color of our trim is ever so slightly different than the color of our siding. We ordered some color matched paint from the James Hardie company which WAS exact, but it was more expensive. So we used the more expensive paint, that matched perfectly, to fill in the holes and knicks on the siding itself, and we used the cheaper Lowe’s paint for the trim. I honestly don’t think anyone would notice besides Farmer and I, but the fact is that the paint doesn’t match perfectly.
The second thing is that paint looks different depending on what surface you are painting. We tried out some vinyl trim around some of our windows to see how it held up. ***side note-it didn’t hold up and I DO NOT recommend using vinyl anything on the outside of your house unless you are doing it in a very light color because it will melt and warp from the heat*** But anyways, the paint looks different on the vinyl trim because it’s vinyl not cement board. It doesn’t appear to match because of the material difference. That might be something that is obvious to you, but I hadn’t thought about it until we started painting and realized that it didn’t look like it matched.
Final thoughts
I honestly think when it’s all said and done, the paint job would look better if we hadn’t purchased pre-painted siding. However, I do believe it saved money and time. I love that we could see the color going up as it has taken us so long to install our siding. But I hate that we now have to wipe each piece down when we put it it up.
If I had it to do all over again, I think …… I would not purchase the pre-painted siding. Because it has taken us over a year to get our siding up, the hassle of cleaning was worse than painting the house would have been I think. However, if I hadn’t been pregnant and had been able to get it done in a few months then I would have still used the pre-painted siding. Sorry that isn’t a definitive answer, but that’s as honest as I can be about it.
As I write this, I am super curious of what Farmer would say about all this. I think I will have him write his own version of this article and not let him see mine until he is done. That way we can get a second opinion that is untainted by my thoughts. Hmmm I wonder what he will say! I will link to it here when he has a minute to sit down and write it.
In case you are wondering, here are the specifics of the siding we chose. And we do love the color, the quality, and the ease of installation.
Hardie Plank Lap Siding- Select Cedarmill (for the entire house except some of the gables)
Iron Gray Colorplus Technology (baked on to be longer lasting)
Hardie Shingle Siding- straight edge panel (for the large gables on two sides of the house)
also Iron Gray Colorplus Technology
Do any of you have experience with pre-painted siding? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
~Farmer’s Wife
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Page Dream says
We are using stained cedar bevel siding. The rough cut cedar was stained with two coats (we chose mahogany, but there are over a hundred other colors), and now we are putting it in. We also bought 2×4 cedar and stained those for the corner edges, fascia, and window trim. For the Stain, 10 inch bevel cedar, cedar 2 * 4
Giselle says
Very very useful… how much were you quoted for painting?
I too am trying to decide I I should spray paint the metal clips first???.. and keep the prepainted boards..I’m trying to have a long lasting product that I don’t have to paint regularly.
Thanks for this.
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
our best painting quote was $4,000 which included the paint. Hiring someone else also means you have to hope they will do a good quality job. If you do it yourself you can make sure to put on enough coats, not miss spots, and use the best quality paint. Lot’s of options out there to consider …
Savannah says
Did you consider Allura Fiber Cement siding? I’ve heard it’s just as good as Hardie but is much cheaper, so I’m wondering what your opinion was. Thanks!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Never heard of it! That would be an excellent option then if it’s same quality but cheaper! Definitely check into that. 🙂 One thing I like about Hardie is that it’s available everywhere so we made our bulk order and then later when we needed a few more trim pieces etc, we were able to just pick up the same stuff at Lowe’s. But if it’s a big savings than it would be more worth it to go for the lesser known brand for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Terri says
Was vinyl a bad option because of the color? We’re looking at doing a mix of board and batt which we’ll have to paint ourselves and no warranty and white pre-painted vinyl with a 10 year warranty. If it’s not a color issue with the heat, maybe we should be re-thinking our vinyl siding option! Eek! I’m also curious if the siding process is one that you will be doing a tutorial on? This is something we’re considering doing ourselves to save, but like a lot of things, have never done it before. Again, thank you so much for all of your info, all the time! 🙂
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Hey Terri, definitely the color was the biggest problem with the vinyl. If it’s a dark color it will be much worse. However, I don’t want to freak you out, but I have seen pictures of light colored vinyl doing the same thing when it gets super hot. It has to get quite a bit hotter though. I’d search online for vinyl reviews in your specific area. If you don’t get super hot summers than you will probably be just fine. If that wasn’t the case, they wouldn’t sell the stuff anymore haha.
Yes, I will absolutely be doing a tutorial on siding! It’s actually been incredibly easy and I tell everyone they can do it themselves. Farmer has been a big help when he can be, but honestly I have installed a TON of siding on our house by myself and it really wasn’t awful. Just make sure to buy the little siding holders. You just set your siding up on them and they hold it in place. It’s that easy! They are galled gecko gauges- I hope I am spelling that right, I will have to check!
Amanda says
First off, thanks so much for taking the time to do this blog! We just came across this last night and have read so many of your posts. We almost gave up on our dream of building a house debt free someday but reading all this has given us hope that it is possible! We’ve considered the James Hardie brand as well, do you mind me asking approximately how much it costs to do James Hardie on a house your size? The plans we have drawn are similar to the size of your home. Thanks again! I look forward to seeing more progress on your home!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
That’s no problem at all! That is why I started this website haha. The total for the pre-painted James Hardie siding, plus some trim but not all, was just under $13,000. This does not include the soffit, which we plan to use James Hardie as well. We are thrilled with the quality so far and I would recommend the brand to anyone. I have never used anything else though, so I can’t say how it compares to others.