Siding is one of the most important external components of any home. It provides a direct barrier between the interior and the exterior, and could, therefore, be compared to a suit of armor. While strength is essential, looks also matter. If you’re going to invest in some new siding, you might as well get something pleasing to the eye.
Why Use Colored Siding?
There are many reasons to go with colored siding (as opposed to more neutral options). The decorative value is obvious, as you get a chance to customize the look of your home in a very visible way. Siding will cover the majority of your home’s exterior, so it makes a significant difference in the overall appearance of your home.
For one thing, new siding will increase the value of your home. If you are planning to resell your home at some point, this will be even more important for you. According to this article, new siding is one of the best ways to increase the value of your home.
The article listed a variety of common home improvements together with their average cost and their effect on the sale price of the home. They estimate that new siding will bring a 78% return on your investment, which is higher than most other items on the list. For instance, a new patio will only give a return of about 47%.
You also might choose to go with colored siding because of the factor mentioned in the introduction. Siding is one of your home’s main barriers against the weather, and it has to be replaced from time to time. If you are going to replace that siding anyway, to help protect your home from water damage, there is no reason to go with a color that doesn’t strike your fancy.
Is Colored Siding More Expensive?
Of course, we should consider the cost of the colored siding. It is likely to be more expensive than the regular siding, but we would expect the difference to be small. Let’s take a look and see. Vinyl siding is the most common type, and so we will use it as an example. Here’s an advertisement for some ordinary grey vinyl siding. For about $8.00, you get a piece that is 5 inches wide and 12 feet long. By using our square footage calculator, we see that it’s about 5 square feet overall. That adds up to $1.60 per square foot.
So, let’s look at an example of brightly-colored siding. The link shows us a siding panel with a deep-blue color. It’s 8 inches wide and 12.5 feet long, and the price is about $13.00. When we calculate as we did before, we find that this siding will cost about 1.59 cents per square foot. So, we can see that colored vinyl siding is not necessarily more expensive. In this case (we chose both examples at random), the colored siding turned out to be a little bit cheaper. However, since our random examples came within one penny of each other, it is safe to say that the cost of vinyl siding does not usually vary by color.
Choosing The Right Color
You could choose almost any color imaginable, but you may want to observe certain limits. First, most people choose to avoid excessively bright colors. Most people don’t want to draw that much attention to themselves, so muted colors will always be easier to find. For instance, if you look for bright neon green siding in a web search, you’ll find only one home with such a color…and it is described as “St. John’s wackiest house.”
In general, the most common colors would be blue and grey, as well as the various shades of blue-grey that lie between them. These colors are visually attractive without being too “loud.” As such, they are likely to be cheaper than, say, banana yellow siding. You should also make sure that you choose colors that match the rest of your home. For instance, if your home has white trim, you probably want to go with a slightly darker shade of siding. In that way, you create a bit more contrast and a striking visual appeal.
In the end, though, it’s all about what you want for your home. If you want to go with the strangest color scheme in the neighborhood, there is no reason to shy away from doing so (except for maybe your HOA). We have already seen that the cost isn’t going to be much higher, so that shouldn’t be a problem either. The most important thing is to make sure that you will be happy with the results.
Why Not Just Use Paint?
Instead of buying colored siding, you could purchase plain white siding and paint it to match your tastes. This is certainly an option, but it may not be the best one. First of all, the cost of the paint will add to the cost of the job. By the time you buy the paint and spend all that time to apply it, this approach is likely to be more expensive than the cost of some colored siding. Also, you will need to repaint the siding every year or two.
And of course, you will need to apply some exterior coating for your new paint job. This might be some weather sealer or an oil-based varnish, or any number of other coatings. Either way, it means more time and more money. So, the short version of the story is this: You could buy some white siding and paint it, but that will be less efficient in terms of both time and money.
Conclusion
For those who want an attractive and colorful home, pre-made colored siding is truly the best option. It is cost-efficient, looks nicer than the standard options, and does not sacrifice any of its usefulness. To be honest, we wonder why a person would want to use anything else! If you agree and would like to read more articles like this one, we invite you to fill out the contact form below.
Enjoyed This Article? Check this Out!
