Getting siding quotes - Need some opinion

[rsutoratosu]

Having old aluminum siding replace for the house- switching to vinyl or something like it.

Ideally I like to beef up the insulation from the outside. For insulation, I thought the rigid foam + tyvek was the standard or best way to go, one contractor is recommending I use MicroVent instead @ http://www.barrett-inc.com/microvent.php

Anyone had experience with either or recommend one vs another ?

I'm in nyc / north east so trying to insulate as much as possible as last winter was brutal.

Also I'm getting these entry cap built because I don't have one.. when it rains, its pia trying to carry your kids and opening door at the same time.. any thing I should watch out for or ask for in these ?


http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/rsutoratosu/entry.jpg

 

[DrPizza]

When you work out your contract, try to include the scrap value of the aluminum siding. Unless I'm mistaken, aluminum is up right now. A square (10 feet by 10 feet) weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40 pounds. At a glance at a couple of sites, looks like you'd get about 70 cents per pound of aluminum siding. So, depending on the cost of a square of siding that you replace it with, it can represent a decent percentage of that material cost.

However, most contractors are going to, "well, let's see, going to have to charge you $$$ for labor taking down the old siding. And, a disposal fee of $$$" when they make the contract. Meanwhile, their disposal is driving from your job site straight to the scrap yard. (And most homeowners are clueless.)

We used to have copper gutters on our old house until I had it reroofed. The contractor left all the gutters in my yard in a mangled mess of a pile. I knew there was scrap value to them and had mentioned it to him. "We don't do the scrapping though." So, he left them behind. At first I was annoyed, but that was until I discovered what it was worth. The guy at the scrap yard weighed it, told me the value, my jaw dropped open, reached into his pocket, pulled out a wad of cash, and started counting out $20 after $20 to hand to me.