Looking for cheap siding replacement

[SagaLore]

My poor house is falling apart!

There is this stuff on the side of my house, but it's doing this.

Anybody have any idea what this siding is called? Who makes it? I'm looking to replace it all with something else that's really cheap. I see a few older houses around that have different fake brick and stone sidings but I'm not seeing it sold anywhere.

 

[Muse]

Yeah, you have a problem there. So do I. I have real brick but it's so old and/or the mortar they used is so bad or old that you could take out those bricks with your bare hands, I think. My advice is to forget the fake brick look. Use bricks if you want it to look like bricks. That's expensive, so you probably want vinyl siding of some kind. Check out what they have at Home Depot or Lowe's or similar places. Then I'd do a Google and Google Groups search on the brands and find out what the experienced people think of them. One of my favorite newsgroups is alt.home.repair and doing a Google Groups advanced search in that newsgroup on siding or vinyl siding should get you some juicy threads. Or you could go there and start your own thread and get a lot of good advice. A lot of professional contractors hang out in that newsgroup. Just tons of experience there. Good luck!

I'll have to replace my brick siding soon (it's not structural) and may go with vinyl, I just don't know yet. My house needs a ton of work - foundation, roof, exterior paint, those brick walls, not to mention the interior.

 

[Ornery]

I think you can side right over that with vinyl. $50.00/100sq. ft. is pretty darn cheap. Here's how to handle the soffits.

 

[SagaLore]

I've looked into vinyl, and that's going to be a few thousand for all the material not including the labor. I don't want to invest a lot into this house because we won't get it back when we sell it (due to neighborhood). I don't want to spend any more than $650 and it should be easy enough to put up myself.

 

[melly]

wtf? that looks like sandpaper on the side of the house. siding is really cheap and looks tacky. it apears you will have to take everything off, get a sealer/weather protectant for the rotting wood, then perhaps contact a contracting company for advice.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: caramel
wtf? that looks like sandpaper on the side of the house. siding is really cheap and looks tacky. it apears you will have to take everything off, get a sealer/weather protectant for the rotting wood, then perhaps contact a contracting company for advice.

You're right, it's some kind of gritty stuff. Must have been a prototype and this house got beta tested. It's horrible at protecting against weather, it doesn't overlap, it just sits next together with a little caulking and that's it.

 

[Ornery]

Um, you can't even by T1-11 as cheap, and it can't be installed over that stuff. Aluminum or vinyl may be had for as little as $40.00 per square I guess. The trim adds up though. I think that's about as inexpensive as it can be done. You'll certainly recoup the money when you sell the house. That may not be the case if you slap some other strange stuff up there.

You can buy a book on how to install it yourself. If it's a ranch it will be pretty easy. Trimming windows out is the hardest thing to do, but that's optional.