Product Trends Report: Focus on Siding

Through selecting materials, profiles, colors and more, siding can cater to nearly any design and performance demand.

authors Laurie Banyay

First impressions are hard to break. The exterior cladding of a home is one of the most significant contributing factors to a house’s first impression and, oftentimes, that exterior cladding is siding. Within the category, myriad lengths, widths, profiles, detailing, materials and color factor into creating positive curb appeal all the while giving homeowners enough options to cater to their particular taste.

Mixing materials

Rob Gilfert, James Hardie director of products and segments, notices a growing interest in siding design styles and mixing textures and profiles. “A good example of this is the increasingly popular farm house design where architects are mixing narrow lap on the first story and adding board and batten on the second story and on bump-outs,” he says.

“Curb appeal and use of multiple materials, textures, profiles and colors is a huge trend happening right now,” says Jerry Blais, senior vice president of marketing with Ply Gem Siding Group. “We see traditional horizontal lap siding with a shake product, stone veneer or board and batten. Without question, when people remodel today they can use a stone veneer product where they’ve never been able to before because of structural or cost limitations. Veneer is much lighter than stone, but a higher-end veneer will give the rich look in an affordable, low-maintenance way.”

Jonathan Berry, director of sales for siding at ProVia, sees a change in the siding industry. “Multiple profiles are being used on the same house,” he says. “Years ago, a contractor might sell 5-in. straight lap siding and put that on all four walls. Today, the more popular thing is to use a horizontal siding on three sides and jazz up the curbside with something like shake or vertical board and batten. We’re also seeing more people using stone, brick or horizontal and vertical siding on the front of houses. People choose a multiple-profile approach and often a two-toned color approach.”

“In the siding realm we have lap siding, cedar shake siding and panel siding,” says LP SmartSide Trim & Siding’s Michelle Forchetti, segment manager for repair and remodeling. “Within lap siding, we have smooth and textured surfaces. Reverse board and batten is a good look. I’m seeing a lot of our contractors using our panel and trim to do that look, which gives a nice pattern on the wall reminiscent of craftsman and Tudor looks. That seems to be coming back as a trend with some stonework.”

Widths and profiles tend to vary by region, Berry explains. Four-inch or smaller profiles are more prominent in the Northeast whereas the mid-Atlantic has more of a 5-in. profile. “In my opinion, one of the most popular is the wider profile,” he says. “I think homeowners are looking for something a little different than the standard 4- and 5-in. panels. Some remodelers and their customers also request longer 16-ft. lengths. When you put 16-ft. panels on a home rather than 12-ft. panels, you have fewer seams on the exterior.”

Color technology

“Within the vinyl siding category, color technology continues to evolve and improve,” says Blais. “The ability for vinyl siding to offer darker colors in wider profiles and perhaps even thinner or more value-oriented profiles continues to increase.” Ply Gem recently launched a solar defense reflective technology to help with color retention. A new value-oriented product line, Ovation, offers five darker colors that Blais describes as earthy, trendy colors such as blues, reds, browns and grays.

Improved technology doesn’t stop at colors, though. Blais speaks to the natural aesthetic that can be achieved through digitizing real cedar, which is then cut into steel. “It’s a much more realistic aesthetic, which gives the look people want with the benefit of low maintenance which people also want. It’s not just about color, but also about the textures. We’re in the fashion business, and fashion is a personal preference.”

Color is impregnated directly into the substrate during the vinyl manufacturing process, whereas color is painted on engineered wood after it is manufactured, LP SmartSide Trim & Siding’s Forchetti says. “We manufacture a primed product and have a preferred network of finishers who take our product and finish it to various regional color differences. We don’t dictate what the colors are — we work with the pre-finishers in the region who are color experts and know what works in their region to develop the color palette.” Alternatively, the product can be installed primed and painted on-site with a latex-based paint.

Certain areas of the country, particularly New England, request a weathered look, observes Jonathan Wierengo, vice president of marketing, new product development, customer service and support at The Tapco Group. “They like the look of weathered wood from ocean spray or just through aging, but they don’t want the maintenance associated with wood. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to make new siding look aged. We use a combination of manufacturing and coating processes to achieve a wood appearance that looks like it has been aged by natural elements for three to five years.”

“PVC as a material isn’t the best plastic for color retention,” explains Steve Booz, vice president of new product development and product management at Royal Building Products. “Historically, manufacturers had a more difficult time with color retention. We fixed that with color technology and proprietary practices. When PVC reaches a certain temperature it will distort. Being able to keep the wall temperature cooler than that distortion temperature is important in dark colors. We’ve worked with pigment colors to develop heat-reflecting pigments to keep the wall temperature down, helping with performance.”

Berry from ProVia echoes the darker color trend growing. “The improvement of raw materials and the equipment used
to make the product have allowed manufacturers to come out with darker, bolder colors,” he says.

Booz explains the vinyl siding manufacturing process for Royal Building Products. “Vinyl siding in general is an extruded product,” he says. “Generally, it has two layers of material — sub and cap layers. The more expensive weatherable ingredients go in the cap layer. The sub layer is more robust, and because it never sees the light of day, it doesn’t need to have the more expensive weatherable ingredients in it.

“That material is formed at the extruder,” Booz continues. “The color is put in as well so there is no secondary process. The machine extrudes the sheets, which are formed into the vinyl siding nearly instantly. Line speeds run from 100 to 175 ft. per minute.”

Top desires

Durability and low maintenance are without question the top attributes a homeowner wants in product. Ply Gem’s Blais highlights three key criteria homeowners look for in siding. “Durability is a top criterion,” he says. “Vinyl siding is made from a high-performance polymer and therefore cannot absorb any water. That’s important for protecting the house and for protecting the product itself.

“Wind is a second element. Vinyl siding installs via a locking system. It is nailed to the wall and locks at the top and bottom. Two attachment points protect against the elements, so wind cannot get under it and loosen the panels. The third element is color as a whole. With vinyl siding, the color is in the product rather than on the product.”

Wierengo explains The Tapco Group’s siding is put through testing, including in a test chamber and true outdoor weathering. “We focus a lot on ensuring colors will stand the test of time. We also have product that will withstand winds around 200 mph. It should be able to handle hail impact, high winds and weathering from natural sunlight,” he says.

Gilfert explains James Hardie’s siding and trim products are engineered for climate, which means “they are specially designed for the climate where they are being used. Cold, wet climates in the North receive a product that is formulated to best stand up to conditions common there, while hot, dry climates have a product formulation created to best match those weather demands.” Color is baked into the product in a climate-controlled environment to help ensure the color stays vibrant longer.

Forchetti has noticed a greater focus on energy efficiency and “a lot more effort put into sustainability and longevity of the product. LP, for example, is looking into fire-resistant technology. We have a flame block coating for our OSB line. We’d like to somehow be able to engineer our wood product to be more fire-resistant, too.

“There are various levels of durability in siding,” she continues. “Impact resistance is especially important with climate changes, storms and hail. Hail storms can wreak havoc on certain types of siding, as can freeze/thaw conditions. You can drop a sledgehammer on LP SmartSide, and it won’t break. The durability really shines.”

Homeowners are more interested in doing what they can to reduce rising energy costs. Enter: insulated vinyl siding. Developed in the mid-1990s, insulated vinyl siding has been gaining market share in recent years. “I think it started out at about 1 to 2 percent of the industry and has grown into the low double digits today,” ProVia’s Berry says.

“The insulation is about the energy transfer from the outside to the inside of the wall,” explains Booz. “A lot of people are willing to make the extra investment, particularly in the remodeling world where homeowners are looking to stay in their homes longer, and something like insulated siding has a measurable benefit for providing more R-value.”

Blais, from Ply Gem, summarizes how contractors and homeowners seek similar attributes in a product. “They want low maintenance, durability, design options, tools to assist in the design and a good warranty. Homeowners and contractors are looking for the best overall value that looks good, fits in the budget and is low maintenance.”