Written by Paul Lafromboise
Choosing the finish
covering for the exterior walls of a home is an important
decision. The choice of siding has a direct influence
on appearance, performance, durability, repair, maintenance
and cost. Today's marketplace presents designers,
builders, and homeowners with a long list of materials and
products to choose from. The siding market is
segmented into several divisions based on the materials
used.
Wood siding has been an American favorite since Colonial
days. But, today, new products shape the marketplace
among the most popular choice today is vinyl siding.
Vinyl siding made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) has been
available since the late 1950's. Early manufacturers
had to overcome many technical hurdles in order to create a
siding material out of PVC to make it suitable for use
outdoors. Because unmodified vinyl can shatter,
especially at low temperatures, manufacturers add acrylic
modifiers to improve impact resistance. Since sunlight
tends to make unmodified vinyl brittle over time, titanium
dioxide, which absorbs and therefore screens ultraviolet
radiation, is added to the plastic resin.
Now since the late 1950's the application (the way vinyl
siding is installed) of vinyl siding
has hardly changed at all, and so forth goes the
old saying...Stick to what you know! But I am here to tell
you that I have developed a patent-pending product and a
system of vinyl siding that no other company has to offer
(because they have stuck with the old ways) and big
companies will soon know that this brand new innovative
system in vinyl siding application will not only drastically
improve the appearance of a home, but also save significant
amounts of time and money!
One of the challenges that affects installation is the
high amount of expansion the material experiences when the
temperature increases. A 12-foot length of vinyl
siding can grow 5/8 inch from winter to summer. Since
this is an unchangeable characteristic of vinyl, designers
have devised ways to accommodate this movement by developing
trim pockets that disguise length changes, by using wide
nail slots and by training installers not to drive nail
heads tight. Properly installed vinyl siding should be
able to slide back and forth with temperature changes.
With the versatility of vinyl products out there we of
course all know
by now the benefits of choosing vinyl siding over wood
siding.
The bigger challenge
then becomes getting a vinyl sided home to look
more like a wood sided home. The answer
lies in the TRIM. There are five
or six critical pieces of trim to obtain this
illusion: freeze board, custom J-channel,
outside corner post, anderson window casing, rake
trim, and utility trim (also called undersill trim or finish
trim). Traditional installers waste a lot of time and
materials only to have the finished result look
like a vinyl sided job.
With this new innovative patent-pending product and
system, Western Mass Vinyl Siding together with Advanced
Siding and Window Co. have accomplished what no other vinyl
siding company has done in the last 50 years by completely
eliminating 100% of all vinyl J-channel, making it obsolete
in 2007 and have taken away the hollow, prone to cracking,
and limited desire of vinyl corner-posts. Proving once
again that the challenge has been met, and the look
of wood does exist.
You will ABSOLUTELY NOT find this system
anywhere else and I encourage you to look into the "future
of vinyl siding" which can be found below or in the
navagation menu.
