Congratulations, you’ve done the research and crunched the numbers and you have decided to upgrade your home to vinyl siding. The good news is you’ve made the right choice. Vinyl siding is a long-lasting investment that brings many benefits to your home or commercial building. Vinyl siding is very low maintenance, durable, fade-resistant, looks nice and adds resale value to your home. While the initial cost is rough twice the cost of painting, it is a one-time investment while painting will only last for five to seven years. Vinyl siding also does a much better job of protecting your structure’s exterior.
Insulated Vinyl Siding – The Right Choice for You?
So now it’s time to pick your vinyl siding and this is where it can be tricky. With hundreds of styles, colors, and brands to choose from you will have your hands full deciding which one is right for you. While we are always happy to help you with those decisions, the main focus of this blog is to help you understand the difference between insulated vinyl siding vs. traditional non-insulated siding or “hollow siding”.
Insulated vinyl siding comes with insulated foam adhered to the back of each sheet of siding. Many times when someone chooses to upgrade to vinyl siding they will be looking to increase their homes’ ability to efficiently stay cool or warm, thus reducing their yearly utility cost. You have the option to have an insulation board installed with “hollow siding” as well but at an additional cost. Both options will improve the energy efficiency of your home, but with insulated siding there comes extra benefits you may not know about.
Insulated Vinyl Siding Benefits
The primary benefit of insulated vinyl is not what most people expect. Energy efficiency aside, the biggest benefit is rigidity. Namely, the insulation firms up the siding so it looks and feels more solid. Non-insulated vinyl is quite flexible and easily conforms to any waviness in a wall plane. Standard vinyl also pushes in easily when pressed on, and the seams between panels can even rattle in the wind. All of these conditions are greatly reduced or eliminated with insulated vinyl. The insulation helps bridge over contours in the wall structure, and it gives the siding—and corner trim and other edging materials—a solidity that standard vinyl lacks.
While you can still receive the energy efficiency by having insulated paneling installed before non-insulated siding, you will not gain the rigidity factor. Also, the hollow siding will be more prone to puncture damage that can happen in hard hail storms. Lastly, the cost of non-insulated siding with insulated panels installed underneath is relatively the same cost as using insulted siding.
As stated before, you can’t go wrong upgrading to vinyl siding. However, if you are looking to add an extra layer of insulation to your home you should consider choosing insulated siding as it will help your energy efficiency in addition to being more durable.
Call Us Today
If you are in need of roofing, windows, siding or gutter work, please contact us today and set up an appointment with our Omaha vinyl siding professionals. McKinnis is safely serving the Blair, Omaha, and Lincoln areas, and we would be happy to help you with your next home exterior project!