If your home has wooden clapboard siding you can pretty much commit to having it painted every couple of years to keep your house looking great. To avoid this expensive, time-consuming task, many Wilmington homeowners have opted for vinyl siding.
Vinyl siding has many advantages over wooden siding. The main benefit is the fact vinyl siding needs little to no maintenance. The color stays strong and true for many years, and the best vinyl siding stands up well to all four seasons of weather experienced in the Wilmington area.
You may be wondering how long vinyl siding lasts? This is a question that requires some information to answer. The first criteria is the quality of the vinyl siding installed. Like anything, vinyl siding is available in a variety of grades, from super cheap and flimsy to the high quality product you would expect on an upscale home.
The bargain basement vinyl siding can reliably deliver between 8 – 15 years of performance before it begins to show its age; this timeline can be shorter if you’ve had extreme weather events in your area. Higher quality vinyl siding can resist the same conditions without fading or sagging for much longer, with an expected useful life of 25-30 years. As you can see, if you want a longer lifespan from your vinyl siding, it makes sense to invest in the superior product.
How do you know when the vinyl siding needs to be replaced? There are a number of factors to look for. Color fade is often a top concern, as well as the homeowner’s desire to change the appearance of the home to another color. Vinyl siding that is sagging, warped, or developed splits, cracks, or other damage due to weather events or misadventure needs to be replaced. Your Wilmington siding contractor will be happy to advise you whether existing problems can be repaired or if it’s time for an upgrade.