Just as we need to protect our bodies from weather extremes by wearing sunscreen in the summer and warm clothes in the winter, the same applies when it comes to our home, which is usually the largest investment we will ever make. Protecting your investment is a means of ensuring that issues don’t arise down the road.
Siding your home with durable, aesthetically pleasing, low-maintenance products is one way to do this. In the past, paint was the product used to protect our homes’ “skin.” Whether the siding was wood or aluminum, scraping and painting it every few years was a tedious task. Safety was also a concern, especially when it came to painting hard-to-reach areas. With the advent of low-maintenance siding products, those days are gone.
Callen offers a variety of types, styles, and colors of siding to suit just about every taste. Two types that can make a dramatic impact on curb appeal are vinyl siding and insulated vinyl siding.
A History of Vinyl Siding
Vinyl siding, which has been around since the early 1960’s, has historically received a bad rap, as it was – and often still is – seen as a cheap siding alternative. In the past, it was known to warp in extreme climates and easily fade. Colors were limited to lighter tones to reduce heat absorption, and profiles were restricted to a horizontal clapboard style.
Through the years, manufacturers such as Mastic and Royal, changed this paradigm and reformulated their products, greatly increasing sustainability and color retention in all climates. Not only are deep, dark, rich colors now offered, shake, shingle, half-round, vertical board and batten, Dutch lap, and architectural profiles and accents have been added to the mix.
How Insulated Vinyl Siding Combats Thermal Bridging
Though vinyl siding is designed to protect a home’s outer shell from the elements, energy savings now plays a major role in siding replacement as well. One way to combat the effects of heat and cold is by doing some exterior remodeling and installing insulated vinyl siding.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to insulating homes. The aim of the most common one is to retain conditioned or heated air within the house by way of wall and attic insulation. Another way of providing increased energy efficiency is counteracting the “thermal bridging” effect in homes, which occurs when the interior and exterior of a home are connected, or bridged, by a material that insulates poorly. An example of this kind of bridge is the wall studs that interrupt the insulated stretches of a wall and allow heat to flow between the home’s interior and the outdoors. Using insulated siding helps provide a barrier to prevent heat loss (or gain) at the points where the studs contact the outer wall of the house and other areas where thermal bridging commonly occurs.
The Mechanics of Insulated Vinyl Siding
Back in the early 1990’s, companies like Mastic and Royal started laminating foam insulation to the backside of their vinyl siding. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is the most common insulation material used in insulated siding. Not only can it increase the insulation R-factor (the resistance to heat loss), it creates straighter lines and lays flatter than conventional vinyl siding, making it more effective on irregular walls. It also reduces outside noise and the amount of heat loss or gain from the house.
To aid in reducing moisture retention behind the siding, products such as Royal’s Mill Run start with a thicker EPS foam that’s compressed to the desired thickness to reduce the foam’s porosity. In addition, grooves are machined diagonally on the back of the foam, aiding in the reduction of moisture which can sit behind the siding.
Many of the manufacturers Callen works with require training classes to teach the methods necessary to ensure proper fit and form during installation. Callen is a remodeling company that deems it necessary to always take advantage of these and many other educational opportunities offered through third-party entities such as the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) and the Vinyl Siding Institute (VSI). This way we’re able to install products on homes using the most current and recommended methods.
Callen Provides an Abundance of Options
Call Callen at 414-867-2207 or complete our online contact form to talk to our team of Exterior Product Specialists and learn about the many vinyl siding options available to you. We’ll also discuss how we can transform your home into one that has greater curb appeal, is more aesthetically pleasing, reduces heating and cooling costs, and allows you more leisure time with virtually no maintenance!
