Insulated siding? Anyone installed it?

[dholly]

Looks great Bird, and there is plenty good to be said for the maintenance characteristics [or lack thereof, hah!] of vinyl. That's why I used it instead of the HardiPlank, sick of staining the house and cabin every few years. Now, had I been building an UN-insulated garage and didn't have the added expense of the fiberglass wall batts (we need lots of insulation up here ) and interior finishing, I think I would have favored the insulated siding. Because it lays so flat and consistent with the bonded backing, I think it looks much nicer than standard siding.

[edit] I found a pic of the Double 4" regular Certainteed siding I used for comparison. You can really see how even the more narrow regular siding reveals have a slight concave to them. Your wider backed siding shows no sign of that. Much more pleasing to my eye. Looks like we picked purty near the same color too!

 

[Bird]

I had a choice of the double 6" or single 7" and actually told the contractor I didn't really care which, but thought the 6" might look a little better and that's what I got. It's a color Alcoa calls Desert Sand.

 

[RayH]

The concave look that regular vinyl siding has is formed in that way. Its supposed to be there. The shiplap or dutchlap siding also has a concave form in the angled area.
Most of the siding you see buckled and warped is not the fault of the siding, its the fault of the people hanging it. Most contractors, in an attempt to speed things up, use air nailers to nail siding up. You almost have to do it by hand to do it right because it can not be nailed tightly. The siding should be able to slide freely, if it doesnt, it will buckle as it expands and contracts with temp. This is also one of the reasons I dont like the siding with foam glued to it. The siding and the foam have different expansion characteristics. The foam will either eventually seperate from the siding or cause it to buckle.

 

[Bird]

one of the reasons I dont like the siding with foam glued to it. The siding and the foam have different expansion characteristics

That makes sense to me and was one of the concerns I mentioned to the contractor, but they weren't concerned about it. The nails were put in by hand so the vinyl can move, and the foam supposedly has enough "give" to it to prevent that. I hope they're right.

 

[IllMarty1]

Hi guys,

Just moved into a new summer place this spring. Here is what my insulated siding looks like. It is vinyl log siding and has a small piece of insulation slid behind the vinyl. Probably more to get the siding to hold its form when pushed on than for insulation properties. My buddy said "so thats what logs look like in the city". LOL

 

[Bird]

Yep, Marty, those are some pretty uniform logs. I think that looks good, too. I got the viny siding with the insulation bonded to it, but the contractor did mention a kind that you just slip the insulation behind each piece, as well, of course, as the original where they put the sheets of insulation up first.