Homeowners seeking out valuable vinyl siding tips would be well-advised to consider an insulated vinyl siding alternative to the standard options available on the market. That’s because insulated variants on this common and very popular form of siding offer a myriad of benefits that can improve the appearance of the exterior of your house while providing greater strength and resilience alongside an increase in energy efficiency throughout the home.
Many homes that have vinyl siding currently installed might even be improved with an upgrade replacement of the insulated stuff instead. Here are some of the reasons why you might want to think about going with insulated vinyl siding when it’s time to consider new siding for your home:
Manufacturing Insulated Vinyl Siding
From the outside, insulated vinyl siding doesn’t look all that much different from regular vinyl siding. Both are manufactured using a polyvinyl or PVC shell, it’s what’s on the inside that makes all the difference between the two. Naturally, that difference is an inner tier of expanded polystyrene foam which is pretty much a layer of styrofoam that has been fitted to the vinyl as a means for providing some extra insulation to your siding.
But this isn’t to suggest that the additional insulation is going to have any sort of jarring effect on the installation of your siding against the exterior of the house. Far from it actually, as the insulating is form-fitted to the stepped profile of the siding, making it thin enough to allow each panel to be fitted tightly against the structure of the house. Even the installation process is the same for insulated and regular vinyl siding as the panels can still overlap as you would expect.
That’s really all there is to it where the manufacturing of the product is concerned. But it does make for a superior product in the eyes of many homeowners because of the many benefits insulated vinyl siding brings to the home.
Benefits of Insulated Vinyl Siding
For starters, insulated vinyl siding is a much stronger and stiffer type of siding. As a result, the siding brings a greater resistance to warping and that makes it more resilient against all of the natural punishment that inclement weather, high winds, and direct sunlight can dish out.
Insulating
But the biggest appeal of insulated vinyl siding is, of course, the added layer of insulation that the siding brings to the home. With that said, insulated vinyl siding won’t significantly improve the home’s energy-efficient attributes in a similar manner as you might expect from something like replacement windows.
Just keep in mind that the insulating properties of the vinyl won’t make a drastic difference in the energy efficiency of the home as the installation process used to apply the siding to your house still allows for some amount of heat to escape from the dwelling near the studs and plywood sheathing.
Strength and Resilience
But what is definitely beneficial is that the foam takes up the empty void that exists between the vinyl siding and the exterior walls of the house. Standard vinyl siding is somewhat more vulnerable to impacts and the seams between the panels can offer more exposure to the house, especially when they are pushed in or knocked into by something. With the foam layering underneath the PVC shell, the foam bolsters the shell of the paneling and makes it firmer to the touch, reducing the potential for those vulnerabilities at the seams.
Insulated vinyl siding can also act as a protective layer around the home to safeguard it from anything that might hit it, such as rocks thrown by cars driving by or a line drive grand slam from the neighbor’s kids hitting the house by mistake. Such items could dent the side of the home but not with the extra cushioning you can enjoy from insulated vinyl siding.
Versatility
There’s one disadvantage to going with vinyl siding that becomes greatly diminished with insulated alternatives. Most vinyl siding comes in a very limited number of colors because they can’t handle the intensity of extreme heat and light from the sun up above. But with insulated lining, vinyl siding manufacturers can create new options in a myriad of colors because that additional layer makes the siding more resistant to the type of wear and tear that direct sunlight can inflict on your home.
This ability to choose from a larger palette of colors is another benefit of insulated vinyl siding and that can improve the aesthetic of your home for improved curb appeal. It could also increase the value of your home.