While I’d love to replace the damaged clapboard currently on the house and repaint to give it that authentic 1800′s look it deserves, preliminary research showed me that that was totally out of my price range. There aren’t companies around here that will do that sort of work — unless they call themselves “Restoration” experts, and apparently that adds an extra zero to the price tag.

Vinyl has seemed to be the finish of choice in our area for years now. I’m not real keen on it personally, but it will be a great improvement over what we have now and most importantly, it should get us out of our horrible homowners insurance problem.

Not a palace, it’s a modest 2 story house with around 1600 sq feet and a detached 2 car garage. We’re not having any work done on the garage as it’s so far gone, it doesn’t seem worth it. That, and it’s already too small for us, so it’s not a long term building for us.

For the quote, yes, it is high. Last year we had another contractor come out and give us an estimate. They came in at around $14k — but that was barebones.

For this project, I probably should have elaborated a bit more — in addition to the siding look we really want (smaller slats and with the fish scales in the peaks), we’re making our front doorway larger and replacing the likely original to the house door, replacing an old rear door, adding a stylized rounded window to one of the attic peaks, and installing a new basement hatch.

So while the first estimate was a lot lower, it was essentially just wrapping our current house in plastic. This one, while higher, should make it look a lot nicer at the same time.

That, and living in New England is *always* overpriced. Sigh…

We sided our house about 1.5 years ago. I also got multiple bids and looked at various types of siding. I ended up negotiating a much lower price than the original bid came back by pitting one against the other. I also told them I loved their product but it was out of my price range so I was seriously considering their competitor.

I was able to side our whole house with real wood siding for $13,500. That’s for a 2700 sq foot 2 story house.

Unless you live in a palace, that sounds really high. Is it worth the extra for vinyl? Maybe you should consider other types of siding??? (just my two cents)