Home › Services › Vinyl Siding
On most roofing-and-siding sites vinyl is the option they talk you out of. Not this one. In a county where the median household earns $56,997 and a lot of houses lost their wood siding to Rita or Laura, vinyl is the material that got walls closed again at a price people could pay, and it is on a great many houses in Port Arthur and Groves for exactly that reason. This page makes the case and then states the two limits without softening them.
Cost, first: on a whole house it is the least expensive cladding by a clear margin, and installation is fast. Moisture, second: vinyl does not rot, does not need paint, and shrugs off the damp air a pier-and-beam crawl space breathes onto the bottom of a wall. On a rental house in Port Arthur or a 1950s Mid-County house being made sound rather than restored, those two facts settle it, and a contractor who insists on fiber-cement regardless of budget is not listening.
Vinyl siding carries a tested wind-pressure rating, and the ratings across product lines vary widely. In a county that has recorded a 112-knot gust, the product and its installation, including fastener spacing and how the panel is locked at the top, have to suit the site. The contractor should name the product's rating in the scope, and in Jefferson County a significant re-side is inspected under the windstorm rule regardless of material.
Vinyl softens and can warp in sustained direct heat. In Beaumont that means a dark-colored wall facing west in August, and, more often, a wall opposite a neighbor's energy-efficient window reflecting afternoon sun. Lighter colors, and a look at what faces the wall, are the answer; there is no fixing a warped panel except replacing it.
A third, smaller one: vinyl hides what is behind it. The wall preparation, sheathing, house wrap and flashing at every opening, is the job. Vinyl installed over rotted sheathing looks fine for years and then does not.
Applies in Beaumont, Port Arthur, Nederland, Port Neches and Groves. In Vidor, Orange, Bridge City and Lumberton there is no windstorm inspection requirement; see those city pages.
Re-siding a significant portion of an exterior wall is on TWIA's list of work that requires a Certificate of Compliance, and TDI's adopted specifications include requirements for wall cladding attachment. Whether a particular vinyl product and installation meets those requirements in the catastrophe area is a question for the inspector or engineer applying the specification, and this site does not answer it for a product it has not seen. Ask before ordering material, not after the wall is closed. The certificate page has who to ask.
As a range on the same house, fiber-cement runs roughly half again to twice the installed price of vinyl. The written scope is the number; the difference is mostly labor and paint.
Properly rated and properly installed vinyl has come through Jefferson County storms; poorly installed vinyl is the first thing in the street. The rating and the installation are the whole answer, and the inspection is there to check them.
Sometimes, if the wood is sound and flat, and usually with a layer of foam or sheathing over it. Over rotted wood, no. The contractor tests the wall first.
Ask for the product's wind rating in the scope. A contractor who installs vinyl across Jefferson County calls back.
Call (409) 248-2181 Request a Free Estimate
Beaumont Roofing