Residing vs Repainting in Kansas City

Just Paint or New Siding?

We often give estimates to homeowners who are comparing two options: 1) re-painting their exterior and 2) residing their house.  We’ll weigh the pros and cons of each so that as you’re conducting research before meeting with companies you’ll have some of the information you need on repainting vs residing.

Repainting vs Residing Cost

In our experience cost is the largest factor for most people when it comes to the decision of repainting vs residing.  Our average repaint price is between $6,000 and $7,000.  The estimates we’ve seen for residing with vinyl or steel are $30,000 to $40,000.  The estimates we provide and projects we work where siding is replaced with James Hardie Siding can be $40,000 to $50,000.  So residing can be 6 to 9 times more expensive.

How Long Do You Plan to Live There

If you’re considering being in your home a very long time, and the existing siding you have is old and badly wood rotted, you may derive value from residing the home.  Oftentimes, residing with James Hardie siding increases the value of your property, reduces your insurance, and greatly reduces the required maintenance to your exterior.  These cost savings will add up over time.  So residing can be thought of as spending a large amount of money up front, and then spending less each year on exterior costs.

If you’re planning on selling in the next 5 to 8 years (the life of an average paint job), painting is more likely the way to go.

Definitely get estimates for both options, and if you are considering selling your home talk to a realtor and see what the benefit would be of selling your home as is or selling it after it is resided with a new siding system.

Maintenance

Some of the older siding systems we deal with around Kansas City are high maintenance.  Specifically we see a great deal of wood rot on old Batten Board siding and Cedar Shake Shingle.  These siding systems aren’t ideal for our climate, and with out proper, routine maintenance wood rot will occur.  In fact, it is rare for us to estimate a home that is sided with one of these two systems and not find fairly extensive wood rot.

New siding systems are lower maintenance.  We don’t install vinyl or steel siding, so we won’t pretend to know what their maintenance is like, but on James Hardie siding which we do install the maintenance is much lower.  Paint bonds extremely well to Hardie siding, and we rarely see any issues with peeling paint.  Hardie siding is also extremely hard, so hail won’t damage it.  Because it is essentially cement, it will not wood rot either.  Because of these benefits, Hardie siding is very low maintenance once installed.

Painting will need to be maintained more frequently than something like Hardie siding.  A solid paint job in our Kansas City climate is expected to last around 8 years on average depending on your home’s exposure and the condition of the existing siding.

Paint is a top coat, so it is only as good as what it’s covering.  If the wood below the paint is very old and hasn’t been well maintained in the 40 or however many years it’s been on the house, repainting may likely be a more frequent maintenance issue.  Albeit the yearly cost will be far less to maintain the paint that to reside the house with Hardie.

Aesthetics

We work with customers often who’ve just purchased the home we’re estimating and bought it because they love the area, the neighborhood, the interior, or for any other number of reasons, but they dislike the way it looks on the exterior.  The style of siding isn’t what they want.  The whole look of an exterior is changeable via new exterior siding.

Painting can also greatly change the look of a home.  You’re obviously stuck with the siding style if painting is your choice, but correct color selection can change the whole look of a house.

Decisions Decisions

So deciding between re-siding and re-painting really boils down to a few important factors.  How long are you planning on living in this home and will you realize any value from the cost of siding vs painting?  That’s likely the big one.  Is the home something you got a great deal on and want to fix it up to live in it with the money you saved?  Is the siding is bad/decent/great condition?  Do you want to lower your maintenance costs?  Are you interested in changing the aesthetics of the home?

These are good placing to start as you decide what route you’re going to take.

As always, talk to one of our estimators and they can help answer some of your questions!