The outside of your home can often be tough to keep up with, especially if you live in an area with frequent inclement weather that can do a number on your siding. Keeping up with roof repair and updating your siding or conducting siding repair is an important part of homeowner maintenance. It can add curbside appeal, you’ll contribute to keeping your neighborhood looking nice, and can even help keep energy costs or bills down. If you ever go to sell your home, an updated roof or siding job will improve your resale value. If you’re in the market for roof repair or siding repair, you want to make sure it’s done right and in a quality manner. For example, if your roofing company simply installs your new roof on top of the old roof, the lifespan of your new roof can be reduced by as much as 20%. Make sure you’re doing your research before hiring a company to conduct roof or siding repairs.
What to Keep In Mind With Roof Repair or Replacement
Choose the type of material that’s going to work best for your environment and for your home. Depending on your home’s structure and the kind of elements you face over the course of a year, some roof materials might be a much smarter choice than others. You also want to be sure that the style of your roof matches the style of your house. A steel roof would look odd on a cozy bungalow, for example.
Choose your contractor carefully as well. If they’re totally replacing your roof, make sure they’re going to do a thorough job that includes totally removing the old roof before installing the new one. Also consider whether you need to repair your roof or just bite the bullet and totally replace it. Roof repair should be done for small issues, like missing shingles or damage from animals, or cracked flashings.
What to Keep in Mind With Siding Repair
Having old and worn-out siding can give your home’s value a loss of as much as 10%, so keeping it up is important if you’re even considering putting your home on the market. If you’re trying to decide what kind of siding you want to put on your home, composite and vinyl siding are currently two popular choices.
Composite siding is made up of fiber cement or wood pulp and cement mix and provides the best performance of masonry and the nice look of painted wood clapboard or stone or brick. It’ll require minimal upkeep and will stay rot and termite free and is fire-proof, to boot. Around 15% of new homes are using composite siding and it tends to be a much more economical choice than using hardwood for siding.
Vinyl siding is a popular choice for its economical price tag and is a time efficient type of siding. It’s also low maintenance and won’t require new coats of paint regularly to keep up appearances. It also has an average lifespan of around 40 years, which means you can often “set it and forget it.” Plus, it has a relatively good return on investment — almost 82% on mid-range replacement projects.
Keeping your roof and siding up to date might require a little extra time and research, but will provide many more benefits to you in the long run. Make sure you take the time to do it right and look into what kind of maintenance is needed to keep your roof and siding in the best condition possible.