**1. Traditional Siding Materials:**
– Wood Siding: Versatile in style, requires maintenance every 4-9 years, susceptible to pests, provides minor insulation and structural properties.
– Shingles: Made of cedar shake siding, rot-resistant options available, common in colonial North America.
– Clapboards: Horizontal rows, common material is Eastern white pine, offers various face finishes.
– Drop Siding: Horizontal siding with various face finishes, provides a unique aesthetic.
– Vertical Boards: Popular styles include board and batten, provides a distinct architectural look.
**2. Modern Siding Materials:**
– Plastic Siding: Vinyl siding imitates wood clapboard, available in various colors and styles, historically prone to fading and cracking.
– Insulated Siding: Provides additional insulation, improves energy efficiency, enhances thermal performance.
– Metal Siding: Comes in various metals, styles, and colors, suitable for modern and industrial buildings, dent-resistant and suitable for severe weather regions.
– Composite Siding: Made from various materials, lower cost than wood options, durability and environmental impact vary.
**3. Specialized Siding Options:**
– Stone Siding: Decorative slate wall shingles, durable and long-lasting, adds a luxurious feel to buildings.
– Thatch Siding: Ancient building material made from dry vegetation, provides a traditional and natural aesthetic.
– Imitation Brick or Stone-Asphalt Siding: Common in old sheds and garages, often covered with newer materials, thin panels of real brick now manufactured for veneer.
**4. Specific Siding Types:**
– Masonry Siding: Varied styles, excellent durability with minimal maintenance, environmental impact depends on materials used.
– Fiber Cement Siding: Made from cement, cellulose, sand, and water, known for realistic look and fire resistance.
– Non-Wood Synthetic Siding: Comprised of polymeric resins, fiberglass, stone, sand, and fly ash, chosen for durability and easy maintenance.
**5. Additional Information:**
– Insulated Siding: Custom fit with expanded polystyrene foam, reduces energy use, durable, permeable to protect against rot and mold.
– Challenges in Composite Siding: Deterioration, delamination, and coating adhesion loss in wood fiber products, limited distribution and varieties in synthetic siding, climate-dependent issues, estimating lifespan, sporadic availability.
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Siding or wall cladding is the protective material attached to the exterior side of a wall of a house or other building. Along with the roof, it forms the first line of defense against the elements, most importantly sun, rain/snow, heat and cold, thus creating a stable, more comfortable environment on the interior side. The siding material and style also can enhance or detract from the building's beauty. There is a wide and expanding variety of materials to side with, both natural and artificial, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Masonry walls as such do not require siding, but any wall can be sided. Walls that are internally framed, whether with wood, or steel I-beams, however, must always be sided.
Most siding consists of pieces of weather-resistant material that are smaller than the wall they cover, to allow for expansion and contraction of the materials due to moisture and temperature changes. There are various styles of joining the pieces, from board and batton, where the butt joints between panels is covered with a thin strip (usually 25 to 50 mm wide) of wood, to a variety of clapboard, also called lap siding, in which planks are laid horizontally across the wall starting from the bottom, and building up, the board below overlapped by the board above it. These techniques of joinery are designed to prevent water from entering the walls. Siding that does not consist of pieces joined would include stucco, which is widely used in the Southwestern United States. It is a plaster-like siding and is applied over a lattice, just like plaster. However, because of the lack of joints, it eventually cracks and is susceptible to water damage. Rainscreen construction is used to improve siding's ability to keep walls dry.