As the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada, you know you can expect some harsh winter weather. While Detroit doesn't often see huge snow storms, freezing temperatures, summer rain, and basic wind and sun patterns can wreak havoc on your home and its siding. If you're looking for new siding in the Motor City, cement siding is one of the best siding materials out there in terms of performance and cost.
Detroit Cement Siding: Looks like a Mustang, Performs like an Explorer
Even if you're a Chevy or Chrysler person, the metaphor still holds true. Cement siding is made of a cement fiber composite made from cement, sand, water, and wood pulp. This forms a siding material that is virtually waterproof, fire and pest resistant, and tough against impact forces. Warranties often extend several decades, and your siding will need very little upkeep to maintain its performance. This sounds like cement, but the unique composite fibers also make for great decorative siding options. Cement siding absorbs and holds paint unlike any other siding on the market. This means not only will your cement bear little resemblance to the drab look of a sidewalk, but the color of the paint will last several years before any new paint is needed.
Have Patience with Resale Value and Detroit Cement Siding
Between the economy and the housing crisis, there is no home improvement project out there that pays for itself or even comes close in property value. No matter how much money you put into your home, with too many houses on the market and not enough new home buyers, you're simply not going to see an immediate jump in the resale value of your home. Of course, this only matters to homeowners thinking about selling their homes in the next few years. It's impossible to predict how new cement siding might affect the selling price of your home in 10 or 20 years. We can tell you that cement siding has the highest average cost versus resale value percentage of any home improvement project.
Keep in mind, too, that the state of Detroit property values and economy is often perceived as a seamless blanket, but many areas in the greater Detroit-area are less directly affected by the decline of the domestic automotive industry. Detroit siding contractors are often willing to travel greater distances than homeowners think to service your home. Regardless of where you live, there's never a bad time to install cement siding. And with the Motor City weather, it's not going to go out of fashion anytime soon.
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Detroit Cement Siding Contractors and Cost of Installation
You might think a siding like this is going to cost a bundle. No siding project is cheap, but fiber cement siding is no more expensive than any other. You can install some grades of vinyl siding for less, but these grades are generally of inferior quality and can fade quickly under the sun or grow brittle and crack over time. The cost of higher-grade vinyl and fiber cement are nearly identical, although the cost of installation usually nudges the overall cost of fiber cement just slightly higher. The average vinyl siding project costs about $11,000; fiber cement is closer to $13,000.
The same toughness that makes fiber cement such a great siding material also makes it more difficult to work with and install. Certainly, it's not the type of project you want to attempt on your own, and you should take extra care to choose a reliable, quality contractor. On the other hand, by surveying multiple Detroit siding contractors, you might find a contractor who specializes in fiber cement and offers a better estimate for first-rate work, driving the overall cost back toward vinyl siding projects for a better siding material.
