Best type of siding to consider for MN climate?

[BMXKING]

I was thinking of have my home resided next year and was wondering what the best type of siding would be?

I like the vinyl, but I am concerned about fading down the road. The fiber cement siding seems like a good product, but are there issues with the seams? How much more do you think the cement siding would be than a quality vinyl siding. Is steel siding the way to go?

Anyone have an opinion?

[TR21]

Personally I hate the look of vinyl or steel siding. Everytime we get a storm with hail the replacement trucks are in the neighborhood. I have Hardie board, which is the cement board, on my house and it looks great and is essentially maintenance free except painting of course. Never had a problem with seams.

[BoxMN]

I had very old alum, and went with vinyl after a storm, to basically make the funds go farther, and they could not match the alum of "old" to new stuff... and while I think the house looks more "modern" and all around better now (.046 thick and 25' pieces), and eveb though the house is totally tyvek (other brand?) covered where is was not before... I gotta say I think the vinyl holds the heat less than the alum did. Maybe just placebo effect, but the northwest room is colder now, and we have good furnace with 2 stage motor, so there should not be cold spot... but this room feels colder.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

[crothmeier]

hardie or any other cement board is one of the better products imo. the only problem with seams is if they arent installed right. there are a variety of different methods people use at seams, most of which are incorrect. if you get a contractor that knows what they are doing and maybe are certified by the hardie installer program you will have no issues.

[Surface Tension]

BoxMN, is it possible that since the air infiltration barrier was put on that your furnace is not running as often and that room gets gets cold sooner the the room your T-Stat is in?

Then again maybe the aluminum siding did retain more heat.

You probably had a fiberboard or styrofoam backer. Its purpose was to give the siding some rigidity but I'm sure it added some R value.

[Tom7227]

I had steel put on 18 years ago. The smartest thing I did was to have 4x8 sheets of foam put on the entire exterior. I think it was 1 inch. The house is 2X4 stick built in the early 60's and only had some fiberglass insulation. The foam added about an R9 or 11 or something to the house. The contractor had to shim out the windows and doors before they were wrapped to make things work out. I also had new window put in and a new furnace as well so I can't say that the foam alone made the difference but there was a real difference.

Over the past couple of years I have had terrible peeling on one small section of the house. I've talked to two other owners with steel siding the same age and they have had problems as well. I never figured out the cause but a few weeks ago I brushed it off with an angle grinder and put on some high quality paint.

I would give the cement board siding a good hard look if I was doing it again. One thing I don't know is if the product has been on the market long enough to know how it holds up over time.