Siding costs

[1luckydad]

Can anyone give me a rough ballpark figure on the cost/SQ for installation of vinyl siding? I am just trying to evaluate my insurance estimate and see if they are in the ballpark. It is just one gable end. Plane and simple. I know the cost of the siding itself. It took forever to find a match but they found it!!

[Roofer]

Adjusters know exactly what it costs. They may miss a few things, but you will know that when you have a contractor come out and handle your claim for you.

[BobT]

I don't know if I can agree with you there, Roofer.

I had a rental property in Eveleth that caught fire in 1999. The fire damage itself was minimal but the heat and smoke damage was significant enough that the insurance adjuster recommended gutting the entire interior to the wall studs, rewiring the entire house, pressure testing the hot water heating system, and replacing most of the plumbing. Fortunately, siding and roofing were undamaged.

It was a small 1-1/2 story home under 1,000sq.ft. and his estimate of the damage was $23,000.00.

Anyway, he gave me an option. Either accept his estimate and do what I want or I could rebuild and the insurance company would pay up to the limits of my policy which was about $50,000 at the time.

My first dillemma was that the house was sitting on a 25' lot and zoning rules at the time required 50' lots in order to build. Tearing down the house would have left me with a lot I couldn't do anything with but pay taxes. I would have been forced to give the property to one of my neighbors. Because the frame, siding, and roofing were in tact, it was permitted for me to restore the interior so I decided to get some contractor estimates and in the end I chose the latter option.

When it was all said and done, the bill from the contractor was over $46,000.00 plus I had to absorb 50% depreciation on the flooring costs in the home.

Quite a significant difference between the insurance adjuster's estimate and reality.

Recently, I was doing a little investigating on the cost for roofing and learned that the price for contractors varies considerably, especially in different areas of the state. For example, the cost per square to reroof my house is about half what it would cost if my house was located near Hibbing.

I would recommend having a couple contractors take a look and give you some estimates.

Bob

[Roofer]

Bob, your story is exactly the reason you MUST hire a contractor to handle your claim. Insurance adjusters work for insurance companies. They will try to hand out a claim to homeowners and see if they are satisfied, just like Bob said. Then you later find out that you can't get the work completed for that amount.

The software used now is very precise and zip code specific. The problem is that sometimes things are missed. The other problem is that the insurance company puts the whole job into the homeowners lap and says, here you go, deal with it. How is a homeowner supposed to know as much as a contractor who deals with this everyday. Sometimes even Contractors miss things. Then we call up the adjuster and make the appropriate adjustments to the claim. Estimates are worthless for insurance work. They all should be within a few dollars of the insurance adjusters numbers unless something is missed. That is why you show your Contractor what is being paid for, then he can tell you if everything is covered. The homeowner, with replacement cost insurance, should have everything damaged, fixed or repaired up to code, for the price of their deductible.

If anyone is paying more than their deductible, you need a better contractor, or you may have added something. If you are paying less than what the insurance company paid, you hired a shady contractor, and both of you are running the risk of insurance fraud, which is punishable by a possible felony to both parties.

[1luckydad]

The bill I got from the contractor and what I got from my insurance for my roof, was within $20.00. They are probably good on the labor for my siding, but I am thinking that they didn't plan on the siding costing $169/SQ. Alcoa Cellwood siding.

[Roofer]

This is a big problem right now, but it's getting better. In this I mean that material costs were soaring in the last few months. Shingles went from $45 a square to $90 now. Siding has done similar price increases. The other problem is getting the materials in a timely manner. We just had a job where we waited a few weeks for siding that was supposed to match. The siding came out and it was completely the wrong color. Now we have to order again. More down time and a customer becoming uneasy.

As for price of materials rising....Your contractor simply has to submit an itemized bill to the ins. company, and the bill will be paid. No one has any control of material costs. It is the nature of the business.

[1luckydad]

Thanks for the discussion guys. It just amazes me how much info you can get from this web sit!! You can learn anything!!