Vinyl siding vs fiber cement siding vs wood siding

            I am going to go into a list of pros and cons of three types of siding. I will start with vinyl siding since that is the most popular choice. I know there are plenty of people offering their 2 cents, but this comes from someone who has sided literally hundreds of houses with vinyl as well as a few with fiber cement and wood siding. I might be a little biased, but this is due to my experience. So here we go....

Vinyl Siding

The pros of vinyl siding are:

• Quick installation
• The medium to low grades of vinyl are relatively inexpensive
•  No painting
• Moderately attractive finish
• Easy to clean

The cons of vinyl siding are:

• Fading (from what I can tell it depends on the color and manufacturer you choose)
• Cracking (falling icicles, weed wackers, etc. can easily chip or crack vinyl)
• Bubbling (the new low-e windows sometimes reflect the suns heat causing the vinyl siding adjacent to the window to bubble and distort under the high heat )
• Despite what you may have read, it is not simple or easy to vinyl side a house there are many different installation techniques and lots of ways to make mistakes
• Darker colors are not impossible but harder for installers to make look nice, the reason for this is that the darker colors don't use PVC as a base, the use ASA (acrylonitrile styrene acrylate) this material has a lower melting temperature. To make matters worse dark colors soak in more heat than lighter colors
• Maintenance isn't as easy as some would have you think, replacing damaged panels requires special tools and knowledge

Fiber Cement Siding 

The pros of fiber cement siding are:

• Can be ordered already painted (with a warranty on the paint)
• The paint holds up really well
• It is a lot harder to damage than vinyl siding
• It looks more like wood than vinyl siding (the seams are less visible)
• In historic applications it better retains the homes original charm
• It's lifespan should be much longer than vinyl
• Low maintenance

The cons of fiber cement siding are:

• It is more expensive (I typically charge 25-50% more)
• There are bad reviews online about fiber cement
• It is less trusted than vinyl siding (some people are unsure of its' lifespan)
• Your project may take longer to complete 

Wood Siding

The pros of wood siding are:

• The finished appearance is by far the best
• The natural look of wood that can't be duplicated (they have come pretty close though)
•  It weathers okay

The cons of wood siding are:

• It is relatively high maintenance
• It is also about 25-50% more per job than vinyl
• Needs to be painted after installation (adding to the job cost)
• Without regular maintenance it will fail

So to sum it up:
                          In my professional opinion, fiber cement siding is the best choice when you are looking to re-side your home. I look at it this way, in 20 years when it is time to tear off the old vinyl and dispose of it, if you sided your house with fiber cement siding you would only have to repaint. I think that at that point the fiber cement siding will pay itself back. Combine that with the fact that it looks far better than vinyl, this leads me to think that fiber cement siding is the clear choice. However if your budget is tight, vinyl siding is an acceptable choice. Wood is great for when you want that natural look that can't be duplicated and your budget can support the added cost of the installation and maintenance. There are bad reviews on every type of siding and people have legitimately had bad experiences with each. You can only do your research and hope that, the siding contractor you hire installs the siding to the manufacturers specifications and that the manufacturer stands behind their product.

Thanks for reading,
                                       Brandon