Upscale Atlanta community sides with vinyl
Residents demand a maintenance-free, classy look for their homes

ATLANTA – For most residents of Glenridge Place in the upscale Buckhead Atlanta neighborhood, their condominium is the empty nest they have worked so hard for and always promised themselves.

Contracted services keep the Glenridge Place streets, sidewalks and yards well maintained and landscaped. And the Homeowners’ Association is responsible for managing and allocating funds for practically all the maintenance of the homes’ exteriors.

One of the group’s major decisions arose recently when the original 22-to 24-year old composite wood siding reached the point of constantly needing repair on too many of the community’s 58 homes. A complex-wide replacement was needed, and the debate began.

Vinyl siding or fiber cement?

“A lot of thought, time and effort went into the decision,” said Barry Prusin, a member of the Glenridge homeowners’ board and a six-year resident of the community. “Once we made the choice to install vinyl siding, every comment has been positive. We found a design that is maintenance free and very similar looking to the wood that it replaced.”

But the deciding factor in choosing vinyl siding over fiber cement siding was thatmaintaining the beauty of vinyl siding does not require a line item in the association’s budget. And that’s particularly helpful when a homeowners’ association is planning for capital expenditures decades in advance.

Unlike wood or fiber cement siding, vinyl siding never requires painting. A simple rinse with a garden hose or the use of household cleaning products can maintain vinyl siding’s original beauty for the lifetime of the residence.

“When you’re making recommendations for the exterior of half-million-dollar homes, you also have to be sure the product has a look of class,” said Mike Morey of Ray Engineering, Inc. “By choosing a high-end certified vinyl siding, they got the best of both worlds.”

Ray Engineering is a consulting firm that presented Glenridge residents with their options, prepared the siding restoration specifications and managed the restoration project on behalf of the association.

The Vinyl Siding Institute (VSI) has been working with vinyl siding manufacturers and installers to enhance and maintain the quality and installation of vinyl siding through separate initiatives – the VSI Vinyl Siding Product Certification Program and the VSI Certified Installer Program.

Through independent third-party inspections, the VSI Vinyl Siding Product Certification Program allows manufacturers to certify that their products meet or exceed the testing requirements as specified in the industry standard for quality – ASTM D3679. Statistics from VSI show that about 96 percent of the vinyl siding reported as manufactured and installed in the United States today is certified.

The Vinyl Siding Institute’s VSI Certified Installer Program aims to improve the quality of vinyl siding installation by training, certifying and recognizing the skills and knowledge of vinyl siding installers, trainers and companies (see sidebar).

“There’s no property more personal than a home,” said Jery Y. Huntley, President of VSI. “Over the last decade, vinyl siding manufacturers have focused on advancing the technology and engineering of their vinyl siding products, including the addition of a dramatic range of trim styles, colors and profiles.

“The trends we’re seeing a lot lately include vinyl siding as a high-performance option in combination with other materials,” Huntley added. “Using vinyl alone or in custom combinations, upscale communities can reflect the individual style of their residents, and count on the homes or condos in the neighborhood to look great for decades.”

Perry Greene is the President of Taylor Commercial Inc., a regional multifamily renovation contractor based out of Atlanta, Ga., who installsa variety of siding types, including vinyl and fiber cement. Greene and his firm were responsible for helping the Glenridge residents choose between the fiber cement and vinyl siding. The contractors also worked with the vinyl siding manufacturer to develop a custom laminated beaded panel, which the residents ultimately chose.

Greene cited additional reasons that Glenridge residents were leaning toward adding three sides of vinyl siding to the structures’ brick fronts: the additional insulation value of the foam-backed vinyl siding product and the lifetime no-fade warranty.

“A few of the homeowners were still not convinced vinyl was the right choice early on, despite knowing the advantages,” Greene said. “So we took some of them to other vinyl siding projects that we have completed – high end homes and condos – so they could see high quality installations. I think they came away very impressed. I then had some of my team do a sample wall. We installed an aluminum window cap with a built in a J receiver that allowed us to very clean finish similar to brick molding around the windows. This showed them that vinyl siding does not have to come out further than the windows, and it gave it a very clean finish. They could not even tell it was vinyl siding.”

Prusin said about “90 percent” of his fellow homeowners preferred the vinyl siding in the first place. But after the contractor’s extra demonstrations, the other 10 percent were thoroughly convinced as well.

“Once we decided on vinyl siding, we even had to have a color committee,” Prusin added. “It took a while for them to narrow down the multitude of choices for us to vote on.”

What Glenridge residents will later discover is that the statistics show homeowners who remodel with vinyl siding will recover more than 95 percent of the cost when they sell their home (the average value recovery for home improvement projects overall is about 86 percent).

“Additional savings are realized in heating and cooling since the foam-backed siding has insulating properties,” Greene said. “And it can also help to reduce the street noise that otherwise could be heard in the house.”

And Glenridge isn’t the only community making decisions like this. The latest U.S. Census Bureau data again confirms vinyl siding’s position as the number one choice for exterior cladding for new single-family homes. Research results indicate vinyl siding is selected nearly twice as often as the closest competitive materials.

“We’re seeing a lot of positive attitudes about vinyl siding in general, and also in high-end applications,” Morey said. “Quality installations are making it difficult for anyone to tell that we’ve put a vinyl siding product on the wall – that’s how good it looks.”

The Vinyl Siding Institute, Inc. is the Washington, DC based trade association for manufacturers of vinyl and polymeric siding and suppliers to the industry. VSI is the sponsor of the VSI Vinyl Siding Product Certification Program and the VSI Certified Installer Program.