Vinyl siding is cheap, quick to install and easy to maintain, making it seem the ideal cladding solution for your home. Or is it? Architects and designers detest this material for aesthetic reasons, but vinyl may be even more evil than it is unattractive. Here are the seven deadly sins of vinyl house siding, exposed:
1. Manufacturing vinyl siding is bad for the environment. Although manufacturers tout siding as a great way to earn LEED points, the US Green Building Council actually declined to support a credit specific to vinyl use. Vinyl siding is primarily composed of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and the manufacturing process produces greenhouse gases such as nitrogen oxide, as well as carcinogens including dioxin. Another by-product of vinyl siding manufacture is sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain and smog. Not to mention, this process requires vast amounts of electricity.
Obviously, working around all these chemicals can be dangerous. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) maintains strict workplace exposure limits for employees in vinyl siding plants. And people install this stuff on their houses? Also keep in mind that as vinyl siding ages, it continues to releases low levels of the same harmful chemicals produced during the manufacturing process. Studies are inconclusive as to whether this causes health problems for residents; however, if your house catches fire, the siding will release high levels of lethal chemical vapors. Many people die from these fumes in house fires before succumbing to smoke inhalation.
2. It doesn't last as long as that "maintenance free!" advertisement would have you believe. Manufacturers brag that high quality siding lasts about 20 to 30 years. However, depending on your climate, siding could look worse-for-the-wear at around 10 to 15 years. The color fades and the planks become dirty. Painting isn't an option, since it will likely peel and crack after a short time, and pressure washing could be disastrous if water enters your house through cracks and crevices around the siding. Siding planks often split or break due to the expansion and contraction caused by temperature changes. If your lawnmower sends a rock flying at your house, it will cause quite a bit of surface damage to the siding. It can't be patched; the entire plank must be replaced.
So, where does that scrap siding end up? A landfill.
3. Which brings us to our next point...Vinyl siding is not often recycled. Sure, vinyl siding CAN be recycled, but usually it's not: according to Greenpeace International, "currently less than 1 percent of PVC is materially 'recycled'." The reason? Recycling post-consumer PVC is both difficult and expensive. When you think of recycling plastic, that typically means polyethylene terephthalate (PETE), the type used to make soda bottles and other household products. Most recycling centers won't accept items containing PVC. Once siding arrives to the landfill, it's usually burned; and as you know, that's a really bad idea. According to the EPA, PVC incineration "is the largest known source of dioxin emissions in the United States" (Environmental News Bulletin, Backyard Burning Could be Major Source of Dioxins Washington, DC, January 4, 2000).
4. Vinyl siding won't drastically reduce your heating bill. Were you under the impression that vinyl siding can work miracles for your home's energy efficiency? While it isn't the worst material choice in this respect, vinyl siding by itself will do little to reduce heat loss from your home. Though some manufacturers sell siding with rigid foam insulation included, you're better off with traditional wood siding, which has a higher R-value (the measure of thermal resistance), or spending that money on weatherizing your doors and windows and adding insulation for your attic, where most of the heat escapes.