Siding Care and Maintenance- How to Properly Maintain Your Home’s Siding

There are different natural disasters and situations that can attack your home anytime. Thankfully, the exterior siding of your home takes the effect of nature’s anger including freezing temperatures, rain, burning sun rays, ice, and snow, etc. Since siding offers greater protection and beauty to your personal property, climate changes like dirt, stains, and filth can make your siding ugly. This is where proper siding care and maintenance comes in handy not only to extend its life span and protection it offers but also to give it a fresh and appealing look. 

Here in this blog post, we are about to share different useful methods you can consider to properly maintain your home’s siding to keep it in fresh and strong condition. 

Wood Siding Maintenance Tips

Wood is one of the commonly used materials for siding as it gives a natural and gorgeous look to personal properties. Unfortunately, wood siding can easily be affected by weather conditions, pests, and general wear & tear. That’s why, it needs extra care and attention to be maintained properly. 

  • Inspect every 6 months: when there is wood siding around your home walls, you need to perform inspections twice a year. You should look for any minor damage like termites or wood root to get it fixed as soon as possible. 
  • Replace or re-treat every 2-5 years: wood siding needs to be re-treated at least after every five years if you really want to maintain its appeal and sturdiness. If you have used clear sealant, there will be a need to reapply it after every 2 years. 
  • Clean annually: in order to clean wood siding, you should use warm and soapy water to clean it manually. You can also use a soft brush to get rid of dust and stains from it. If you are not sure how to clean or maintain wood siding, you can hire professional siding contractors to get the job completed efficiently. 

Vinyl Siding Maintenance Tips

Vinyl siding is a reliable, appealing, and cost-effective siding type that works fine for rental or new homes. Here is how you can maintain vinyl siding effectively.

  • Inspect on a regular basis: since vinyl resists pests and rot, it can easily be cracked or damaged. It can also cause leakage it not installed properly or damaged. That’s why you need to inspect it on a regular basis to spot and fix damages if any. 
  • Wash annually: in order to clean vinyl siding, a garden hose is all you need to get rid of dirt and dust from the siding. You should clean it manually without using any damaging tools. 
  • Keep harmful elements away: items like a lawnmower or any other heavy-duty tools can damage the vinyl siding of your home. This is the reason; you should keep all the damaging things and tools away from it to avoid expensive damages and breakages.

Fiber Cement Siding Maintenance Tips

This is one of the strongest and long-lasting types of exterior siding. It is made of a blend of cement, sand, and cellulose fibers. Creative siding contractors can craft the cement siding to mimic stone, wood, or bricks. Here is how you can maintain cement siding.

  • Annual inspection: since cement siding is solid and long-lasting, it can suffer often due to the changing weather conditions. Annual inspections can help you find out the damages, cracks, or leakages in the siding so you can repair instantly to avoid expensive damages.
  • Clean every 1-2 years: you can clean cement siding with a power washer. Hence if a power washer is not accessible, you can wipe down the siding with soapy water and then rinse with the garden hose.  
  • Paint whenever needed: cement siding holds quality paint for a long run, but you may need to color it often to give it a fresh and appealing look. When buying paint for cement siding, make sure to choose weather-resistant paints.

Final Words

Siding care and maintenance worth your time and money. It keeps your properties in appealing and protective condition. Proper inspections and cleaning can make your home siding durable, good-looking and long-lasting. If you are unable to maintain home siding yourself, you can hire local siding contractors to take care of your home’s siding.