The cost of maintaining an older home in the S.E. Alaska rain forest can be high. It is worse though to let water get to the wood. Plywood in a few years of water contact, unless it’s marine grade, can turn into something like soggy cardboard. Replacing rafters and studs costs even more. Let’s consider the options of using vinyl siding (or the costlier yet better choice of aluminum siding) against the cheaper painting. In either case the labor costs plus the recently inflated price of building materials make the selection meaningful and worth considering.
An average 4000 square foot exterior would require, nominally, about 10 gallons of self-priming, lifetime acrylic paint for coverage. With paint going for about $60 per gallon that would amount to $600. Vinyl siding to cover 4000 sq feet would run anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 or more.
Labor cost is the great unknown cost for repaints. Work installing vinyl siding before the recent inflation era ran about $4.00 per square foot. So about $16,000 for the nominal 4000 sq foot home. Painters per job have a vast range of prices and skill levels. Labor for a 4000 sq foot home could run from $3,000 to $15,000. The condition of the home is a factor in estimates. Painting has far more more subjective aspects than installing siding. For siding installation techniques are standard; not so for repainting buildings where contractor work experience and quality matter.
Installing vinyl siding produces a reliable product. True it can be difficult to repair broke siding down the road such as cable installers may precipitate. Some siding becomes discontinued and it won’t be possible to match the product installed on the home in the future.
Solar siding already exists so home owners with a sunny location would probably be better off paying a little more to produce electricity for their home. Considering the life of siding products those that produce free home power for two or three decades vs vinyl siding that is worthless for producing power is an easy choice. https://shop.mitrex.com/collections/solar-siding/products/solar-siding-350w-black-wood-tile-landscape-1
Painters on the other hand can produce great, high quality work or complete painting flops...one need look at the contractor’s prior work and references to have a clue what one would be buying. painting a home is far less expensive that installing vinyl or aluminum siding. It is also possible to cover portions of a home with solar power collecting siding as one elects. Tesla solar roofing should cover an entire roof while solar siding could be installed just on a sunny wall.
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The main problem with painting in the rain forest is the rain. One should think of it as if one were repainting a wood boat with all of the seams sealed with 20+ year caulking. If the building has water in the wood and one paints over that future bubbles and blisters in the paint will occur. Getting the building to be completely dry-especially after pressure washing, requires days in some case. Getting several days of good weather much less two weeks can be challenging. Paint contractors aren’t being paid for waiting for ideal weather so they can go out of business with not enough work done in the very short painting season in spring and summer.
If the homeowner does it themselves and accomplishes neat, tight lines the result may be satisfactory. Union labor produces acceptable quality although some of the prep work may be skimpy and the longevity of the job may be less with minor blistering that is an eyesore. Neither will unions necessarily use paint additives like EB (Emulsa Bind) that provides cohesion to chalky surfaces such as arise with undercoats of old paint exposed by pressure washing. Still they are the best best.
Contemporary acrylic paint is commonly of lifetime duration. There is a lot of resin in the paint. That means the paint if properly applied will last 15 or 20 years. Painting is a far better value for the homeowner if the work is well done. One cannot stress enough to know the contractor and not accept a pressure wash, some scraping, masking windows and quick spray job measuring the amount of paint applied in millimeters. That sort of work is common for new construction yet for repainting older exteriors great care is required.
There are fewer good home exterior repainters willing to take pride in producing a long-lasting paint job than there are vinyl siding installers willing to put on monkey proof product. If a painter uses EB in primer and in the body color as well as lots of mildew killer and takes great care in prep and finish work the paint job is a far better value than siding. The prosperous homeowner with deep pockets may opt for the siding however as it is less of a gamble. Fifty thousand plus or five thousand dollars; that is the question.
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