Vinyl Siding - Historic Charm?

Vinyl Siding - Ugly 50's whitewash or Period Charm?

In the 1950's many of the old houses and much of the post-war housing stock was covered with vinyl siding. It was used to cover many fine old Victorian homes as well as craftsman style homes. Like the aluminum siding that came before it, vinyl siding was heralded as the end to painting homes and praised for it's low maintenance and longevity. While it was certainly practical, it deleted so much of the elegance and character of the older building styles and many homeowners are not removing it and restoring the original wood clapboard siding and shingles along with the decorative elements like gingerbread that are so much a part of the original styles and bring so much characterist beauty to old homes. The old siding really did a diservice to so many neighborhoods, whitewashing them of their period character and making every home look the same in many cases.

Fortunately, vinyl siding has evolved with people's tastes and the old vinyl siding that erased historic charm is a thing of the past. In addition to erasin historic charm, the original vinyl siding was far from maintenance free, as it had claimed to be. Vinyl siding cracked, sagged and faded with time. Since that time, manufacturers have developed new chemical formulas to fix these problems and they have found suitable replicas of historic cladding and trim styles.