siding allowance help?

15 years ago

I need help. We are building a $500,000+ home. Our contract doesnt specify an exact type of siding or brand only the allowance for total materials and labor. The front will be mostly brick. When it came time to choose siding i soon found out that we only get to choose from builder grade $60 something a square. This is a fairly high quality home and i was a bit supprised. When i add up price per square(60 squares) at $60 a square ths is leaving labor at at least 300+ per square. they are charging us for upgrade to next higher up siding. our allowance total for material and labor is $32,000 for 60 squares and a very few squares of certainteed impressions cedar shakes on front. does this sound right? we are in central smaller town in Ohio. what are typical labor costs per square? and is it normal and ok to put .40 thick builder grade siding on our custom expensive home? Thanks for any input! I have been a long time mostly lurker and hope to put my new build photos up soon.

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Comments (3)

SpringtimeHomes
15 years ago
I agree that 60 a square is cheap for such an expensive home. I would expect 70 for our area using Fiber Cement. Iam sure the problem is in the fact that the siding scope is supposed to cover trim, soffit, fascia, fasteners, perhaps house wrap, maybe windows, flashing, caulk and hopefully insulative sheathing!

I would tend to think that the overall numbers seems fair for fiber cement but not vinyl(.40 thick builder grade siding). However, I dont know the details. Height, location and labor markets make universal rules of thumb tough.

Many Building Science experts prefer the performance advantages of vinyl siding to fiber cement. Unless of course the fiber cement is built with a rain screen which is very doubtful in your case from the sounds of it.
chrisk327
15 years ago
Does it seem "normal"? no.

Does it happen sometimes? yes.

we went with the slightly thicker stuff on our house that was in the 70s a square, the thin stuff doesn't make sense to put on a nice house.
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gus5
15 years ago
I was about to ask the same question about thickness of siding...thanks for bringing this up. Did you make a decision on thickness yet? What brand did you end up using? Thanks for the update!