Whether you are in the middle of a major home renovation or simply need to retire your existing siding, choosing the right siding colors, materials, and textures can dramatically transform the beauty and ambiance of your home. Sidings are the exterior materials that seek to shield your home from inclement weather conditions, runoff, and any element the wind brings to your home. Assuming the important role of safeguarding the comfort of your home, sidings are also an indispensable asset for their cosmetic appeals and ability to enhance your architectural design. While every homeowner has unique needs and may prefer different siding materials, here are three recommendations that can be applied to everyone.

Tip #1: Understand Your Budget

Replacing your siding undoubtedly incurs expenses that warrants serious financial speculation. As House Logic points out, “When replacing siding, you’ll often recoup a significant amount of your investment, but there are tradeoffs in maintenance, price, and sustainability.” What is your budget range? At what point would you stop the negotiation and move on to the next contractor? Knowing how much you have and how much you are willing to spend on your siding project will enable you to compare multiple bids, effectively negotiate with professional contractors, and settle on a project rate that leaves both parties satisfied.

Tip #2: Know Your Materials

House siding materials vary greatly in longevity, durability, and customization flexibility. Common siding materials include wood, asbestos, aluminum, vinyl, hardboard composite, fiberglass, and fiber cement. While asbestos siding was used in many building construction materials between 1900 and 1980, the potential hazard and serious illness — such as asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancer — have caused the use of asbestos in roofing and siding materials to decline rapidly since the early 1980s, according to the Department of Health of Rhode Island.

On the other hand, the most popular siding materials seem to be wood, vinyl, and fiber cement, with the latter outperforming its competitors in durability, longevity, and aesthetics. Fiber cement may be your best siding choice if you are looking for a siding product with lasting beauty and long service life. For instance, Fiber cement siding from James Hardie is 5X thicker than its competitors and can withstand up to 150 mph winds. Even after being soaked in 5 to 6 feet of salt water for 4 to 5 days after the merciless Hurricane Sandy attack in 2012, houses with James Siding have reported to suffer very minimal damages. So fiber cement siding is definitely an excellent siding choice, but wood and vinyl are also great for their organic feel and quality touch.

Tip #3: Enhance Your Exterior Design

Home siding is supposed to be strong and beautiful. The color of your siding — the flair it evokes and the texture it emulates — should complement pleasantly with your exterior design. When choosing your siding, make sure that the siding product you want offers a variety of colors while allowing you the flexibility to customize and add textures and dimensions with ease. The ideal siding carrier should enable you to go with a single color or even pair up the main color with an accent color to increase the drama of your exterior design. When it comes to design, flexibility and creativity are everything that matters, so it’s simply unfair if a siding product only offers a pitiful color selection.