In May of 1995, The New York Times featured a home resided by Vinylume in an article about the growing popularity of vinyl siding. Here is the text of that article.

Libby and Thomas Hollahan chose vinyl for their White Plains home, above. Its old paint had a high lead content, Mrs. Hollahan said, and vinyl siding is “the most cost effective way of taking care of lead abatement.” Right: Wayne Megill picked vinyl over cedar for his $1.2 million summer home overlooking the ocean in Sea Isle City, N.J.

Ease in maintenance and variety of sidings attract homeowners.

By Eleanor Charles

For most of the quarter-century that it has been on the market, vinyl siding got no respect. While less tinny and more damage resistant than aluminum siding, it served the same purpose - covering unsightly, low- to mid-priced older homes.
But in the last five years it has become something of a Cinderella of the siding industry, swept from its humble beginnings by consumer demand for maintenance-free living. Manufacturers have created an ever-widening variety of sidings and trims in period and contemporary styles. And vinyl, once synonymous with modest homes, is increasingly being used in upscale housing, whether as the original material or for residing, even for homes with price tags over $1 million.
"Vinyl has become the product of choice," said Lisa Macchi, district manager in the new homes division of Coldwell Banker Schlott in New Jersey. "It's a maintenance issue. We carry 150 new home projects in the tri-state area, in ranges from $150,000 to $2 million, and it's not the building community choosing vinyl for economic reasons, it's a customer-driven success."
"People today," she added, "don't have the time to paint their houses as they did generations ago and they don't want the constantly escalating expense of repainting every few years, whether it's a new house or a resale."
An environmental measure that inadvertently boosted vinyl's popularity occurred in 1979, when the Federal Consumer Products Safety Commission ordered the removal of lead from all over-the-counter paints, and followed that action by removing mercury in 1990.
Lead in amounts up to 50 percent at the turn of the century had been reduced to 30 percent in the 40’s and .05 percent in the 60’s, but even the smaller amounts, combined with other additives, made paint nicely opaque, completely covering and clinging to the surface. Mercury, in proportions of around 200 parts per million, helped to prevent mildewing of surfaces and deterioration of paint in the can.
After the two elements were removed, painted houses began to deteriorate faster, emphasizing vinyl's most touted advantage — the saving of many thousands of dollars for frequent repainting, stripping or sandblasting wood houses.
Homes that are finished with the better grades of vinyl are almost impossible to distinguish from the real thing — various wood finishes and cuts. Vinyl can he molded to look the custom-milled clapboards, ship lap, cedar shakes, pediments, trellises, columns, railings, heading, Victorian and Carpenter Gothic decorative work, shutters and window and door frames.
Research by Alcoa, a major producer of vinyl building products, indicates that 53 percent of the homes using vinyl siding throughout the country today are priced from $100,000 up, an 11 percent increase from 1990. In addition, 48 percent of all residing in 1994 was done with vinyl. Plywood is next in popularity with 13 percent.
Vinyl's ability to withstand extreme climatic conditions for decades, and the fact that it is manufactured and delivered in the builder's exact specifications — no warps, no knots, no surprises — have made it the first choice of many developers.
“Every house we build is 100 percent vinyl or vinyl combined with brick or stone,” said Robert Allen, senior vice president of Brazer Homes, housed in Atlanta. In the company's subdivisions of 100 to 300 homes in several states, warranties of 5O years are offered on 1,200- to 4,500-square-font houses priced from $100,000 to $300,000.
Jon Fleming, a partner in Vinylume, a family owned business in Greenwich, has been working with vinyl since 1960. To date the company has vinyl-sided about 1,050 renovated or new Greenwich homes, and hundreds more in southwestern Connecticut and Westchester County. “We do 150 to 175 houses a year, primarily as an alternative to painting,” said Mr. Fleming, “or to alter the style of a house,” a protect that can be prohibitively expensive in wood. “Vinyl accessories," he said, “produce excellent results in transforming a ranch into a colonial, or a colonial into a Greek Revival.”

Detail of a vinyl-sided Victorian house in Shelton, Conn.

Libby and Thomas Hollahan chose vinyl for another reason. They bought their 1929 home in White Plains four years ago and last fall decided to have it painted. “There was a very high lead content in the existing paint,” said Mrs. Hullahan, “and when we looked at vinyl siding as an alternative. It turned out to be the most cost effective way of taking care of lead abatement.”
The New York State Health Department agrees that vinyl can be useful in solving a lead problem. “Peeling paint should he removed,” said Thomas Carroll, the department's senior sanitarian. “Then, as long as the siding is done properly, covering everything, any paint that falls off will he sealed inside, causing no harm.”
The cost of sanding and repainting over old lead-based paint on a typical four-bedroom, two-story colonial of 3,000 square feet is around $12,000. Stripping down to the wood, priming, repainting and disposing of the lead debris in a toxic waste dump can be two to two and one-half times the $18,000 cost of vinyl siding.
But that does not mean that vinyl will never need painting. “All vinyl siding is expected in weather,” said Rim Lene, spokeswoman for Alcoa. So-called limited lifetime guarantees cover the siding itself, particularly the better Alcoa grades that are between .044 and .048 inches thick. They are guaranteed not to wave or bow, while thickness of .040 to .043 might. Certainteed, of Valley Purge, Pa., produces vinyl of .040 to .044 that it says will not bow. The minimum standard for the industry, set by the American Society for Testing and Materials, in Philadelphia, is .035 inches.
Various manufacturer's warranties against fading expire between 5 and 10 years. Anyone planning to add to a vinyl house had better do it before the sixth year or be prepared to paint, because the addition will not match the original color.
Vinyl colors last years longer than paint because the color permeates the material and higher quality vinyls retain deep tones longer than cheaper grades. “Scratches are not noticeable,” said Rich Goitwald, technical director of the Vinyl Siding Institute in Bowie, Md.. “It's impervious to termites and manufactured with weep holes that allow the house to breathe. It can he cleaned with a garden hose and a household detergent. Damaged sections can he replaced and it flexes back to normal after being hit.”

"The third summer is coming up and it looks as good as new," says Wayne Megill of his vinyl-sided summer house in Sea Isle City, N.J.

In response in consumer requests, Carl Miuchew, chief chemist at the Benjamin Moore Paint Company in Monivale, N.J., has been developing paints specifically to remedy vinyl's fading and chathing. A product called Moore’s Acrylic Latex Siding Paint is being test-marketed in the New York City and Chicago areas in white. Local dealers can produce any color by adding some of the 2,000 compatible tints.
“Vinyl is a great surface to paint on,” said Mr. Minchew, noting that he preferred it to moisture-absorbing wood. “Latex is better than oil because mildew’s favorite diet is the linseed in oil paint, and an arsenal of mildicides and additives is available to inhibit mildew, which affects all materials.”
“Chalking,” he explained, “occurs when the resin that holds vinyl together erodes and air enters, much like snow, which is clear water until it's turned white by air.” Another environmental measure that increased vinyl's desirability went into effect in 1989, when Federal restrictions on logging in 12 Western states were imposed to protect the spotted owl, salmon, grizzly bear and other endangered species. Wood became more expensive and less available.
Peak lumber production in 1987, according to the Western Wood Products Association in Portland, Ore., was 23.9 billion board feet. It dropped to 17.4 billion board feet in 1994, a 27 percent reduction. “Twenty years ago we didn't use vinyl,” said Mr. Allen of Beazec Homes. “We used wood, but warranty problems became atrocious and kept increasing.”
DAVID MACKES, a custom builder of homes priced from $175,000 to $1.5 million in Salisbury, Md., complains that “there is less old-growth timber. “What we are getting has a higher moisture content,” he said, “so it tends to twist and have more nail pops.” He said that rejections of shipments and parts of shipments were becoming more common.
But Jeff Saninazi, spokesman for the Western Wood Products Association, called such complaints exaggerated. “Wood has its own characteristics,” he said. “It's a natural product; that's what people like about it.” Research on pricing of vinyl compared with other materials was undertaken by Alcoa in 1994. The resulting figures showed that a square foot of installed, regular grade vinyl was about $1.40 compared with $2, $3 and $3.50 a square foot for pine, cedar and stucco, respectively, and $6.75 for brick. Top of the line vinyl's cost no less than high grade cedar, but labor costs are considerably lower for installing vinyl and it requires no initial painting or staining.
Many architects whose clients insist on using it have found the experience to be gratifying, but many others won't even consider it. Alan Shope, for example, of Shope Reno Whartun Associates, Greenwich architects, said: “I have designed large homes from Maine to Florida. People have asked for vinyl and we have said no. I'm not comfortable with fake plastic material. You can't beat tried and true wood shingles and stone. And I don't like the ticking sound that vinyl emanates in the sun.”
As a self-described “lover of lead paint,” he found ways of circumventing problems of mildew and peeling paint exacerbated by the absence of lead and mercury. He uses stains rather than paint, dipping the shingles in a preservative and weathering oil, covering all four surfaces with stain and sealing the ends — “where most moisture accumulates,” he said that the treatment would last for 10 years.
In spite of such resistance, vinyl statistics are continuing to be pumped upwards by people who spend anywhere from $70,000 to $3 million or more on their houses. “In 1987 the United States produced 15.6 million squares, or 100 square-foot units, of vinyl,” said Mr. Gotiwald. “In 1993 we produced 24.2 million squares.”
“Since the beginning of the 90’s our business has grown by 35 percent,” said Robert Long, marketing manager for Certainteed, which manufactures vinyl products at 100 sites around the country. Melissa Keenac, architect for Mcgill Construction, custom builders in West Chester, Pa., used Certainteed materials in a $1.2 million, 4,000-square-foot, vinyl-sided summer home for her boss, Wayne Megill. It overlooks the ocean at Sea Isle City, N.J. “The third summer is coming up and it looks as good as new,” said Mr. Megill. “With cedar I would have had to repaint at least once.”
“On the shore a cedar house discolors badly within three years and the grout on a brick house comes apart,” said Ms. Keenan. As recent converts to vinyl, the Megill company now uses it for 20 percent of its homes occasionally running into resistance by local architectural review boards. “Vinyl has a long way in go with some of the people sitting on these boards,” said Ms. Keenan.
Not all municipalities have architectural review boards, and not all that do maintain total oversight on the use of vinyl siding. In Greenwich, “it’s not encouraged,” said James Sandy, the Town Planner, “but the board does not get into reviewing single family homes.” But in Bellport, LI., “the architectural review hoard discusses every house, and it will allow vinyl siding only if it is satisfied with the detail and quality of construction.” said Rohort A. W. Hems, a local architect who has designed vinyl homes priced up to $3 million.
Vinyl is even gaining limited acceptance in historic preservation. The Vinyl siding Institute and the Preservation Assistance Division of the National Park Service in Washington have been working together for some time on appropriateness and specifications for vinyl on historic renovations. The Park Service designates historic landmark buildings nationwide and acts as an advisory and technical assistance agency to local historic preservation organizations.
“We are in the business of retaining the historic character of buildings through repairing and reproducing elements of the original structure,” said Kay Weeko, technical writer and editor for the division. “Although we would never recommend synthetic materials, under very special circumstances they can be used, to replace extremely deteriorated wood, for example, on a building that needs in be maintenance free.” A detailed set of 10 standards for architectural preservation is available through her department. “If there is a Federal tax incentive for rehabilitating a historic building and the criteria are not met,” she said, “the tax credit will be withdrawn.”
No legal action can be taken against people who destroy the architectural integrity of a building in violation of guidelines set by local historical societies or the Federal Government. But public pressure to preserve significant architecture usually prevails.
Like the National Parks Service, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission generally will not approve the use of vinyl siding on principal visible facades of historic buildings, said Dehorab Sacks, spokeswoman for the commission. “But there are some exceptions,” she said. In St. George, on Staten Island, there were houses that already had vinyl siding before the area was designated a historic district. “We did not require its removal,” she said. The same situation was found in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and handled in the same way. “We look at each case individually,” said Ms. Sacks. “If vinyl siding is to be used on the back of a historic house, where it can’t be seen, and it would alleviate a mildew problem, we may make an exception.”
A few years ago, before building a large waterfront home in Annapolis, Md.. Katherine and Michael Stalker attended a vinyl seminar, seeking a more satisfactory material than cedar. “We had watched very expensive three-year-old wood houses turn green and brown from moisture,” said Mrs. Stalker, “and the bills for repainting were astronomical. A house of 7,000 square feet can cost $30,000.” Drawing on information from the seminar they chose a Wolverine vinyl for their $1.5 million house, completed in 1989 and still “looking fabulous,” said Mrs. Stalker, “and we didn’t cut down trees or dump paint residues into the water table.” To maintain the siding they have it power-washed once in a while for $300.
“Some people,” she said, “have difficulty in making the jump from wood to vinyl, but in another 15 years I think that they are going to turn up their noses at wood the way they do now at vinyl.”