On Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:57:05 -0400, aemeijers wrote:

Okay, for the second year in a row, I went to the half-ass little home
show here, and asked vendors for free estimates on various things. My
faux-T1-11 7/16 OSB siding has seen better days, so I again requested an
estimate from a company that specializes in siding. 1400 sq foot single
story, 3 gable L-shape, maybe 30 panels or so of material, utterly
vanilla. Last year I got an estimate for Hardi-Plank T1-11 (to deter the
woodpeckers), and it came in at 16k, which is a non-starter on a house
worth 120k if I am lucky. So this year I asked a different guy for real
5/8 plywood T1-11, same stuff I saw go up by the acre back in the day.
The estimate came back at 22k. Is there some plausible reason for such a
sky-high quote? And this wasn't even for a remove and replace, just a
side-over. Not even a line on the bid for prime and paint, just naked
wood. Does the guy just not want the job? They should be hungry- I think
there were maybe a dozen new houses started in all of last year, in the
metro area.

Obviously Hardi-Plank is a better deal. ;-) My guess is that he doesn't want
the job. I'd tackle a job that size (no second floor) myself. I'm getting a
little old and creaky but $22K!

Seems like around here, just like everybody only wants to sell vinyl
windows instead of real ones, they only want to sell vinyl siding (which
I hate the look of).

You're not alone. I redid my last house in cedar, even knowing that I'd have
to stain it every few years. I did one side a year and it wasn't too bad.

I grew up in the business, and I have the skills to do the work. What I
don't have is the time, unless I take a week or two off from my day job.

Yep, BTDT. I had a lot of vacation, though. Since I retired, I don't. ;-)

I also don't have anyone available to help hoist panels into position
until they can get pinned in place. (4x8 or 4x9 5/8 is not a safe
one-man lift for that.) So unless I say the hell with it and leave it
for the next owner to deal with, I pretty much have to hire it out. Am I
just dreaming that I can get what USED to be the cheap alternative, at a
decent price? Or am I doomed to hold my nose and have the place skinned
in the same plastic as almost all the other houses in the neighborhood?
Constructive suggestions welcomed.

Maybe a tool to lift the panels. HF sells a panel lift, intended for
sheetrock. At a couple of hundred bux it would be worth it even if you had to
throw it in a landfill afterwards. I'm thinking about buying one to do the
sheetrock in my (u)FROG.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=99645

....or you could hire a laborer, as someone up there suggested. Around here
painters can be had for $12/hr, now. It takes a lot of hours to come close to
$22K.