"aemeijers" wrote
Somewhere in the 6-10 grand range is what I was expecting, and could even
live with, since I think fresh and crisp siding would make the house
easier to sell in a couple of years. Last time I looked, 4x8 5/8 T1-11
was about $28 a sheet around here. That would have been last October or
so. I'm old, fat, and out of shape, is why I said two weeks, assuming a
young and strong, but inexpert, helper. I know that a good 2-3 man crew
that could actually still work 8 hours in a row without collapsing, could
do it a lot quicker. (especially if they had proper scaffolds and other
staging, which I would have to rent or fabricate, to do the gables.)

(Googles)
Local borg has .59 inch plain wood t1-11 for about $25 a panel. The
(presumably thinner) hardie-panels for about 3 bucks more per sheet. If my
memory is correct about 30 sheets (from when I walked around and counted
last year), that puts the material at $750-840, plus any needed additional
cedar trim (if the old stuff can't be reused), Z-flashing, nails, and
primer and paint. Be generous, and say 2k for material, to allow for a
layer of house wrap underneath. Even plus $6400 for labor, that still
comes in WAY lower than they quoted me.

With all of that, I'd agree that 10k sounds about right. I had a big
siding job to get quotes on about five years ago. The lowest was $60,000,
the highest was $140,000. We went with the cheap job. I think the other
guys would have done better, but not 80k better. It is amazing how much of
a spread contractors can be. Same with paving, over 100% difference from
high to low.