In article ,
wrote:

You mean they make vinyl siding that looks different than the (too
narrow) 3 or 4 inch horizontal overlapping boards?

I just cant stomach that look. Every (and I mean EVERY) new home they
build today uses that ugly stuff. In my opinion, these new homes are
all BLOATED. They build them way too large, then use that narrow
siding look to make them look even bigger. (BARF)....

If they made the boards in 8" to 10" "boards", it would at least look
better. However, I can just imagine the amount of warpage on that
stuff. I have seen so many of these walls where the siding is all
warped and distorted, loose ends, and just plain BUTT UGLY !!!!

I built a small rural farmhouse. I want it to look like a farmhouse,
not an ugly modern condo. So, the 3 to 4" horiz. boardlook is a
definate NO. However, I would consider vinyl if it looks like cedar
siding, or has other looks..... I highly doubt that there is any
vinyl that does not warp, no matter how expensive it is, but at least
I would think it would be less noticable if the siding looked more
"rustic" like cedar, because at least that way there is not such a
smooth surface.

Of course, the fiber-cement is one I am not familiar with, and want to
look into. Like I said I liked the old asbestos siding look, and this
may be similar.

Thanks for everyones advice.

(where can I find these vinyl siding alternatives to that boring 3 -
4" horiz. board look)?

George

Again, pardon me if I'm being a clueless jamoke again, but a few things
occurred to me while leafing thru this thread:

1. Maybe you're more avant-garde than our forefathers were, but I've
seen a ton of actual rural wood farmhouses between Chicago and northwest
Florida in the past 40+ years (and a few Sears catalog-type frame homes
dating back to the early 1940s with the original wood clapboard in my
current neighborhood), and I don't recall a single one having each
course, or row, of clapboards almost a foot high, as you seem to be
looking for. They're something like 4-6" high and really pretty much in
line with the size of the vinyl getting slapped on today's new
subdivision homes and condos. In fact, those individual early-1900s
clapboards aren;t even anywhere near as high as a single course of the
1970s aluminum siding that's still on my parents' house.

So pardon me for being a pisher, but if you built yourself an actual
rural farmhouse, wouldn't you want it to actually look like an actual
old rural farmhouse?

2. I grew up in Chicago during the 1960s, and I remember the buildings
that had that foot-high hard, slate-like stuff you seem to be rather
partial to. However, those were frame 3- and 6-flat apartment buildings
that could bear a row upon row of foot-tall siding and still look nifty
because they were, uh, really wide or tall and by virtue of their sheer
size could accept visual perspective like that. Otherwise, a lot of the
residential homes in my neighborhood were sided with these giant sheets
of asphalt siding so you ended up with your house looking like it had a
big roof shingle nailed to the side of it. (BTW, we kids had a lot of
fun standing in the gangways between houses peeling that asphalt stuff
off. ****ed the neighbors off something fierce.) Consequently, and to
reverse your "small siding making normal-sized house look bigger"
argument, did you ever consider that your fine, apparently normal-sized
house *may* end up looking extremely tiny -- and actually worse -- if
you actually did find the size of siding you seem to be looking for?

Proportion seems to be what it is for a reason.

3. Dunno if I've been hallucinating, but I seem to recall the vinyl
siding on just about every new house friends and acquaintances move into
to be imprinted with some sort of wood look/texture engineered to it.
You just can't see it from the street, is all. Maybe my friends and
acquaintances are wealthier than they appear or something to afford this
kind of stuff, but I've never seen smooth vinyl siding.

BTW just out of curiosity, since you you didn't say and nobody bothered
to ask yet, is there siding on the house now or is it just basically
standing out there naked until you find suitable siding?

AJS