Siding Information
Siding is the final hard material placed on the exterior of a building (house, garage, shed, building). Siding comes in several forms, and most siding, such as vinyl or cedar, is installed horizontally with uniform length panels or boards. Metal panel, on the other hand, can be manufactured to different custom lengths which makes for less labor during installation and fewer seams that can cause leaks.
The graphics show a horizontal panel (e.g. vinyl, cedar boards) in tan color and a vertical metal panel (e.g. ag panel) in blue.
The most common dimensions for siding are as follows:
- Vinyl Sizes
- (8" x 12'6") This is for Double 4" siding and covers 8.33 ft2 per board.
- (9" x 12'1") This is for Double 4 1/2" x 12'1" Dutch Lap
- (10" x 12') This is for Double 5" x12 Dutch Lap
- (7" x 12'4") Single panel siding
- (7" x 73.5") Imitation Cedar
- (7" x 4') Straight Edge Shingle Siding
- (14" x 4') This is for Double 7" x 4' and covers 4.54 ft2 per board.
- Prefinished Siding
- Wood Siding
- Cedar boards
- Width: 5 1/2" wide with 4 1/2" coverage
- Length: 4', 6' , 8' , 10' , 12' , 14' , 16'
- Cedar boards
- Width: 7 1/4" wide with 6 1/4" coverage
- Lengths: 6' , 8' , 10' , 12' , 14' , 16'
- Cedar boards
- Width: 9 1/4" wide with 8 1/4" coverage
- Length: 6' , 8' , 10' , 12' , 14' , 16'
- Cedar Tongue and Groove
- Width: 6" wide with 5 3/8" coverage
- Length: 4', 6' , 8' , 10' , 12' , 14' , 16'
- Log Siding
- Width: 7" wide with 6 1/2" coverage
- Length: 8' , 12' , 16'
- Cedar boards
- Metal Siding
- Corrugated Panels (e.g., ag panels, C-Lok, G-Rib) have custom lengths but have a uniform 36" coverage width.
- Standing Seam Panels have custom lengths but a uniform 15" coverage width. Standing seam is more common on roofs than as siding.
Under Gable Roof
The most common shaped house or building is a the simple gabled roof building as seen below. The roof is supported with trusses or rafters to provide a slope for rain or melting snow to run off. These buildings have two rectangular sides (L) and two gabled ends. To compute the amount of siding for a building with a gable above, one needs to compute the siding for the two rectangle side walls, and the siding for the two gable ends.
Under Gambrel Roof
Siding under a gambrel roof can run either a vertical or horizontal direction. Most materials (e.g., vinyl or cedar boards) run horizontally. However, metal panels are typically run vertically. The length of metal panels are often custom lengths. Where horizontal panels typically come via bulk amount with standard lengths (see above).
