Matt thought he’d made a good choice: update his home with Hardie siding. Unfortunately, he didn’t make a good choice when selecting his siding contractor. The right materials in the wrong hands seldom goes well. For Matt, it was a disaster.
Siding contractor gone wrong
Hardie siding cannot overcome inept installation. James Hardie has precise installation specifications for siding contractors. In this case, the installer was clearly not qualified. Improper installation not only looks bad, it voids Hardie’s otherwise best-in-class warranty. In Matt’s case, there was only one solution: tear it off and start again.
Choosing a siding contractor
Avoiding expensive experiences like this one is easy when you run siding contractors, or any trade, through these five tests:
- Time in business: The longer, the better. Three to five years is minimum. Make sure they’re the same owners with the same business name going back to the beginning.
- Legitimate location: Does your siding contractor have a bona fide business address? An office you can visit? Avoid contractors working out of their garage, or worse still: their trunk.
- Proper insurance: You’d be shocked how many siding contractors don’t carry the proper insurance. Cover yourself by making sure they are.
- Business references: Ask them for a bank reference and a supplier reference. Check to make sure their business is in good standing in both places.
- Customer references: This seems obvious, but few take the extra step of actually contacting prior customers to verify a siding contractor’s competency. Take the time. Make the calls.
Siding contractor selection made easy
Save yourself the footwork and choose a HomeShow Radio Trusted Company–like one of the HomeShow Hardie pros. That’s what Matt did in the end. You wanna bet he wishes he’d done so in the first place?
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