Siding is one of those projects where the material choice swings the price more than almost any other variable — a 2,000-square-foot house can run $12,000 in vinyl or $45,000 in cedar, and both estimates are "correct" for what they cover. Here's what actually drives the number.
Pricing by material, installed
- Vinyl — $4–$9/sq ft. The default choice for a reason: low material cost, fast installation, and near-zero maintenance. Thicker, insulated vinyl sits at the top of that range.
- Engineered wood (LP SmartSide and similar) — $6–$11/sq ft. Looks closer to real wood than vinyl, holds paint better than fiber cement, and has become a common middle option.
- Fiber cement (HardiePlank and similar) — $8–$14/sq ft. The most common upgrade pick — durable, fire-resistant, holds paint for 15+ years, but heavier and slower to install, which shows up in the labor line.
- Wood (cedar or redwood) — $10–$18/sq ft. Premium appearance, but needs ongoing maintenance — staining or painting every few years — that the other materials don't.
- Metal (steel or aluminum panel) — $9–$16/sq ft. Durable and increasingly common on modern builds, but a specialized install that not every crew quotes competitively.
- Stucco or brick veneer — $10–$25/sq ft. A different category of project entirely — masonry work rather than a panel-and-fastener install — worth pricing as its own line item if it's even part of the discussion.
For an average 2,000-square-foot single-story home (roughly 1,600–1,800 sq ft of actual wall surface after subtracting doors and windows), that puts a full vinyl re-side around $8,000–$14,000 and a fiber cement re-side around $16,000–$24,000.
What changes the price within a material
Tear-off vs. install-over. Removing old siding down to the sheathing costs more up front but lets the installer see and fix what's underneath — rot, old water damage, out-of-square framing. Installing new siding directly over old (common with vinyl) is cheaper but can trap moisture problems that were never actually fixed.
Sheathing and framing repair. This is the line item that turns a predictable quote into a moving target. Once old siding comes off, some percentage of houses reveal rotted sheathing or framing that has to be replaced before new siding goes on — a cost nobody can quote accurately until the walls are opened up.
House complexity. A simple rectangular ranch sides faster than a house with dormers, bump-outs, multiple gables, and tall peaks. Cutting around every window, door, and architectural detail adds labor time that a flat per-square-foot number doesn't capture well.
Story height. Second-story and higher work needs scaffolding or lift rental, and the labor itself is slower and more expensive than ground-level work.
Trim and accessories. Corner boards, window and door trim, fascia, and soffit are often priced separately from the field siding — sometimes bundled into a "per square" installed price, sometimes broken out. Worth confirming which one you're looking at before comparing two quotes.
The line items people miss
- House wrap or weather barrier. Required by code in most areas when siding comes off down to the sheathing — a few hundred dollars in material, easy to leave off a rough estimate.
- Insulation upgrade. Since the wall is already open, some homeowners add rigid foam insulation at this stage — a meaningful add-on cost, but often cheaper here than as a standalone project later.
- Paint or caulk allowance. Fiber cement and engineered wood usually ship primed, not finished — factor in a paint job as part of the project, not an afterthought.
- Dumpster and disposal. Old siding removal generates real volume, especially with a full tear-off — a dumpster rental is a standard, and often forgotten, line item.
- Permits. Most jurisdictions require a permit for a full re-side, particularly when sheathing is exposed or replaced. Cheap relative to the project, but worth confirming before work starts.
DIY vs. hire
Siding sits firmly on the "hire it" side of the DIY line for most homeowners. The panels themselves aren't complicated to install, but getting flashing, house wrap, and seams right is what actually keeps water out of the walls for the next 20 years — and a mistake there doesn't show up as a cosmetic flaw, it shows up as rot two winters later. Simple, single-story, low-complexity jobs are the exception where an experienced DIYer can reasonably take this on.
Structuring the estimate
A siding estimate splits cleanly into materials (siding panels or planks by square footage, trim, house wrap, fasteners, paint), labor (tear-off, sheathing repair as a contingency line, installation, trim work), and a miscellaneous section for the dumpster, permit, and any insulation add-on. Keeping sheathing repair as its own labor line — rather than baking a guess into the base price — is what keeps a siding quote honest once the walls are actually opened up.
JobPencil's builder handles that structure directly, with materials priced by quantity, labor broken out by task, and a miscellaneous section built for exactly this kind of contingency cost.