Les Jones: Siding Salesmen

July 23, 2004

Home Life > Siding Salesmen

Had a vinyl siding salesman from Home Depot at the house tonight. I knew it was going to be bad when I saw his new Mercedes-Benz.

The first two guys who quoted siding drove pickup trucks and were basically estimators. They measured the house, counted the number of windows and doors, and worked up a quote. These were guys who were straight to the point and probably not working on commission.

Mercedes guy measured and counted, then sat down with us. The person at Home Depot's 800 number made sure my wife and I were going to be there together. Whereas the first two guys were there and gone in 10 minutes, this guy took an hour.

To be fair, Mercedes guy was clearly the better salesmen. Pickup truck guys didn't give enough information, didn't specify their techniques, didn't bother to explain why we should use them or their product. (Though on that last point, we had already reviewed the Consumer Reports ratings, and asked for specific brands.)

Mercedes guy sold it, baby. He showed us competing (and inferior) siding, and may have managed to sway me away from the multi-hued siding. (Hooray! That'll save me $300 when I buy from the other guy.) He also explained why Home Depot is a better long-term bet, why his installers use certain techniques, and why their siding is better. And in fact, they do have good siding. It's 46 mil with the double-hem Consumer Reports recommends. They even miter-cut their window trim, which is a mechanically superior but more labor-intensive technique.

But some of his spiel was a fear sell, which I don't appreciate. "Some companies just nail this up at the top. A big wind storm comes, it pulls out, and you hear siding flapping against the house in the middle of the night." Some of the techniques he pushed - J channels around windows and doors, covers for porch lights and spigots, etc. - are things that are standard these days.

An hour later he finally let us know his price. It was roughly twice that of the low bidder. Those Mercedes aren't cheap.

So we're going with a local company, Bob Kidd Gutters and Siding. Of three bids they were the low bidder, and they've been in business 25 years. But if I needed a siding salesman, I'd hire Mercedes guy.

P.S. Tin Men is a hilarious movie about two rival aluminum siding salesmen played by Danny De Vito and Richard Dreyfuss.

Posted by lesjones

Comments

Funny, as I was reading that I was thinking you ought to talk to Bob Kidd. I see you did. You won't be sorry, they do good work and they are good guys.

Posted by: skb at July 24, 2004

Congrats on finding your siding guys - - I do have a question about siding though - - actually maybe a couple of questions:

Does the house have to be prepared in any way before siding can be put on?

When they start putting siding on how long does it take them to finish the job?

Posted by: Uptown Girl at July 25, 2004

Bubba: thanks for the recommendation. I had heard good things, but it helps to hear more when laying down that much cash. The Kidd family seem to be good people. My friend Jay's mother is a Kidd, and Melissa's landlord when she lived on Martin Mill Pike was a Kidd.

Uptown Girl: it depends on the house. If it's relateively flat wood then they can mount the clips right on the wood. In my case, I have cement block construction, so they'll have to nail up wooden furring strips to attach the clips to. That adds a couple hundred dollars to the cost.

As far as time, I'd expect them to be done in one to two weeks. It'll be a bit less for my house, since I had the gables and soffits re-sided a few years ago. Even with replacing the gutters at the same time it only took about four days.

Of all the remodeling projects I've had done, that was the easiest. They never had to come into the house, and the process isn't very messy. (Unlike, say, sheetrocking. If I ever say I'm going to put up new sheetrock in a house I'm living in, somebody please pinch me.)

Posted by: Les Jones at July 25, 2004

Thanks for answering my questions, Les - - I've never had siding, but have had remodeling done on the interior of our home and it was something I don't want to go through again any time soon.

Posted by: Uptown Girl at July 25, 2004