SIDING.
Materials, hail damage, and the wall system behind the cladding.
- GUIDES
- 3
- GLOSSARY TERMS
- 15
Siding is a rain screen, not a waterproof wall. Behind it sits a weather-resistive barrier, flashing at every window and door, and the sheathing that holds the house together. The siding's job is to shed most of the water and protect those layers from sun and impact.
In Calgary the big siding questions are hail, cold-weather brittleness and colour matching after a partial repair. This shelf covers all three.
- How do vinyl, fibre cement and engineered wood compare in Calgary?
- What does hail damage to siding look like?
- Why can't they just replace the damaged side?
- What's behind my siding?
READ THEM IN THIS ORDER.
- 01Siding materials compared for Calgary homesNo siding is waterproof, so for a Calgary house the choice comes down to how each material handles hail, cold snaps, fire and upkeep, and the wall behind it matters as much as the siding. Vinyl expands and contracts with temperature and some products crack when struck hard; fibre cement, metal and masonry hold up far better in fire.
- 02Hail damage to siding, and the matching problemHail cracks and holes vinyl, dents metal, and chips fibre cement and stucco. If the damaged wall can't be matched to the rest of the house, Alberta's Insurance Act sets no matching rule, so what you get depends on your policy wording; photograph every wall by direction before anything is repaired.
- 03What's behind your siding, and why walls really failBehind your siding are the sheathing (the panels nailed to the wall framing), a water-resistive barrier such as house wrap, a small drainage gap, and flashing at every opening. All siding lets some water through, and those layers carry it back out; when a wall rots, it's almost always because one of them failed, often at a window or where a roof edge meets a wall.
THE BASICS
Plain-language primers. Assume nothing.
DEEP DIVES
For when you're mid-decision, mid-claim or mid-argument.
Siding materials compared for Calgary homes
No siding is waterproof, so for a Calgary house the choice comes down to how each material handles hail, cold snaps, fire and upkeep, and the wall behind it matters as much as the siding. Vinyl expands and contracts with temperature and some products crack when struck hard; fibre cement, metal and masonry hold up far better in fire.
Hail damage to siding, and the matching problem
Hail cracks and holes vinyl, dents metal, and chips fibre cement and stucco. If the damaged wall can't be matched to the rest of the house, Alberta's Insurance Act sets no matching rule, so what you get depends on your policy wording; photograph every wall by direction before anything is repaired.
THE SIDING GLOSSARY.
- Building envelope
- The parts of a house that separate inside from outside: roof, walls, windows, doors and foundation, along with their air, vapour and water barriers.
- Drainage plane
- The water-repellent layer behind siding, such as building paper, house wrap or a sheet membrane, built to drain away water that gets past the cladding.
- Engineered wood
- Siding made from wood strands or fibres bonded with resin and factory-finished, such as LP SmartSide. It's tougher and more flexible than rigid materials, which helps it in hail.
- Fibre cement
- Siding made from cement, sand and cellulose fibres, formed into planks or panels. It's heavier and more rigid than vinyl.
- Hail spatter
- Clean spots left where hail knocked dirt, oxidation or algae off a surface. It shows where and how hard hail hit, but isn't damage by itself.
- Head flashing
- Flashing above a window or door that slopes to the outside and extends past the opening on both sides. The siding above should never rest on it.
- House wrap
- A breathable sheet membrane installed over wall sheathing under the siding. It sheds water that gets past the siding while letting water vapour escape.
- Insulated vinyl siding
- Vinyl siding with a rigid foam backing, usually expanded polystyrene.
- Kick-out flashing
- A small angled flashing where a lower roof meets a wall, which directs roof water into the eavestrough instead of down the wall. Without one, water can run behind the siding and quietly rot the wall.
- Matching
- In an insurance claim, the question of whether undamaged siding or roofing must also be replaced so repairs match the rest of the house. The answer depends on your policy wording.
- Rainscreen
- A wall design with a small air gap between the siding and the water-resistive barrier, so water can drain and the wall can dry.
- Stone veneer
- A thin layer of natural or manufactured stone attached to a wall as cladding, often on the lower part of a house.
