What’s under your vinyl or aluminum siding?
Could there be intact cedar shingle under your aluminum siding? Yep. Why would someone cover good wood with vinyl or aluminum? Because repainting is expensive and time consuming.
My parent’s generation were sold on vinyl as an alternative to painting the house every five years. After 1978, exterior paint didn’t last as long (because it didn’t have lead in it anymore.)
The aluminum siding and vinyl siding people were selling their stuff like nobody’s business. It came in so many colors! Whole neighborhoods turned “modern” with carefully chosen vinyl colors.
Vinyl promised to be beautiful forever! Looks great. Just power wash it when it gets dirty.
As an inspector friend says, “Vinyl is final.”
The big issue with vinyl siding is that the color you bought is the color you have, forever. Only the color will fade over the years.
As of about 10 years ago, paint that adhered well to aluminum came onto the market. You can paint aluminum so it your siding doesn’t have to look shabby. Now, paint for vinyl siding is available.
But guess what, you’ve got to repaint it every five years…