Aside from being the place of residence of your family, your home is important because buying one requires a lot of financial investment from your pocket. You’ll likely save money for years or take out several loans just to afford to buy one. For you to make the most out of your investment, consider adding rustic siding to your home. A rustic siding can provide a wealth of benefits to your home’s appeal and to your life as a homeowner.
When it comes to home sidings, you’ll have a wide variety of materials to choose from. Home sidings made from vinyl, fiber cement, and aluminum are now available in the market. But despite the variety, rustic sidings continue to gain popularity up until this day.
Home Sidings: What Are These And What Do These Do?
Before you invest in rustic sidings, it’s important that you fully understand how sidings actually affect your home. The knowledge you’ll have on sidings can help you determine its overall condition and assess if repairs and replacements are needed.
The general purpose of siding is to protect your home from extreme weather conditions such as rain, wind, and snow. During the winter months, well-installed and high-quality sidings can protect your home’s interiors from the weather outside. Sidings can also contribute to the soundness of your home’s structure, keeping the heat produced indoors to stay indoors. Because of these, your entire family stays comfortable and warm inside regardless of the weather outside.
Since sidings are installed to overlap joints around a structure, these can also prevent any outdoor elements from seeping inside your house. Aside from the weather, siding can also keep your family safe from germs and bacteria that are usually contracted outdoors.
On the other side of the coin, a poorly-installed or damaged siding can result in several consequences. If the siding no longer does its job in covering the joints, water can eventually find a way into your home. You might not see any visible damages, but moisture can lead slowly damage to the materials used in building your home, adversely affect your home’s durability and even your family’s health.
So Why Choose A Rustic Siding?
Deciding to install sidings in your home is one thing, and choosing which material to use is another. With the number of materials available in the market today, you might be overwhelmed with too many options that you won’t have any idea on what to choose.
This is especially true if you’re a homeowner who is taking on home improvement projects for the first time, or you just moved into your new house.
To help you come up with a sound decision, here are some reasons why rustic sidings are smart investments for your home:
Easy To Paint
Homeowners want to make their properties stand out. They don’t want all of their hard-earned money to be spent in a home that looks dull or similar to the ones in the neighborhood. Aside from being an expensive investment, a home can also be utilized to showcase the personality of a homeowner – and using rustic siding can help you achieve this goal.
One of the biggest advantages of using rustic siding is its opportunities for customization. Wood is actually a material that’s very easy to paint with. Often considered as the ultimate chameleon, wood can be painted with any color without resulting in damage or a shorter lifespan.
Is your home painted in a monochromatic color scheme? Go ahead and paint your rustic sidings with the same tone or shade. Do you want your home’s siding to stand out from other exterior elements? Paint it with a contrasting color so your home can catch the attention of passersby. You’ll have unlimited options in coloring your rustic sidings!
Because of the versatility of rustic sidings, your home will surely stand out in your neighborhood and create a lasting impression.
Eco-Friendly
As industrialization becomes more prominent in different parts of the world, the environment is slowly degrading. The existence of business establishments and factories might have improved a country’s economy, but the carbon emissions it produces can adversely affect the environment and human health.
When you choose to use rustic sidings, you’ll play a role in protecting the environment. Wood is actually one of the most eco-friendly materials available in the market today. Unlike vinyl and aluminum, the production and manufacture of wood don’t require any harmful chemicals. Woods don’t also undergo industrial processes just to produce sidings.
In a nutshell, rustic sidings are eco-friendly because of the following reasons:
- Renewable resource: Rustic sidings can be made from different woods. You can choose to install sidings made from fir, cedar, or pine. Although these materials create different looks to your home, being a renewable resource remains true for all of these.
Cutting down these trees to produce sidings won’t make the supply scarce. These trees can grow quickly, making them sustainable resources.
- Biodegradable: Biodegradable can be defined as the capability of an object or substance to decompose. Biodegradable products can break down rapidly because of the actions of microorganisms. Biodegradable products are better options for the environment since microorganisms can boost its decay.
Wood is also biodegradable material, which means that even if it ends up in a landfill, it will decay fast and turn into compost. Aluminum and vinyl, on the other hand, are non-biodegradable materials. Throwing any of these materials in landfills can harm the ecosystem and habitat of animals. These materials won’t decompose and will stay in landfills for decades.
- Energy-efficient production: As mentioned, the manufacture of wood sidings doesn’t require chemicals. Creating a rustic siding takes less energy, which can translate to lesser carbon emissions.
For a homeowner who is conscious about their environmental footprint, using wood for your home’s siding is an excellent option. Aside from improving how your home looks, the earth will also thank you for using rustic sidings.
Durable And Easy To Repair
The maxim that states, “nothing lasts forever,” applies to rustic sidings. Just like everything else in this world, rustic sidings also have a limited lifespan. Depending on the type of wood you choose to use for your home’s siding, these can usually last around 20 to 40 years. The longevity of a rustic siding can surely provide value to your money.
Minor damages acquired by your rustic sidings are very easy to repair and doesn’t require professional help. Usually, these problems can be repaired with materials you already have at home.
Here are some of the common problems and suggested solutions for rustic sidings:
- Small holes: As mentioned, your home’s sidings provide protection by keeping any external elements out. So if you notice any holes in your rustic sidings, use some wood putty to fill these in. Just make sure that the putty is snug and doesn’t leave any gaps or spaces. Treating this problem as soon as possible can prevent the holes from getting bigger and creating more damage in your home.
- Warped sidings: This problem can be fixed by simply tightening the screw of your boards or shortening it with a saw.
When making these repairs on your own, it’s important to determine the root of the problem. Mainly fixing the effects or symptoms of the problem won’t guarantee long-term solutions. In fact, disregarding the main cause can only lead to bigger problems in the future.
If your rustic sidings acquire extensive damage, professional services aren’t as expensive as working with aluminum and vinyl. With rustic sidings, you’ll be able to save money from paying expensive repairs and replacements.
Boost The Value Of Your Home
There are a lot of reasons why the value of your home is important. When you know how much your home is worth, it’ll be easy for you to price your home when you decide to sell it in the future. If you want to earn a higher profit from the sale of your home, work on improving the value of your home.
For you to sell your home at the best price possible, invest in rustic sidings. Because these are considered as high-end sidings, installing a rustic siding allows you to price your home higher than its original selling price.
This feature can even become the reason why your home will make a difference in the local real estate market. Remember, homebuyers are always looking for features that are both aesthetically pleasing, and functional – and rustic siding can surely meet this qualification. A rustic siding can make your home more unique, making it easy for you to haul in potential buyers.
Although you can take other home renovation projects before selling your home, these don’t guarantee an immediate sale. Keep in mind that different homebuyers will look for different things in a home. So paying for a kitchen expansion might not be appealing for buyers who don’t cook, and upgrading your home’s garage might not suit families who don’t own a car. When home renovation projects are focused on one area of the house, your target market becomes smaller.
Investing in a rustic siding before selling your home is more cost-efficient since all buyers are concerned about the safety of their family indoors and the structure of their homes long-term. No one would want to waste their hard-earned money in a house that will only last for a couple of years or one that will cause harm to their families.
Regardless if you’re planning your sell your home to couples, large families, and single individuals, rustic sidings will be appealing to them.
Improved Aesthetics
More often than not, homeowners invest in sidings because these can make their properties look great. Depending on your preferred color combination, sidings can either highlight your home’s best features or balance other external elements in your property to create one cohesive theme.
And while all sidings can improve the aesthetics of your home, rustic sidings are different because these materials perfectly mimic the look and ambiance of wood. Sure, engineered wood might come close in creating the look of the wood, but none matches genuine wood. This is one of the reasons why rustic sidings aren’t mere accessories to your home – these are works of art and a product of craftsmanship.
By choosing to use rustic siding for your home, you’ll be able to effortlessly create the following exterior design styles:
- Industrial: This look is often associated with a rugged vintage and mature appearance. Consider painting your rustic sidings with shades of black to incorporate the industrial look in your property. You can also opt to paint the exterior of your home with dark shades of gray and retain the original color of your rustic sidings.
- Urban modern: An urban modern design home looks synonymous with high-end urban lofts. Once translated into the exteriors of a home, this style combines edgy chic and minimalism, resulting to a glamorous look.
When copying this look for your own home, always prioritize sleekness. Your rustic sidings should be painted in a color that’s similar to the dominant color schemes used all over your house. The goal is to let your rustic sidings blend well with your home’s exterior.
- Modern Farmhouse: Who says farmhouses can only be seen in barns? Because of rustic sidings, it’ll be easy for you to copy this exterior design regardless of where your property is located.
To achieve the modern farmhouse look for your home’s exterior, invest crisp paint colors such as black, white, and natural wood. Since your rustic sidings already fit well with this exterior style, you can keep its original color. Or for a modern twist, color your rustic sidings in white and then other elements of your home’s exterior in gray. A white colored-home with gray accents will surely turn heads in your neighborhood!
To take it up a notch, consider purchasing outdoor wood furnishings. Seats and tables made from natural wood will accent your rustic sidings, creating a more coordinated theme. If you have outdoor space, consider adding a patio complete with a fire pit and grilling station. Aside from improving the overall appeal of your property, these can also make your vacant spaces more functional.
Once your guests see how your exterior elements work well with each other, it won’t be long before they will take you as an exterior designer of some sort!
Prioritize On The Experience
With the number of benefits a rustic siding can provide, your one-time payment of buying these will surely go a long way. Just make sure that you’re entrusting your money to experienced and licensed contractors for the installation of your home’s rustic sidings.
When it comes to home improvement projects, the efficacy of the contractors should be one of your deciding factors when choosing who to hire.
