Siding Replacement Cost in 2026: Installed Prices by Material and House Size

Last reviewed: 2026-08-08

Researched and written by one person, not an editorial team. I am an independent researcher, not a licensed contractor, and I do not install siding — see the About page for exactly what I do and don't do. This page contains a sidebar lead-capture form; if you submit it, your contact information is routed to a disclosed set of siding-installation companies and/or lead networks, and I am paid for that referral. That disclosure, and the current list of who sees your information, is shown next to the form itself, not buried here.

The number everyone asks for, and why it isn't one number

If you search "siding replacement cost 2026," you'll get answers that don't agree by a factor of four. This Old House's 2026 guide puts the national average at $19,000 for a typical re-side, ranging from $8,000 to $30,000, with a $12,252 average for a 2,000-sq-ft vinyl job (source, updated 06/12/2026, retrieved 2026-08-08). Angi's 2026 figure, as relayed by a Lake Tahoe–area contractor who cited it, sits at an average of $11,578 spanning $5,559 to $17,710 (Mr. Honey Do, retrieved 2026-08-08). Homewyse's ZIP-adjusted unit-cost model for vinyl starts at $7.32 to $12.51 per square foot installed (source, retrieved 2026-08-08) — which for a 2,000-sq-ft wall would compute to $14,640 to $25,020 before any tear-off, trim, or sheathing work. A regional contractor in the Carolinas quotes HardiePlank at $9 to $12 per square foot installed (Contract Exteriors, Charleston/Myrtle Beach SC, retrieved 2026-08-08), which for the same 2,000 sq ft is $18,000 to $24,000, before any of the add-ons below. That is a 3-4x spread on what is supposedly the same purchase, before you've told anyone what material you want or whether your old siding needs to come off.

Both ends of that range are real. They are measuring different things. I dug into where each figure comes from so you can tell which one applies to your project, rather than averaging them into a meaningless middle.

What's actually driving the spread, based on the sources below:

  1. Scope — tear-off vs. over-cladding. Every regional source I checked prices removal of existing siding as a separate $1,000 to $3,000 line item — Peak & Valley Roofing (Northeast Ohio) quotes it at exactly that range (source, retrieved 2026-08-08), and J-Tech Construction (Nebraska) and Tri-Link Contracting (PA/WV/OH) cite the same $1,000–$3,000 band (J-Tech · Tri-Link, retrieved 2026-08-08). Homewyse's headline $7.32–$12.51/sq ft figure does include a "remove siding" option but itemizes it as the same weight as job supplies and equipment — i.e., a unit-cost-model approximation, not a real bid. The aggregator numbers also carry no contingency for the rotted sheathing that becomes visible only after the old siding comes off; Tri-Link explicitly warns that a "$10,000 re-side can turn into $20,000+" once hidden water damage is exposed.

  2. Material mix and what "the average" is averaged over. This Old House's $19,000 national average is a blend across every common material, weighted by what homeowners actually buy — vinyl-dominated, with a long tail of fiber cement, stucco, cedar, and stone. A homeowner comparing their HardiePlank quote to "$19,000" is comparing to a vinyl-weighted number; the same source's fiber-cement-specific whole-house figure for a 2,000-sq-ft home is higher and is the correct comparison. Material choice drives roughly 50 to 55% of the total bill per the Mr. Honey Do synthesis of Angi/HomeAdvisor 2026 data.

  3. Company type. The aggregator numbers are cost-database unit-cost models — material + labor + standard markup, priced for a straightforward job with no trim, no sheathing repair, and no permit fee bundled in. Regional contractor numbers come from installed-sale companies whose retail price reflects a packaged service: sales visit, measurement, a crew, warranty backing, and — for the brands that require it — manufacturer-certified installation that the warranty actually honors (see the James Hardie and LP SmartSide primary-document section below).

  4. Regional labor, climate, and code. A Sacramento-area or Reno-Tahoe contractor quotes above the national average for labor-market and climate-performance reasons; a Florida HVHZ contractor has to install to a 175-mph design wind speed that adds a 30–60% cost premium over standard-wind-zone construction. Neither of those cost drivers shows up in a blended national figure. Named examples below.

The honest takeaway: if you're comparing your own quote to "the average," compare it to the regional retail-quote figures for your material, not the national aggregate — the aggregate is a unit-cost index, not what an installed-sale company will actually charge you.

Cost by material: installed price per square foot

Two kinds of source, side by side on purpose. The "national aggregate" column is a cost-database estimate per square foot of wall area; the regional columns are what actual installed-sale companies in four different markets quote. Notice that the regional quotes sit at or above the top of the national aggregate range for the same material, in every region I checked.

Material National aggregate $/sq ft
(This Old House, 2026)		 Nevada / Sierra Nevada
(Mr. Honey Do, citing Angi/HomeAdvisor 2026)		 Northeast Ohio
(Peak & Valley Roofing)		 Nebraska
(J-Tech Construction)		 Pennsylvania / WV / OH
(Tri-Link Contracting)		 Carolinas
(Contract Exteriors)
Vinyl $6.13 $4–$12 $4–$12 $3–$8 $4–$12 $6–$10 (basic); ~$10 premium
Fiber cement (James Hardie) $9.00 $4.70–$15 $5–$15 $5–$12 $6–$15 $9–$12 (HardiePlank lap)
Engineered wood (LP SmartSide) (not priced separately) $4–$12 $3–$12 (LP SmartSide) $5–$11 $5–$12 (not broken out)
Aluminum / metal $7.32 $5.60–$10.30 $4–$10 (metal) $4–$10 $6–$11 (not broken out)
Natural wood / cedar $11.70 (cedar) $5–$15 (wood); $35–$50 (cedar premium) $6–$20 $6–$15 $7–$16 (not broken out)

Sources: This Old House, "Siding Replacement Cost," updated 06/12/2026 (retrieved 2026-08-08) · Mr. Honey Do, "How Much Does It Cost to Side a House," Lake Tahoe/Truckee/Reno (retrieved 2026-08-08) · Peak & Valley Roofing, "Vinyl Siding Cost Per Square Foot 2026," Rocky River OH (retrieved 2026-08-08) · J-Tech Construction & Solar, "Siding Replacement Cost," Omaha/Lincoln/Grand Island NE (retrieved 2026-08-08) · Tri-Link Contracting, "Siding Replacement," Eighty Four PA / Morgantown WV / Lorain County OH (retrieved 2026-08-08) · Contract Exteriors, "Vinyl vs Hardie Board," Charleston & Myrtle Beach SC (retrieved 2026-08-08).

Cross-check against two more aggregators: Homewyse's vinyl siding unit-cost model returns $7.32–$12.51/sq ft installed for Dutch-lap 0.046-inch PVC with a 25-year warranty (retrieved 2026-08-08) — already above This Old House's $6.13 vinyl figure, which is itself evidence that "the national average" moves by dollars per square foot depending on which cost-index methodology you use, before you ever get to a real contractor quote. The Hover siding cost article, published 2026-01-05 (retrieved 2026-08-08) lists fiber cement at $6–$15/sq ft and engineered wood at $7–$12/sq ft installed, in the same band as the regional contractors above.

Note on engineered wood: This Old House's 2026 guide names engineered wood, composites, and metal panels as "emerging and specialty materials" at a "midrange price point" but does not publish a per-square-foot or whole-house figure for them — so the engineered-wood cells above rely on regional contractor and aggregator data, not on the This Old House material-by-material table. I did not find a single national aggregator that breaks engineered wood (LP SmartSide) out cleanly; the regional contractors that do (Peak & Valley, J-Tech, Tri-Link) cluster it at $3–$12/sq ft installed, overlapping vinyl at the low end and fiber cement at the high end.

Note on brand: "James Hardie" and "HardiePlank" are the dominant fiber-cement brand in every regional source I read. LP SmartSide is the dominant engineered-wood brand. I treat fiber-cement numbers as James-Hardie-anchored and engineered-wood numbers as LP-SmartSide-anchored throughout this page, because that is how the contractor sources themselves quote those materials.

Whole-house cost (not broken out by material — no source we checked reports it that way)

Project size National aggregate
(This Old House)		 Regional contractor
(Mr. Honey Do, Tahoe/Reno)		 Regional contractor
(Tri-Link, PA/WV/OH)
1,000 sq ft (basic vinyl) "around $6,000" $3,500 low / $8,400 mid / $18,000 high — (not broken out at this size)
1,500 sq ft $16,000–$27,000 (FAQ band) $3,300 low / $8,800 mid / $16,500 high $7,000–$12,000 (small home)
2,000 sq ft (vinyl) $12,252 (average, 2,000-sq-ft vinyl) $6,200 low / $14,900 mid / $32,000 high (two-story) $11,000–$18,000 (medium home)
2,500–3,500 sq ft $17,000–$26,000 (large home) $10,000 low / $25,600 mid / $50,000+ high (2,500 sq ft two-story) $17,000–$26,000 (large home)
3,500+ sq ft $26,000–$40,000+ (extra-large) $13,000 low / $33,600 mid / $75,000+ (3,500 sq ft custom) $26,000–$40,000+ (extra-large)

Sources: This Old House (retrieved 2026-08-08) · Mr. Honey Do, sizing table citing Angi 2026 and HomeAdvisor 2026 (retrieved 2026-08-08) · Tri-Link Contracting, whole-house by home-size band (retrieved 2026-08-08).

I did not find a source that breaks whole-house pricing out by material in a single comparable table — every whole-house figure above is a blended-material project total for a named house size. Treat a per-square-foot material figure times your wall square footage as a rough floor, not a quote; every regional source above shows whole-house totals moving dramatically with house complexity (two-story vs. ranch, gables, dormers), tear-off scope, and the contingent sheathing repair that only becomes visible after the old siding comes off.

What drives the cost spread — tear-off, stories, trim, sheathing, labor

A second table, because the first one alone hides the levers. Every row below is a real cost a homeowner will or may pay, sourced to a named regional contractor or aggregator.

Cost driver What it changes Typical cost adder Named source
Tear-off and disposal of old siding Required for most warranties; over-cladding is often not warranted $1,000–$3,000 flat, or $0.70–$2.00/sq ft ($1,400–$4,000 for 2,000 sq ft) Peak & Valley (OH), J-Tech (NE), Tri-Link (PA/WV/OH), Mr. Honey Do (NV)
House stories / architectural complexity Multi-story, gables, dormers, steep rooflines add labor access and cut-in time +15–30% vs. a simple ranch (Tri-Link); +30–50% labor on complex homes (Mr. Honey Do) Tri-Link, Mr. Honey Do
Trim, soffit, fascia replacement Soffit/fascia is a separate trade; window/door trim and J-channel are line items Soffit/fascia $6–$20/linear foot; window trim/J-channel $500–$2,500; trim/accessories ~$1,000 on a 1,500-sq-ft ranch Mr. Honey Do, J-Tech (project example), Hover (1,000-sq-ft line-item breakdown)
Sheathing / structural repair (contingent) Rotted sheathing or framing discovered mid-job; not visible until old siding is off $500–$3,000+ structural; a "$10,000 re-side can turn into $20,000+" with rot remediation Tri-Link, Mr. Honey Do, Peak & Valley ($500–$5,000 moisture remediation)
House wrap / weather-resistive barrier (WRB) Required by code and by most manufacturer warranties (see LP SmartSide section) $0.50–$1/sq ft basic; $1–$3/sq ft insulated This Old House, Mr. Honey Do, Peak & Valley
Permits and inspection fees Vary by jurisdiction; almost never included in aggregator "installed" figures $30–$500 typical; $150–$1,500 with plan check (see primary-document permit section below) Hover, Peak & Valley, Mr. Honey Do, Tri-Link
Paint / field finishing Fiber cement and engineered wood often need field-painted cut edges and joints; primed-only product needs full field paint $1,000–$4,000 paint upgrade; "Paint ALL exposed cut edges" is a warranty requirement (LP SmartSide) Mr. Honey Do, LP SmartSide installation instructions
Regional labor market Labor runs $2–$12/sq ft installed; varies 40–60% across U.S. metros; Reno-Tahoe above national average Labor component alone varies by hundreds of dollars per square Mr. Honey Do, Hover
Seasonal timing Late-spring/summer peak carries premium; shoulder seasons discount 5–15% savings in early spring or late fall Mr. Honey Do, Hover

Region-specific example (named): Mr. Honey Do, serving Lake Tahoe, Truckee, and Reno, attributes above-national pricing in its market partly to elevation-driven UV exposure — "Tahoe homes at 6,000–8,000 ft face UV 25 to 50% higher than at sea level," accelerating fading and degrading vinyl faster, which pushes homeowners toward fiber cement or premium insulated vinyl and adds to lifetime cost even if the initial bid looks comparable (source, retrieved 2026-08-08). That is a climate-specific cost driver, not a generic "varies by region" hand-wave.

Florida's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone: where the building code changes the bid

The clearest example of a code driver that materially changes siding cost is Florida's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ), which under the Florida Building Code covers Miami-Dade and Broward Counties only (Engineering Express, "What is the HVHZ", retrieved 2026-08-08 — the HVHZ does not extend to Monroe County or elsewhere in the state, by long-standing policy). In the HVHZ, the design wind speed for a Risk Category II building is 175 mph in Miami-Dade County and 170 mph in Broward County, per FBC §1620.2 as published on UpCodes, "High-Velocity Hurricane Zones — Wind Loads" (retrieved 2026-08-08, quoting the Florida Building Code's tabulated 3-second-gust wind velocities by risk category).

What this means for siding cost, per the windload.solutions HVHZ comparison guide (retrieved 2026-08-08): HVHZ construction requires Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA) product approval for every exterior component, impact testing under Miami-Dade TAS 201/202/203 (vs. ASTM E1996/E1886 elsewhere), and enhanced fastening throughout the load path. Windload.solutions estimates the HVHZ cost premium at +30% to +60% versus standard-wind-zone construction for the building envelope. A homeowner in Miami comparing their fiber-cement bid to the national-aggregate $9–$15/sq ft fiber-cement band is comparing against a baseline that does not price in NOA-approved fastening and impact testing; the same material, installed to HVHZ, will sit at the top of or above that band. Outside the HVHZ — in the rest of Florida — the standard Florida Building Code applies, and the siding bid looks much more like the national-aggregate range. That single jurisdictional line (Miami-Dade and Broward vs. the rest of the state) moves a fiber-cement bid by tens of thousands of dollars on a whole-house job.

What's bundled into an "installed" price — and what isn't

None of the sources above itemize this consistently, which is itself part of the spread. Based on what each source does and doesn't mention:

  • Disposal of the old siding. Called out separately by every regional contractor I read, at $1,000–$3,000 flat or $0.70–$2.00/sq ft (Peak & Valley, J-Tech, Tri-Link, retrieved 2026-08-08). Homewyse lists "remove siding" as an option line, not part of the base installed figure.
  • Sheathing / structural repair. Contingent, not standard. Tri-Link warns a $10,000 re-side can become $20,000+ if rotted sheathing is found; Mr. Honey Do quotes $500–$3,000+ for structural sheathing repair. No aggregator "average" includes a contingency for this.
  • Trim, soffit, fascia. Soffit/fascia is $6–$20/linear foot per Mr. Honey Do; window/door trim and J-channel $500–$2,500. The Hover 1,000-sq-ft line-item breakdown prices inside corners, outside corners, J-channels, starter strips, finishing strips, nails, and shutters as separate items totaling well over $1,000 on trim alone (Hover, 2026-01-05, retrieved 2026-08-08).
  • Permits and inspection fees. Almost nowhere included in contractor quotes; see the primary-document permit section below for actual municipal fee schedules from Houston TX and Santa Rosa CA. Aggregator "permit fees" are vague $100–$500 ranges with no named jurisdiction.
  • Paint / field finishing. Fiber cement and engineered wood come primed; field-painting the installed siding is a separate $1,000– $4,000 line item per Mr. Honey Do. Worse — for engineered wood, the manufacturer's own installation instructions make painting exposed cut edges a warranty requirement, not a cosmetic option (see the LP SmartSide section). Painting the field siding itself is on top of that.
  • House wrap / weather-resistive barrier. Required by code and by both James Hardie's and LP SmartSide's published installation requirements. $0.50–$1/sq ft basic, $1–$3/sq ft insulated. This Old House prices it at $0.50–$1/sq ft as a separate line.
  • Any item no aggregator price includes. Homewyse's own exclusions list, verbatim from the page, includes "removing, relocating, or modifying existing framing, finishes, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, or code-compliance work," "hazardous materials testing/remediation (asbestos, lead, radon)," "general contractor overhead — Add 13% to 22% to the total cost above if a general contractor will supervise," "sales tax on materials and supplies," and "permit or inspection fees" (Homewyse, retrieved 2026-08-08).

Regional cost drivers, named

Three separate mechanisms show up in the sources, not one generic "cost varies by region" hand-wave:

  • Florida HVHZ — building-code-driven material and fastening upgrade. Covered in detail above. The Florida Building Code's 175-mph Miami-Dade / 170-mph Broward design wind speed (FBC §1620.2) plus mandatory Miami-Dade NOA product approval drives a +30% to +60% envelope cost premium per windload.solutions, and that premium applies to siding the same way it applies to windows and roofing. Outside the HVHZ, Florida siding bids look much more like the national aggregate.

  • Lake Tahoe / Reno / Sierra Nevada — elevation-driven UV and climate. Mr. Honey Do attributes above-national regional pricing partly to UV intensity 25–50% higher than at sea level at 6,000–8,000 ft elevation, accelerating vinyl fading and pushing homeowners toward fiber cement or premium insulated vinyl. The same source quotes regional labor at $2–$12/sq ft and notes labor varies 40–60% across U.S. metros (source, retrieved 2026-08-08).

  • Northeast Ohio — older-housing-stock hidden damage. Peak & Valley Roofing, serving Rocky River and the Cleveland-area western suburbs, flags older Ohio homes for hidden moisture, mold, insect damage, and lead-paint abatement (pre-1978) costs that surface only at tear-off: moisture remediation $500–$5,000, mold removal $500–$2,500, insect damage repair $1,000–$3,000, and lead-paint abatement $1,000–$5,000. It also recommends insulation beneath siding as "a smart move in Northeast Ohio's climate," which adds $1–$3/sq ft (source, retrieved 2026-08-08). None of those contingent costs appears in any national average.

  • Carolinas — fiber-cement as the regional default. Contract Exteriors, serving Charleston and Myrtle Beach, quotes HardiePlank lap siding at $9–$12/sq ft installed and says complex architectural designs push it higher; basic vinyl sits at $6–$8/sq ft and premium vinyl "closer to $10" in the same market. The Hardie premium over vinyl in this market is roughly $3–$4/sq ft — consistent with the This Old House national delta of $2.87/sq ft ($9.00 fiber cement vs. $6.13 vinyl) but at the higher end of the regional band, reflecting a regional preference for fiber cement in a humid, hurricane-adjacent climate (source, retrieved 2026-08-08).

Two primary documents that explain costs a search snippet won't show you

This is the part that a scraped listicle cannot produce. I opened the actual manufacturer and municipal documents, rather than relying on a blog's paraphrase, and pulled out facts that don't surface in the search snippet for those documents.

1. James Hardie ColorPlus finish warranty — what "15-year warranty" actually pays for, and what it does not

I read the actual James Hardie ColorPlus® Technology Express Limited Finish Warranty (effective April 2019, document HS12121 04/19, published by James Hardie Building Products, Inc.). Two facts in the primary document don't show up in the marketing copy or in a search snippet:

  • The finish warranty runs 15 years from date of purchase, but the cash reimbursement for finish repair is capped and decays fast: during the first year, Hardie reimburses "reasonable fees for paint and labor (an amount not to exceed $1.00 per square foot) for repair of the damaged portion of the finish." During years 2 through 15, "the warranty payment shall be reduced by 6.67% such that after the 15th year no warranty shall be applicable." In plain English: the manufacturer's own maximum payout for a finish defect is $1.00/sq ft in year one, declining annually, and $0 after year 15. That number — $1.00/sq ft — is the manufacturer's own valuation of the worst-case finish repair, and it does not appear on any marketing page I found. (Source: James Hardie ColorPlus Technology Express Limited Finish Warranty, Section 1, document HS12121 04/19, retrieved 2026-08-08 — read directly from the PDF via pdftotext, not a secondary summary.)

  • The exclusions section contains this clause, verbatim: "(k) growth of mold, mildew, fungi, bacteria, or any organism on any surface of the siding (whether on the exposed or non-exposed surfaces) and in this respect, ANY CLAIMS OF DAMAGE CAUSED BY MOLD OR MILDEW ARE EXPRESSLY EXCLUDED." The same exclusions list also expressly excludes "(j) efflorescence or performance of any paints and/or coatings which are not Hardie" and states that "This Warranty does not cover against fade or chalk of the Finish due to normal weathering" — where "excess color change" is defined as a change of "greater than four (4) delta E units within the first three (3) years of install." The 50-Year Express Limited Transferable Product Warranty on the siding itself carries the same exclusions list (a) through (m), plus "exceeding the maximum designed wind loads" and "acts of God including, but not limited to, hurricanes, tornados, floods, earthquakes, severe weather or other natural phenomena (including, but not limited to, unusual climate conditions)" (Source: James Hardie 50-Year Express Limited Transferable Product Warranty, retrieved 2026-08-08). A homeowner in Florida's HVHZ who buys James Hardie and loses siding in a hurricane is not covered by the product warranty — "acts of God" and "exceeding the maximum designed wind loads" are both explicit exclusions, regardless of whether the product was installed to HVHZ spec. That is the kind of detail a warranty PDF states plainly and a manufacturer's marketing page does not.

This matters for budgeting: a homeowner who assumes "15-year finish warranty" means the siding's finish is fully covered for 15 years will find the actual reimbursement capped at $1.00/sq ft in year one and declining, with mold, mildew, third-party paint performance, and normal weathering fade all excluded outright.

2. LP SmartSide installation instructions — what's required for the warranty to apply at all

I read the actual LP SmartSide Trim & Siding Installation Instructions (published by Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, ICC-ES AC321 / ESR-1301 / CCMC 11826-L / APA PR-N124 / HUD-MR1318c recognition). The primary document contains fastener and clearance specifications that don't appear in the search snippet for engineered-wood siding:

  • Fastener size: "Use a minimum 0.092 inch diameter ring shank nail, hot-dipped galvanized (ASTM A153) or equivalent. Fasteners shall be corrosion resistant and capable of preventing rust, stain and deterioration under normal outdoor environmental conditions for a period of no less than 50 years."
  • Fastener placement: "A minimum 3/4 inch (19 mm) down from top edge of siding. Fasteners shall be placed 1 inch (25 mm) from ends."
  • Fastener length: "Long enough to fully penetrate wood structural panel sheathing by at least 1/4 inch (6 mm)."
  • Fastener spacing: "Space ring shank nails a maximum of 8 inches (203 mm) o.c. across the top of siding." (For lap siding applied directly to studs, studs are spaced a maximum of 16 inches o.c.)
  • Clearances: "Minimum 6 inch (152 mm) clearance must be maintained between siding and finish grade (ground cover)." Siding adjacent to "porches, patios, walks, roofs or other hard finished surfaces must have a clearance of at least 1 inch (25 mm) above that surface." And "Siding must not be in direct contact with masonry, concrete, brick, stone, stucco or mortar."

The warranty tie-in is explicit in the same document: "Failure to follow the LP application instructions could result in reduced product service life and may lead to denial of coverage under the LP SmartSide Limited Warranty." And: "LP will assume no responsibility for water penetration or damage it may cause." (Source: LP SmartSide Trim & Siding Installation Instructions, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, retrieved 2026-08-08 — read directly from the PDF via pdftotext. The 6-inch clearance-to-grade requirement is restated in the LP SmartSide Perfection Shingle Application Instructions (Louisiana-Pacific Corporation), retrieved 2026-08-08.)

This matters for cost because every one of those specifications is a labor requirement a bid has to meet for the warranty to apply. A homeowner who accepts a low bid from a crew using standard smooth-shank nails at 12-inch spacing and butting the siding against a concrete foundation may get a cheaper install but is holding a product whose warranty is, per the manufacturer's own published instructions, void. The 0.092-inch-diameter ring-shank hot-dip-galvanized nail with a 50-year corrosion rating is a specific, purchasable fastener spec; it is more expensive than the box of generic siding nails a cut-rate bid might use, and the labor to place one every 8 inches, 1 inch from every end, is more than the labor to do it loosely. That cost delta is real, it is warranty-protective, and it does not surface in any aggregator "installed" price.

3. Real permit fee schedules from named jurisdictions

Search results for "siding replacement permit fee" mostly return vague $100–$500 ranges with no named jurisdiction. Two municipal sources I checked publish actual numbers:

  • City of Houston, Texas. Houston Public Works' published fee schedule (effective 01/01/2026) sets a general minimum building permit fee of $91.06 for "all permits except Plumbing," per Building Code Sec. 118.1.3 (source: City of Houston, TX, building permit fee schedule, retrieved 2026-08-08 — the $91.06 minimum-fee line was read directly from the city's page live in the browser; the full schedule was truncated on direct fetch). A third-party calculator (PermitCalculator, "Houston Building Permit Cost 2026", retrieved 2026-08-08) cites the City of Houston as its source and lists a "Siding Replacement" permit at $147.38, effective 01/01/2026, consistent with the city's published fee schedule for flat-fee residential building permits under Texas HB 852. I cite the third-party figure as a third-party aggregation of the city's data, not as a direct city quote; the verifiable city figure is the $91.06 minimum.

  • City of Santa Rosa, California. Santa Rosa's published Building Division fee schedule lists a distinct "Re-siding/Re-stucco" line item at $30.06 plan check + $200.38 building permit/inspection fee = $230.44 total for one-story, and the same $30.06 + $200.38 for multistory. These are not the generic "building permit = X% of valuation"; they are flat-fee standings published for re-siding as its own scope (source: City of Santa Rosa, CA, "Fee Schedule", retrieved 2026-08-08 — the figures are published in the city's building permit fee table; the page's table was rendered via client-side script on direct fetch, so the verbatim text is attributed to the city's published fee schedule as indexed rather than to a re-quoted page snapshot).

A 2,000-sq-ft re-side in Santa Rosa carries a $230.44 permit burden; a comparable project in Houston carries somewhere between the $91.06 minimum and the third-party-cited $147.38. Both are real numbers from named jurisdictions that do not appear in any aggregator "installed" figure on this page. Permit requirements and fee structures are set locally — check your own jurisdiction; do not assume either of these numbers applies to you.

What I could not source, and left out

  • A single "national average" figure I'd stand behind as authoritative. The aggregators I checked don't agree: This Old House puts the average at $19,000; Angi (as cited by a regional contractor) at $11,578; HomeAdvisor at $10,750. I reported all three with methodology notes rather than picking one or averaging them into a fabricated middle number. The $12,252 This Old House figure for a 2,000-sq-ft vinyl home is the single most-cited number in the SERP and I report it as such — as This Old House's published figure for a specific scope, not as "the" national average.
  • Whole-house cost broken out by material in a single comparable table. No source I found reports whole-house pricing by material in one table; every whole-house figure above is a blended-material project total for a named house size. I said so rather than fabricating a per-material whole-house matrix.
  • Energy-savings or payback-period numbers for upgrading siding material. Several sources cited ROI figures — the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report's 97%–114% for vinyl or fiber cement, "70–80% of cost recouped at resale," etc. I did not independently re-verify these against the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report's primary document, and the sources used here did not all name Cost vs. Value as their source with the assumption set behind the calculation. Per this page's own editorial standard, an unsupported savings number is worse than no number, so I left it out. A reader who wants cost-vs.-value figures should consult the current Cost vs. Value Report directly.
  • A specific CertainTeed vinyl siding warranty quote. I focused the primary-document extraction on James Hardie and LP SmartSide because those are the two products the regional sources most often quote by brand. CertainTeed's warranty structure was not independently extracted and verified from CertainTeed's own warranty PDF the way I did for Hardie and LP, so I did not quote it as a primary extraction.
  • The exact current Miami-Dade or Broward building permit fee for siding. The City of Miami's fee schedule page (miami.gov, retrieved 2026-08-08) directs readers to Chapter 10, Article I — Building Permit Fees (Sec. 10-18) and Resolution R-26-0200 adopted April 23, 2026, but the actual fee-by-trade table was not extractable from the live page on direct fetch. I cited Houston and Santa Rosa as the two permit-fee primary-doc extractions instead; a Miami-Dade homeowner should check the city's current fee schedule directly before budgeting.

Sources

All retrieved 2026-08-08 unless otherwise noted.

  1. This Old House, "Siding Replacement Cost" (updated 06/12/2026)
  2. Homewyse, "Cost to Install Vinyl Siding"
  3. Tri-Link Contracting Services, "Siding Replacement" (Eighty Four, PA — serves PA/WV/OH)
  4. J-Tech Construction & Solar, "Siding Replacement Cost" (Lincoln and Grand Island, NE)
  5. Peak & Valley Roofing, "Vinyl Siding Cost Per Square Foot 2026" (Rocky River, OH — Northeast Ohio)
  6. Hover, "House Siding Cost" (published 2026-01-05)
  7. Mr. Honey Do, "How Much Does It Cost to Side a House" (Lake Tahoe, Truckee, Incline Village, Reno, Sierra NV)
  8. Contract Exteriors, "Siding Showdown: Vinyl vs Hardie Board" (Charleston and Myrtle Beach, SC)
  9. James Hardie Building Products, Inc., "ColorPlus® Technology Express Limited Finish Warranty" (effective April 2019, document HS12121 04/19) (primary-document extraction, read via pdftotext)
  10. James Hardie Building Products, Inc., "50-Year Express Limited Transferable Product Warranty" (primary-document extraction)
  11. Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, "LP SmartSide Trim & Siding Installation Instructions" (ICC-ES AC321 / ESR-1301) (primary-document extraction, read via pdftotext)
  12. Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, "LP SmartSide Perfection Shingle Application Instructions" (primary-document extraction, clearance-to-grade requirement)
  13. City of Houston, TX, building permit fee schedule (effective 01/01/2026, Building Code Sec. 118.1.3) (primary-document extraction, $91.06 minimum permit fee)
  14. PermitCalculator, "Houston Building Permit Cost (2026): Fees + Calculator" (third-party aggregation of City of Houston fee schedule, citing $147.38 siding replacement fee effective 01/01/2026)
  15. City of Santa Rosa, CA, "Fee Schedule" — Building Division, Re-siding/Re-stucco lines (primary-document extraction, $30.06 plan check + $200.38 permit fee for one-story re-siding)
  16. UpCodes, "High-Velocity Hurricane Zones — Wind Loads" (Florida Building Code §1620.2, tabulated wind velocities by risk category) (primary-document extraction of code text, Miami-Dade Risk Cat II = 175 mph)
  17. Engineering Express, "What is the HVHZ — High-Velocity Hurricane Zone in Florida?" (HVHZ = Miami-Dade and Broward only)
  18. windload.solutions, "HVHZ Guide — High Velocity Hurricane Zone Requirements" (HVHZ cost premium +30% to +60% vs. standard)
  19. City of Miami, FL, "City of Miami Building Permit Fee Schedule" (Resolution R-26-0200, adopted 2026-04-23; cited for the existence of a current schedule, not for a verbatim siding fee)