New manufactured home siding can give your home exterior a new look.
In the pioneering years of manufactured homes in the United States, you could only choose between different types of wood-based sidings.
The past few decades have seen remarkable improvements in siding materials to offer options made from stone, vinyl, and even metal, all at affordable prices.
What are the benefits of manufactured home siding?
The main benefit is increased energy efficiency. Homes with insulating sidings dissipate less heat to the atmosphere, hence take less energy to heat or cool. In most cases, the reason behind adding a siding is to boost the curb appeal of the home. New siding can add value to your property if you are planning to sell it. If your manufactured home is in danger of being destroyed by environmental elements, it only makes sense to add a durable siding.
What Is the Best Mobile Home Siding?
Not just any type of siding is good for a mobile home.
Because these homes are made from assembled parts, it would be catastrophic, for instance, to add a concrete siding.
As you would expect, a concrete siding will add undue weight to the structure and strain the assembled parts of the home.
When you consider factors like weight and consistency with the assembly parts of the home, your choices will narrow to these materials:
1. Aluminum Siding
If you must go the metal route, you will have to prioritize on aluminum over other metals.
Aluminum is the lightest metal you can ever put on your home. Plus, it is resistant to bugs, rusting, and other extremes of the weather.
Being easily malleable, aluminum panels are easy to straighten with a traditional hammer. But their malleability means you will be dealing with dents more often compared to any other metal panels.
2. Vinyl siding
This siding is made from vinyl plastic. It is extremely common on brand new manufactured homes today. There is a strong chance much of your interiors are made from Vinyl.
As such, adding Vinyl siding will create consistency with other materials already present in your home.
Vinyl sidings come in a wide range of colors, textures, and styles. They are also lightweight enough not to strain the structure of your home.
If your home was made before 1990, there are odds it came with aluminum siding. There is no reason to worry about it if you’ve been considering adding Vinyl on it as these two types of siding get along quite well.
Vinyl sidings are resistant to bugs, dents, and similar threats better than aluminum. However, both tend to collect algae and dirt that require periodical pressure cleaning.
3. Wood panel siding
Wood panel sidings are also referred to as T1-11 or T-one-eleven.
These panels are made from plywood-grade wood that has been molded and pressed into slim rectangular sheets.
Unlike Aluminum panels that are laid overlapping each other, plywood panels are made to interlock panel by panel the entire height of your home.
While it is lightweight enough to work for a manufactured home, wood is overly vulnerable to every sort of harm you’d want to beat: rot, bugs, cracking, and warping.
These vulnerabilities, however, depends on the type of wood used and whether it passed through some sort of treatment or not. Wood panels are the best insulators.
4. Fiber cement siding
This is the latest technology of manufacturing exterior sidings.
Fiber cement panels are made by combining cement, silica, and wood fibers.
They are lightweight compared to panels made entirely from cement. You will also benefit from the features of all the constituent materials: the superb insulation of wood and the durability of cement and silica.
Fiber cement sidings, however, don’t come cheap. The cost can be double that of adding Vinyl siding.
Six Manufactured Home Siding Recommendations
1. Ply Gem® Transformations Double 4” x 150” Khaki Vinyl Lap Siding
This siding is designed to withstand up to 165 mph of wind and resist scrape, stain, and crack. The advanced locking system lets you fit them tightly and easily during installation.
No paint is needed, no hassle – it is one of the best choices for a carefree home homeowner looking forward to transforming the exterior of their home.
This siding comes in 13 different colors and a multitude of profiles of double 4”, Double 5”, and double 1-1/2″. Worth mentioning is Ply Gem’s Hang-Tough Technology that adds extra resistance thermal distortion, cracking, and boosts durability.
2. Novik® Shake RS – 14.5” X 48.75” Rough Sawn Shake in Weathered Blend 48.84 sq. Ft. Per Box) PlasticShake Siding
Novik are known for their stone and concrete sidings but this one of their few impressive Vinyl sidings good for your manufactured home. It comes with that familiar deep-grained texture seen on rough sawn cedar shakes.
If you are looking for a low-maintenance siding that will complement virtually any kind of assembled wall, this is the perfect siding for you. Each box contains 12 panels capable of covering 48.84 sq. ft. of wall space.
This siding looks like real wood from close up or afar and doesn’t require regular upkeep. It also comes with Fast Fit features that let you install faster and easier.
Because it compliments almost all types of sidings, it would be a good option if you are looking for a siding designed for a mixed material application.
3. Veranda® 3/4″ X 11-1/4″ X 8 ft. White PVC Reversible Trim (3-Pack)
This PVC siding comes with two textures on the same panel – one side looks like wood while the other is plain.
This means you can switch to the texture of your choice at any time you please. The Vinyl used to make this siding comes with fire retarding properties which complement its resistance to weather extremes and dents.
Besides being lightweight enough for a manufactured home, it was designed with versatility in mind as you can use it for both interior and exterior purposes.
Wood Siding
4. SBC Resquared and Rebutted (R&R) 16” Buzzards Bay Gray Eastern White Cedar Shingle Siding (25 sq. ft. / Box)
If you are looking for perfect wood-based siding excellent for thermal insulation and acoustic properties, you might want to try out this siding from SBC. It comes with the warmth and character that cedar is known to provide.
The best part is that it is made from real cedar wood which means you will reap the full benefits of having wood on your walls: better insulation and style. The surface is coated with 100 percent acrylic latex solid stain protects the wood for moisture and insects.
5. Kimberly Primed Wood Nickel Gap 3/4″ X 7-1/4″ X 8 ft Ship Lap Siding and Wall Panel (6 Pcs / Box)
This siding would be a good choice if you want to give your manufactured home a more modern or country rustic look. Each panel has a nickel gap that extends into the next panel.
Basically, nickel gap siding is the modern way of doing a shiplap and goes a long way to add a vintage appeal.
The boards come primed – all you need is to install and paint.
The shiplap on these panels offers a range of options, you can choose to use indoors for wall paneling, and ceiling but it looks better on the exterior walls.
The boards are made from Paulownia, a kind of hardwood that’s lighter than Pine. This specific species of hardwood is easy to handle and stages impressive resistance to terminates and rot.
6. Ply-Bead Plywood Siding Panel (Nominal: 11/32” X 4 ft. X 8 ft. ; Actual: 0.313” X 96”)
This is noticeably one of the cheapest wooden sidings on the market. If you are looking for beaded plywood-based panels for decorative use on the interior walls of your home, this is one of the best options you can choose. They are easy to install and lightweight enough for a mobile home.
The product may vary a bit from one store to another, but if you choose to order yours from Home Depot, you’ll get the standard 95-15/16″ panels shiplaped on the 8 ft. edges to hide seams.
Wherever you choose to buy them, they come pre-sanded with unfinished flexibility ready for painting with any acrylic latex paint. These sidings meet all grading standards for appearance and strength.
Guide to Selecting the Best Siding for a Manufactured Home
Consider these Ten factors when selecting a Manufactured Home Siding
1. Weight
As mentioned earlier, heavy sidings will add weight to the assembled parts of your manufactured home and compromise its stability.
For that reason, you should be inclined to choosing the lightest siding you can find on the market while, of course, considering other factors such as cost and the space covered per unit.
If we consider weight, all stone and cement siding will be disqualified.
But that doesn’t mean panels made from all other materials are lightweight. You will come across some wood siding with weight suitable only for site-built homes.
2. Durability
It takes a lot of time and labor to install the siding.
The cost of acquisition, installation, and long-term maintenance can be high. For these reasons, you want sidings that last longer.
And because your mobile home may be moved from between different locations, you want a siding that can withstand all sorts of weather including extreme rain and snow.
Nowadays manufacturers offer products that can withstand the effects of sun, rot, and attack from wood-eating bugs.
3. Design and Color
Design and Color go hand in hand because they can be used to make a statement.
Remember, the visitor will see your exterior walls before getting into the home.
For this reason, you want to send a good impression by installing siding that matches your styling and color preferences.
The market offers a wide range of textures and colors, so you will need to make your decisions before setting foot in the store.
4. Maintenance cost
How much are you willing to spend on the sidings in the recurring repair and maintenance exercise.
Once in a while, you will need to repaint the sidings and remove a few bad parts.
The cost of maintaining the siding will depend on the choice of material. Vinyl and metal sidings tend to be durable and cheap to maintain in the long run compared to wood and fiber-cement siding.
Choose the sidings that can go without paint and still look fabulous or those that require a simple wash with the garden hose to return to their pristine conditions.
5. Aesthetics
The choice of siding can influence the curb appeal of your home.
You will need to be specific about such things as the texture, color, and even the type of material.
Vinyl siding comes in a variety of styles and colors. You can even choose between vertical and horizontal panels.
Wood siding delivers the natural and beautiful look and feel of wood. They also come in a range of grades and species. They can be stained, painted, or primed, whichever works for your walls.
Fiber cement siding may mimic the stucco, shingles, masonry, or wood cupboard. They are highly customizable.
Aluminum siding may be vertical or horizontal strips or panels, but the factory paint can’t be changed easily in most cases.
6. Price
You are probably on a budget. If you have a budget that you must adhere to while shopping for siding, you will ensure that the price of the siding choice is within its boundaries.
The biggest drivers of the price of the siding are the kind of material used, the contractor of your choice, and the overall size of your home.
Vinyl sidings are the cheapest you could find on the market. Wood and Fiber Cement-based siding lie between moderate and high. Aluminum siding tends to be costlier than most options except for stone and brick siding which aren’t suitable for a manufactured home.
7. Energy efficiency
The need for boosting your home’s energy efficiency might be the reason why you are adding sidings in the first place.
Yet all sidings don’t come with the same energy conservation capabilities. If energy efficiency is indeed your motivation,
Aluminum sidings certainly won’t be a good choice because the metal has poor insulation properties.
Vinyl too increases the R-value of your walls considerably, so Vinyl sidings would be out of cards.
For an energy-efficient home, your choices will be limited to wood and fiber cement-based sidings.
8. Breathability
This is one of the most overlooked factors. It is easy to forget everything about the breathability of the siding until your home becomes too humid to support comfortable living.
The siding should expel most of the accumulated moisture into the environment.
Of course, the manner they are installed can have an effect on the general breathability of the walls, i.e. adequately vented sidings expel moisture better than those that have been stacked close to each other.
But the material of construction can come into play as well – Fiber cement and wood sidings breathe out excess warm air than Vinyl.
9. Ease of installation
- How easy is it to install the sidings of your choice?
- Will you require specialized tools or experts to add them to your walls?
The faster and less complicated the installation, the shorter and cheap the project will turn out to be.
Reflective properties
This is another factor most homeowners overlook and only learn its importance when it’s too late.
If you live in a hot climate with plenty of sunlight, it only makes sense to add sidings that reflect much of the heat back into the atmosphere.
In that respect, white vinyl or wood siding would be a good choice.
Note that Aluminum is a good conductor of heat, so, whether you paint it white or not, a good amount of the absorbed heat will end up in the interior of your home.
If you live in cold regions with less than average sunshine, dull painted (preferably black) wood or vinyl sidings would be a smart choice.
Conclusion
If framing is the bones that make the home, cladding is the home’s skin, so selecting the best siding will help ensure that whatever is inside the home stays protected and lives comfortably.
Siding manufacturers keep introducing products that meet every minute detail of comfortable living from sustainability, UV resistance, to energy-efficient material.
Manufactured homes are made up of assembled parts.
The addition of undue weight on the structure can compromise its stability.
For this reason, you should choose the lightest siding you can on the market while considering other factors as well.
Some of the factors worth considering are the aesthetics and the kind of material used to make the siding.
You want a siding that is easy to maintain and one that doesn’t cost a fortune to add to your home.
The ease of installing the siding is just as important as the durability and reflective properties of the siding.
Most wood and vinyl-based sidings are great for a manufactured as long as their weight is within the required range.
