Low-maintenance polymer and vinyl siding replace wood shingles and shakes.


A run-of-the-mill ranch house in western Missouri made a remarkable transformation from worn-out, weathered wood siding to the easy-care beauty of CertainTeed products. The house's cedar siding and shakes had discolored, and the home was crying out for help.

Mark Puckett, owner of Superior Exteriors (St. Joseph, MO), used CertainTeed's ColorView™ online product visualization tool and created the finished product — a stunning application featuring Cedar Impressions® Double 7" Staggered Perfection Shingles, CedarBoards™ Single 7" Clapboard, and Vinyl Carpentry™ Triple 4" Soffit.

"The homeowner is very happy with the end product," says Puckett. "We will be proud to use this job as a reference for years to come."

Phthalate and Heavy Metal Free
Many in the green building community are focused on eliminating phthalates and heavy metals in construction products. CertainTeed vinyl does not incorporate either component, while many other manufacturers do.

CedarBoards™ Now With 60% Recycled Content
We have updated our product specification for CedarBoards™ Double 6" insulated siding to include a 60% recycled content requirement. This is not an "up to 60%" situation, but a firm 60% specification. CedarBoards™ D6 is one of only a few cladding options that provides this benefit, as no other fiber cement or vinyl siding does.

The high recycled content of CedarBoards™ allows us to qualify for LEED H, LEED NC, and NAHB green building credits for environmentally preferred products. CedarBoards™ also continues to provide support under the energy optimization category. As Marketing Director Drew Brandt (SPG's green guru) notes, "We now have a GREEN cladding product on steroids!"

For our newly revised "Green Building" data sheet, which updates NAHB standards and contains new information about CedarBoards™ recycled content, click here.

"That Home Improvement Guy" helps contractors find financing for customers.

Do you have clients who want to remodel but can't get financing? Credit-worthy customers who want to start work today, but just can't pull it all together? "That Home Improvement Guy" can help you and your clients find home improvement financing.

CertainTeed has aligned with The Home Improvement Guy, who works with several companies to locate the best financing program for you and your customers. Available financing includes cash loans that allow you to offer 3, 6, 12 or 18 months of no interest/no payments to homeowners, as well as month-to-month loans. A 90-day deferred payment option is also available. In addition, That Home Improvement Guy can assist in credit card processing, business leases, commercial loans, and loans for homeowners' associations.

To order a dealer application package or to find out more about securing loans for your customers, call Mark Costin, "That Home Improvement Guy," at 888-715-3492 or 919-632-9673 or log on to www.thathomeimprovementguy.com.

New Edgewood™ vinyl railing combines wood styling and durable construction.

CertainTeed's new Edgewood™ vinyl railing is the first railing product to offer the natural beauty of painted and stained wood in an easy-to-maintain vinyl material. The innovative brushstroke texture of Edgewood creates a realistic woodgrain surface.

Using an I-rail design for both top and bottom rails and exclusive bracket design, Edgewood offers easy installation and long- lasting performance. Its precision-fit components do not require pre-drilling for installation, and they feature concealed, corrosion-resistant stainless steel screws. The railing is available in octagonal and square baluster designs and in three popular colors: White, Almond and Sierra Blend.

Edgewood meets International Residential Code standards for building safety and is suitable for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses up to three stories high. It is backed by a lifetime limited warranty that features our exclusive SureStart™ protection.

But don't wait to order—until October 31, 2009, CertainTeed will double the Show Me the Money rebate, from $6.00 to $12.00 a section, on all your purchases of Edgewood vinyl railing.

Earn twice the Show Me the Money rebate on your Restoration Millwork® profile purchases.

From June 1 through August 31, 2009, your Show Me the Money rebates on purchases of Restoration Millwork profiles will be increased from $.25 per piece to $.50 per piece. You don't need to do anything but purchase your profiles and submit your claims as usual. We will automatically double your rebate!

Increasing demand for affordability positions vinyl as the perfect cladding.

"The housing industry is abuzz...about the need for more affordable offerings...vinyl siding is one example of a building material that can deliver exceptional value and performance with style." This statement in a recent article from the Vinyl Siding Institute makes a strong case for vinyl in today's construction market. The article explains how durability, sustainability, low installation costs, and little maintenance make vinyl the cladding of choice for cost-conscious, environmentally-savvy buyers.

This timely article explains the present and future benefits of vinyl siding and will make a good addition to your cache of valuable information for homeowners. The full article is available here.

Also, this installed cost comparison chart from R.S. Means clearly illustrates vinyl siding's cost advantage over other claddings.

New Construction Installed Cost

Dollars per square (100 sq. ft.)	Vinyl Siding	Fiber Cement	Stucco	Wood (Cedar) Siding	Brick	Stone
Materials	$92	$136	$88	$462	$565	$707
Labor	$90	$105	$275	$76	$473	$961
Paint/Stain	$0	$56	$42	$42	$0	$0
Total Cost	$182	$297	$405	$580	$1,038	$1,668

Source: 2009 R.S. Means Residential Cost Data

Bufftech® Chesterfield privacy fence brings improved look and performance to Chicago subdivision.

Once called the "Stone City" for its limestone quarries, Romeoville, IL, is a village in the Chicago suburbs that has experienced considerable growth in the past decade. This growth has led to an explosion of new construction, as well as the beautification of older parts of town, including replacing thousands of feet of old, mismatched fences.

As part of Romeoville's Route 53 Enhancement Project, the village made plans to replace 2,025 feet of old fences bordering the backyards of 20 homes in a subdivision located on Illinois 53. They hired fence contractor The Fence Store (Melrose Park, IL), which has served the Chicago metropolitan area since 1989, for the project and consulted them for help with fence material selection.

"The subdivision had a montage of different fences—mostly wood and chain link—that had been installed over the years by individual homeowners," said Larry Williams, Vice President of Sales for The Fence Store. "The Village re-landscaped up and down Route 53 to spruce up the area, and these fences were beginning to look bad. They wanted us to take out the old fences and put in a new one that would improve the appearance and bring some uniformity to that stretch of the highway." The new fence also needed to buffer the subdivision from the traffic noise.

Romeoville Village selected CertainTeed Bufftech® Chesterfield vinyl privacy fence with CertaGrain in Natural Clay. CertaGrain® texture accurately recreates the look and feel of real wood on durable polyvinyl chloride, but it will not rot, split, rust, or require painting.

"Aesthetically, the new fence really improves the look of the homes along the Route 53 corridor," said Steve Gulden, village manager of Romeoville. "The Fence Store worked very well with the residents of the subdivision and with the Village to ensure a smooth transition from the old fence to the new." More importantly, travelers along Route 53 are greeted with maintenance-free, attractive, and durable Chesterfield fence.

 
This abandoned Battle Creek, MI, home was recently rehabbed with 32 squares of CertainTeed Cedar Impressions® Double 7" Rough-Split Shakes in Desert Tan. The deeply-grained panel was chosen because it mimics the home's original cedar shake cladding. But, unlike wood cladding, the low-maintenance polypropylene siding will not rot, and it is impervious to insects.



Pacific Builders installed CertainTeed Restoration Smooth™ Triple 3" siding and Cedar Impressions® Double 7" Straight Edge Perfection Shingles on this boarding house.

A 40-year-old boarding house in the Midtown Historic District of Sacramento, CA, needed a facelift. "It definitely needed a paint job on the outside, and there were some areas of the old thin wood siding that had dry rot," says Tina White, owner of Midtown Manor. "So, we were looking for a way to fix these problems and preserve the rest of the wood that would not require excessive maintenance in the years to come."

White hired Pacific Builders, a Sacramento remodeling contractor, to spruce up the exterior of her building and asked their advice on new exterior cladding. The Sacramento Historic Design Review Board requires that the cladding blend with the early 1900s architectural style of the other buildings in the district, so Pacific Builders suggested a mix of two CertainTeed siding products. They chose 27 squares of Wolverine Restoration Smooth™ Triple 3" vinyl siding in Natural Clay, and 11 squares of Cedar Impressions® Double 7" Straight Edge Polymer Perfection Shingles in Sandstone Beige. Both products are designed to closely emulate the classic look of painted wood siding.

"We've been using CertainTeed products for a number of years, but the exterior elements for this project needed to complement the look of the surrounding structures," says Rick Degen, owner of Pacific Builders. "Unfortunately, the Sacramento Historic Design Review Board has been against the use of vinyl and was adamant that we couldn't use the CertainTeed vinyl or polymer products. But when we and our CertainTeed sales representative met with the Board, they reviewed the two products and gave us permission to go ahead."

Pacific Builders removed the old trim and applied a vapor barrier housewrap over the wood as an underlayment. They then installed the Restoration Smooth siding and Cedar Impressions® shingles. The housewrap and siding were supplied by D.L.H. Distributing in Rancho Cordova, CA.

"Our customer is very pleased with the new overall appearance of her building," Degen says. "The CertainTeed siding has given her building a maintenance-free exterior, while maintaining the historic appearance of the other structures in the neighborhood. The Historic Design Review Board is also pleased to see it turn out well, as this is one of its first forays into approving the use of man-made building materials in historic remodeling projects."