Traditional or Insulated Vinyl Siding? Pros and Cons

Vinyl siding is a popular pick for Asheville homeowners thanks to its cost effectiveness, durability, and plethora of aesthetic options. But if you're renovating your home and looking into new siding panels, you'll inevitably run into another important choice: insulated vinyl siding vs. regular vinyl siding.

At first glance, the differences between these siding types can seem minor. To help you choose, we’ve compiled the pros and cons of insulated vinyl siding. Let’s get started!

Understanding insulated vinyl siding vs. regular siding

As you can probably guess, insulated vinyl siding is a vinyl siding product that’s made with an extra layer of insulating foam material. This isn’t the same stuff you can find in regular siding or in the walls of your home – that’s pink fiberglass batt insulation, which still allows heat loss through “thermal bridging.”

Insulated vinyl siding, in contrast, uses more effective foam material to keep heat inside and keep cold out (or vice versa, depending on the season!). Like its traditional counterpart, insulated vinyl siding can be found in a wide variety of different colors and styles. No matter what your Asheville home's aesthetic might be, the odds are good that you can find insulated vinyl siding to suit it!

Why choose the benefits of insulated vinyl siding?

Insulated vinyl siding offers lots of big advantages and benefits, especially if it’s installed with the help of our experts who know what they’re doing.

Pro: Higher thermal performance

The most obvious upfront benefit is higher thermal performance. To put it another way, keep in mind that vs. non-insulated siding, insulated vinyl siding has a better "R-Value,” which measures how well the siding restricts heat flow in or out of your house. The higher the R-Value, the better the material is at keeping your home warm or cold relative to the outside.

The R-Value of insulated vinyl siding can range between 2.0 and 4.0 depending on the brand, size, and other factors. Regular vinyl siding only has an R-Value of 0.61! So, if you want your home to be as comfortably warm or cool as possible, insulated vinyl siding is the only way to go.

Pro: Reduce energy costs with insulated vinyl siding

The above benefit leads to a secondary surprise: a lower monthly utility bill.

You see when your HVAC system has to work double time to cool or warm your house to your preferred temperature, it uses more electricity. The reverse is true if energy-efficient insulated vinyl siding prevents your Asheville home’s temperature from fluctuating as much as it would with traditional siding. And when you use less electricity, the utility company charges you less money.

It’s not uncommon for homeowners with insulated vinyl siding to save hundreds of dollars per year than those with regular siding. What’s not to like?

Pro: Enhanced curb appeal

Thanks to the contoured foam of insulated vinyl siding, insulated siding panels have extra support, so they’re a little more resilient to warping from extreme temperatures or sunlight. This translates to better-looking siding panels and superior curb appeal – plus more ways to customize the appearance of your property!

Indeed, you can often find insulated siding in a huge range of shades. Since those siding panels are available in flat profiles, they’ll look sharp, sleek, and new, even for years to come. Take a look at Alside’s Prodigy Next-Generation Insulated Siding to see what we mean.

Pro: Greater durability

The foam beneath insulated siding panels helps to keep walls level, protects the siding from impact damage, and offers greater overall resilience to wear and tear. Progressive Foam’s Insulated Vinyl Siding is a stellar example of how siding boards and insulating materials work together to provide higher durability.

Traditional vinyl siding leaves a hollow space between the siding panel and the base wall, so your home is much more susceptible to impact damage from hail or errant baseballs launched from the neighbor’s backyard. Remember, the longer your siding lasts, the less often you need to replace or perform vinyl siding maintenance.

Pro: Noise-dampening effects with insulated vinyl siding

Since insulated vinyl siding does such a great job of preventing heat transfer, it’s no big surprise that it also dampens sound waves to some extent. Install insulated vinyl siding panels, and loud noises from outside – like traffic from the street or your neighbors turning on the lawnmower at 6 AM on a Saturday – won’t be nearly as noticeable.

Disadvantages to insulated vinyl siding

Nothing’s perfect, including insulated vinyl siding! Before you pull the proverbial trigger on a siding purchase, it’s also a good idea to keep some possible cons in mind for insulated vinyl siding while you compare it with non-insulated vinyl siding options.

Con: Costlier than traditional vinyl siding

Naturally, insulated vinyl siding is a little pricier compared to traditional siding. Expect it to run you anywhere between $4 and $12 per square foot when accounting for installation costs. For many Asheville homeowners, though, the long-term savings from insulated siding’s enhanced durability and energy loss reduction will “pay for” this higher-than-average price tag over several years.

Con: Longer installation process than regular vinyl siding

Insulated vinyl siding also requires a little more from the installation process than regular vinyl siding would. Because the foam insulation is thick, it takes workers longer to install insulated vinyl siding, and they sometimes need to use extra tools, like a cutting saw (for comparison, you can cut normal siding boards with hand snips).

Since installation is more involved, we recommend trusting professionals who can tackle this work, like the experts at your local Window World. Then, you can rest assured your insulated siding boards are positioned properly for maximum benefit!

Are the benefits of insulated vinyl siding worth it?

When you look at all the pros and possible cons of insulated vinyl siding versus regular vinyl siding, most Asheville homeowners will find insulated siding to be a better long-term choice. Even if it costs a little more upfront, insulated siding is more than worth the price, especially over the decades to come.

Plus, you can find insulated vinyl siding – and get professional installation! – from the experts at Window World of Asheville. Visit our showroom to check out our siding options, or  request a quote today to begin your project