Vinyl tops cladding again

Vinyl siding kept its spot atop the exterior cladding installed on newly built single-family homes in 2017 as efforts continue to offer more colors, improve technology and appeal to architects.

Some 27 percent, or 213,000 of the 795,000 houses completed last year, have vinyl siding as the primary exterior wall material, according to highlights of the annual survey of construction released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Overall, cladding distribution has hardly changed since 2015 and there was no difference at all from 2016 to 2017. New housing again was covered with: vinyl siding at 27 percent, stucco at 24 percent, brick at 22 percent, fiber cement at 20 percent, wood at 5 percent, and other materials (concrete block, stone, aluminum siding) at 2 percent.

Vinyl siding did pick up market share in the Northeast — going from 71 percent to 75 percent in the region with some hot real estate markets — while fiber cement dropped from 8 percent to 6 percent and brick from 10 percent to 5 percent.

Vinyl siding use was also up 1 percent to 22 percent in the South.

However, the gains were offset by lost share in the Midwest, where use of vinyl cladding fell from 60 percent to 56 percent; and, in the West, where stucco dominates with 55 percent of distribution, vinyl siding was down 1 percent to 3 percent.

To appeal to more homebuilders and remodelers, Cary, N.C.-based Ply Gem Industries Inc., the No. 1 manufacturer of vinyl siding, has added five dark hues to its SolarDefense Reflective Technology brand product line, which comes with a no-fade, no-distortion “promise.”

With overall sales of about $2.4 billion in the residential market, Ply Gem has estimated sales of $1.9 billion 
for its polymer products, keeping it the No. 2 pipe, profile and tubing extruder in North America amid another ownership change.

Ply Gem is being acquired by NCI Building Systems Inc., which manufactures metal roof and wall systems, insulated metal panels and rollup doors for the commercial market, in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion and set to close in the fourth quarter.

The announcement of that deal comes just three months after Ply Gem and Atrium Windows and Doors, which makes vinyl and aluminum products, were acquired by private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and combined to create a company with total sales of about $2.4 billion.

Now the combination with NCI is expected to create a company with combined sales of $4.5 billion in 2018. NCI will own 53 percent of the new company, and Ply Gem shareholders will take the remaining 47 percent. The publicly traded NCI took a hit right after the transaction was announced July 17 and Barclays questioned the rationale July 20.

“Barclays believes the strategic rationale for the proposed combination is vague, noting the disparate end markets and customers of the standalone companies — NCS is 95 percent commercial, PGEM 100 percent residential — while both the product portfolios and raw material baskets have seemingly minimal overlap, leaving scale benefits unclear,” according to a synopsis of the Barclays analysis published by Seeking Alpha.

The analysis also says the disclosed synergies of $150 million includes cost-cutting initiatives already underway and the true incremental synergies will be $30 million to $40 million.

Other analysts, however, like Matt Zielinski of Freedonia Group in Mayfield, Ohio, said the combined company is poised to be a leading supplier of building products and better withstand swings in the construction cycle.

“Construction professionals are continually looking for environmentally friendly building products that reduce energy consumption while remaining visually appealing,” Zielinski said in a statement. “Both companies have extensive product portfolios in this growing market segment; Ply Gem with its offerings of insulated vinyl siding and Energy Star-compliant windows and doors, and NCI Building Systems with its insulated metal panel product offerings.”

Made of rigid foam encased between two sheets of coated metal, insulated metal panels create moisture, air, vapor and thermal barriers while the painted steel exterior offers design options, NCI said. The panels are produced at eight sites in the U.S. and Canada for architectural, commercial, industrial and cold-storage uses, such as arenas, stadiums, offices, showrooms, banks, educational facilities, religious facilities, distribution centers, government buildings and community centers.

Ply Gem's energy-efficient products include ClimaForce insulated vinyl siding (Variform brand), Structure home insulation system (Mastic brand) and InsulPlank II (Mitten brand), which mimics fiber cement.

However, this building season Ply Gem is putting the spotlight on its SolarDefense line of vinyl siding, sold under the Mastic brand name, as a next-generation alternative for home remodelers. The company, which doubled the number of darker colors to 10, manufactures the product with its new color formulation, improved light reflecting properties and a stronger, heat-resistance base that resists distortion.

As the trade group for manufacturers of vinyl and polymeric siding, the Vinyl Siding Institute based in Washington, is trying to educate builders, architects and planners about the aesthetic and performance benefits of vinyl siding for any home, style and budget.

Vinyl siding has consistently been installed on more houses than any material since 1994, with use of the cladding peaking at 40 percent in 2002 then falling through 2007 to 30 percent. Vinyl siding gained back a little market share from 2009-11 but lost ground again.

To help move beyond the industry beyond its 27 percent market share, VSI has a 113-page designing style guide for professionals specifying products to create the architectural styles of Cape Cod, Italianate, French colonial, Queen Anne, Georgian, Federal, Victorian, Craftsman and Greek Revival. A brochure urges urban developers to “think beyond the picket fence” and choose vinyl siding for curb appeal.

VSI also had an innovations booth at the 26th annual Congress for the New Urbanism in Savannah, Ga., in June to reach out to supporters of walkable, mixed-use communities that celebrate history through architectural design.

In a VSI blog about the event, the trade group's technical consultant, Fernando Pages Ruiz, said several manufacturers showed products some New Urbanist designers didn't know existed, such as working shutters that replicate wood and panel profiles that can compete with fiber cement and composite wood claddings.

The manufacturers included Boral USA, Kaycan Ltd., Progressive Foam and Royal Building Products, which is owned by Westlake Chemical Corp. With estimated sales of $1.2 billion following growth of 17 percent, Royal Building Products ranks No. 4 among North American pipe, profile and tubing extruders.

Ruiz also said he read some of the community design codes being written by architects and the trend is moving toward “solid siding without artificial texture.”

“Our industry can make smooth siding, and foam backing makes it solid, but manufacturers say consumers prefer the wood-grained material,” Ruiz said in a blog urging siding producers to be ready for the growing demand.

Smooth-faced siding isn't just a pet peeve of a few architects, Ruiz added; it's becoming a standard for design codes for thousands of homes.

“Although the New Urbanists have become immensely influential in planning codes, the movement was founded by architects and their codes address the character, or look of a place, as much as traffic patterns land use,” Ruiz wrote. “The interface between our manufacturers and New Urbanist designers has become critical to maintaining our industry's leading position. A position that has slowly eroded precisely because our products are associated with the post-WWII drive-to suburbs that have fallen out of favor.”