There’s nothing quite like the laid-back charm of an older Kentucky home, particularly in stunning Louisville. Some areas of the town are dominated by white colonial homes, with their dramatic columns and long verandas, while others are home to laced-up Victorians, whose wide curving porches betell days on a rocking chair, sipping sweet tea. Sturdy farmhouses and ranches also abound, all reflecting the diverse history of Kentucky.
While older homes from every decade are glorious and able to withstand the test of time, they also wear down just like any other property, eventually requiring repairs. If it’s come time to replace the siding on your home, you might believe that you need to choose the same material as was originally placed in order to ensure that it stays safe and attractive.
However, there are now more options than ever before to maintain your home’s unique charms while still benefiting from today’s superior technology. One of the best options is James Hardie siding, a versatile product that can mimic nearly any other siding material. When properly installed by the right contractor, you can enjoy years of exquisite siding that emphasizes the true beauty of your home. Let’s look at three reasons why James Hardie siding is the best choice for older Louisville homes.
You can maintain the historic appeal of the home without sacrificing modern conveniences
Part of the curb appeal of an older home isn’t just in its architecture, but the exterior elements that cover its bones: the roofing, siding, and window trim. In most older homes, particularly those from the late 1800s and early 1900s, homeowners had only a few choices: wood, brick, or metal. Aluminum siding was more common from the 1940s to the 1970s; before then, you’re likely to find either heavy brick or clapboard siding, which might be milled in a variety of different ways to produce unique styles.
If you don’t have brick on your older home, you might think this means that you have to go with either wood or aluminum when replacing the siding, but this isn’t true: you can have the aesthetic of these but with the greater staying power of fiber cement. James Hardie siding comes in numerous different colors and finishes that can mimic other common siding materials, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of this high-tech material without making your home look anachronistic.
The durability of fiber cement will ensure you won’t need to replace the siding for decades
With an older home, you want to be as gentle as possible with it, making as few repairs as necessary to protect its original charm. The more times that you remove and replace things, the more likely it is that you’ll break something else in the process, causing another round of expensive interventions. More than that, constantly updating an older home makes it lose that sense of timelessness that made you fall in love with it in the first place: it loses that sense of being an old stalwart in a sea of new houses.
James Hardie siding can last decades without failing; it has a lifespan nearly twice as long as vinyl thanks to its durable composition of wood fibers and Portland cement. As such, your home will undergo the stress of siding replacement only once. A great siding company in Louisville will also do their best to avoid putting unnecessary strain on other elements of the building, like its internal structure or windows, so that you don’t find yourself having to fix a million other things after they leave.
Low maintenance means you can focus your attention on other necessary repairs
Let’s face it: older homes are a lot of work. As their internal components age, they need to be replaced with great care in order to maintain both the integrity and aesthetic of the house, and this can be really hard. For example, many homes from before the 1940s have ornate, custom-designed front doors that can cost thousands of dollars to replace. Others have cute features like milk doors, dumbwaiters, or wired musical doorbell chimes that simply don’t exist in newer homes.
These are the elements of your home that give it personality, but they can also be a headache to fix and replace; that’s why you want to choose a low-maintenance option for more standardized elements of your home, like siding, so that you can focus your time and money on these more delicate repairs. James Hardie siding is not only durable, but also low maintenance: once your professional contractors leave, you don’t have to do much else to keep your siding in good shape. While this is a relief for anyone, it’s especially comforting to those with older homes, who have a million other things to maintain in their gorgeous house.
James Hardie siding is beautiful, durable, and low-maintenance, which is exactly what any homeowner wants. By working with a qualified installation team, you can pick a color and finish that shows off exactly why your home is special – and keeps that charm in place for years to come.
