Siding Services
Siding Installation & Repair in Bergen County, NJ
The short answer
We install and repair vinyl, fiber cement and wood siding across North Jersey, including the water-resistive barrier, flashing and trim details behind it. Small repairs are matched to the existing profile where possible; full re-sides include wrap, window and door flashing, and new trim.
Siding is a rain screen, not just a finish. What keeps a wall dry is the layered detail behind the panel — house wrap lapped correctly, flashing over every window head and at every transition, and a path for incidental water to drain back out.
When siding cracks, warps, or pulls loose at the nail hem, water gets behind it and stays there. Sheathing softens, insulation packs down, and the damage shows up indoors long after it started.
We walk the whole exterior before quoting, talk through vinyl versus fiber cement for your exposure and budget, and detail the transitions — corners, soffit, band board, stone-to-siding — so the wall performs as a system.
What the work includes
- Vinyl siding installation and re-siding
- Fiber cement (James Hardie-style) installation and painting coordination
- Panel and section repair matched to existing profiles
- House wrap, window and door flashing, trim and corner detailing
- Soffit, fascia and stone-veneer accent integration
Siding services we provide
Siding is a drainage system, not a skin
The single most useful thing to understand about siding is that it is not waterproof and was never meant to be. Wind-driven rain gets behind every cladding material ever made. What keeps a wall dry is the layer underneath and the details that let water leave again.
That assembly has three parts, and re-siding is the only practical moment to get them right:
- The water-resistive barrier. House wrap or felt behind the cladding, lapped shingle-style so water runs over each course rather than into it. Reverse-lapped wrap is one of the most common defects we uncover on a tear-off, and it is invisible once the siding is on.
- Flashing at every interruption. Windows, doors, decks, hose bibs, meter penetrations. Head flashing above openings, and pan flashing below them on newer work.
- Kickout flashing where a roof meets a wall. This is the detail that matters most and is missing most often. Where a roof edge dies into a sidewall, water running down the roof must be kicked away from the wall. Without it, every rainfall funnels a concentrated stream behind the siding at exactly one spot — which is why so much hidden sheathing rot sits directly below a roof-wall intersection.
When we quote a re-side we tell you what we expect to find behind the old cladding, and we photograph the wall once it is open so you can see the barrier and flashing before the new siding covers them again.
Choosing a material for North Jersey
There is no single best siding, only trade-offs against budget, exposure and how long you plan to own the house.
| Material | Strengths | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|
| Vinyl | Lowest installed cost, no repainting, panels replaceable individually | Moves a lot with temperature; can crack in hard cold; seams visible |
| Fiber cement | Dimensionally stable, holds paint well, non-combustible, resists impact | Heavier and slower to install; cutting requires dust control; repaint eventually |
| Engineered wood | Lighter than fiber cement, long lengths, wood appearance | Depends entirely on sealed edges and correct clearances |
| Cedar | Appearance no manufactured product matches; repairable indefinitely | Highest maintenance; refinishing on a cycle, not once |
Two details decide more than the material does. Vinyl must hang, not be pinned: nails centred in the slot, driven to leave clearance so the panel can move as it expands and contracts. A tightly nailed vinyl wall buckles in July. And every product has a required ground clearance and a clearance to roof surfaces — siding run down into contact with a roof or into soil wicks water and rots from the bottom up. See siding installation and siding repair.
If your home was built before 1978, the lead rule applies
Disturbing painted surfaces on a pre-1978 home brings the federal Renovation, Repair and Painting rule into play. The firm doing the work must be EPA lead-safe certified, must use contained work practices, and must give you the required lead pamphlet before starting. Siding work is squarely in scope, because removing old cladding and trim disturbs paint on a large scale.
A great deal of Bergen and Passaic county housing stock predates 1978, so on most older homes here this is not an edge case — it is the default. It is a fair question to ask any contractor bidding your job, and the answer should be immediate.
What we find behind old siding
A tear-off is the only honest inspection of a wall. The recurring findings, roughly in order of frequency:
- Missing or reverse-lapped water-resistive barrier
- No kickout flashing at roof-to-wall intersections, with rotted sheathing directly below
- Window head flashing omitted and the gap relying on caulk, which has since failed
- Soft sheathing at the bottom course where siding was run too close to grade or a deck ledger
- Old insulation board used as sheathing with no structural bracing behind the cladding
None of these are catastrophic if they are found and corrected while the wall is open. All of them are expensive if they are covered up for another twenty years. We price sheathing replacement by the sheet, quoted before we start and confirmed with photographs, rather than as an open-ended extra.
Siding and the rest of the envelope
Siding rarely fails alone. If water is getting behind a wall, the gutters above it are worth checking at the same time — an overflowing or undersized gutter dumps water down the cladding on every storm, and no siding detail is designed for that. The same goes for the roof-wall intersection, where the roofing and the siding trades meet and where responsibility often falls between two contractors.
Because we do the roofing, the gutters and the siding, that intersection is not somebody else’s problem. If a siding job uncovers a roofing defect we tell you and quote it, and if it does not need doing we say that too.
Where we work
We side homes across Bergen and Passaic counties, including Fair Lawn, Hackensack, Clifton, Wayne and Paramus. See the full service areas list.
Sources and standards referenced on this page
- US EPA — Renovation, Repair and Painting rule for pre-1978 housing
- International Code Council — IRC wall covering and flashing provisions
- NJ Department of Community Affairs — Codes and Standards, administering the Uniform Construction Code
- NJ Division of Consumer Affairs — Home Improvement Contractor registration
Frequently asked questions
What type of siding lasts longest in New Jersey weather?
Fiber cement holds up best against impact, moisture and temperature swings, and takes paint well. Quality insulated vinyl is the better value on most homes and performs fine for decades when it is installed with correct wrap and flashing.
Can you repair just a few panels instead of re-siding?
Usually yes. If the profile is still made, or we can pull matching panels from a less visible elevation, a section repair is the smart call. When color-matching is impossible or the wall behind is wet, re-siding that elevation is the honest answer.
Do I need a permit to re-side a house in New Jersey?
Usually yes. Re-siding is regulated work under the New Jersey Uniform Construction Code and the permit is issued by your municipality’s construction office. Small repairs — replacing a few damaged panels — generally are not permit work. We confirm what your town requires before the job starts rather than after.
Can new siding be installed over the old siding?
It is sometimes physically possible and it is almost always the wrong call. Layering over old cladding hides the water-resistive barrier and the flashing, which is exactly where wall problems live, and it prevents any inspection of the sheathing. It also builds out the wall so trim, windows and rooflines no longer relate to the cladding correctly. We quote a tear-off.
Will new siding make the house warmer?
On its own, only marginally — most cladding has very little insulating value. What does change comfort is what happens during the job: air sealing at penetrations, and insulated sheathing or continuous foam added while the wall is open. If lowering heating bills is a goal, say so at the estimate, because it changes the wall build-up rather than the siding choice.
How do I know whether the sheathing behind my siding is rotted?
From outside, the reliable clues are soft spots when you press firmly, siding that has begun to wave or dish across a section, staining that reappears after painting, and — most telling — any of these directly below a point where a roof edge meets a wall. Interior clues include persistent musty smell and paint failing on the inside face of an exterior wall. Certainty needs the wall opened, which is why we quote sheathing by the sheet.
Updated September 2026 · Reviewed by Edgar Lopez Gonzalez, owner · NJ HIC #13VH13359900