Siding is the only part of your house that takes weather on every single day of the year. In southwestern Ontario that means eighty degrees of temperature swing and a hundred freeze-thaw cycles a season.
Any crew can hang siding so it looks right on handover day. What separates a twenty-year job from a five-year one in this climate is how it was fastened and what went on behind it.
Vinyl expands and contracts significantly between a February morning and an August afternoon — a long run can move most of a centimetre. It has to be hung, not nailed tight: fasteners centred in the slot, driven to leave a gap so the panel can float. Nail it home and by the second winter you get buckling, oil-canning and split panels at the fasteners. That single detail is the most common reason siding fails early around here, and it costs nothing to get right.
What we install
Vinyl siding in horizontal and vertical profiles
Board and batten — the look on several of the homes in our gallery
Shake and shingle panels for gables and accents
Engineered wood and composite systems
Insulated siding where thermal performance matters
Mixed elevations with stone, brick and timber accents
House wrap is not optional
Siding is a rain screen, not a seal. Water gets behind it — that is expected and by design. What keeps the wall dry is the house wrap and the flashing behind, lapped so water runs out rather than in. On a re-side we will open a section and tell you what is actually back there before quoting the full job. If the original wrap has failed or there is rot in the sheathing, new siding over the top is money spent hiding a problem.
New construction and renovation
We work both. New builds get a full siding package coordinated with your builder's schedule. Renovations get a tear-off, an honest assessment of what is underneath, and a finish that suits the house rather than whatever is cheapest to install.
How we work
Built for an Ontario winter
Everything we hang on the outside of a house has to survive roughly a hundred freeze-thaw cycles a year. That changes the details.
We look behind it first. On any tear-off we open a section and tell you what the wall is actually doing before quoting the whole job.
Room to move. Vinyl expands and contracts a long way between February and August. Fastened tight, it buckles and splits. We hang it.
Water gets out. House wrap lapped so it drains, flashing that sheds outward, kickouts where a roof meets a wall.
One trade, one edge. Siding, soffit, fascia and eavestrough all meet at the same line. Doing them together is how that line ends up straight.
Every photo is a Cave-Men job in southwestern Ontario. Tap any one to see it full size.
Questions
Siding Installation FAQ
How long does vinyl siding last in Ontario?
Properly installed, decades. Poorly installed, you see buckling and fastener splits within a few winters. The difference is almost entirely whether the panels were hung loose enough to expand and contract - our climate swings far enough to move a long run noticeably.
Can you re-side over the existing siding?
Sometimes, but we would rather tear off and look. Going over the top hides whatever is happening to the house wrap and sheathing underneath, and if there is moisture damage back there you have just paid to seal it in.
Do you do board and batten?
Yes, and it is some of our favourite work - several of the homes in our gallery are board and batten. It suits Ontario farmhouse and modern-farmhouse styling particularly well.
