Siding Saga

Spring is in the air and spring/summer is a great time for outdoor projects. While walking around the house I realized i still need to paint. Which was when I had an ah ha eureka moment!

I thought it would be grand to replace the portions of our house that had wood siding with vinyl or fiber cement siding.

I turned to Service Magic to quickly get in contact with companies that do siding. As I was filling out the forms on service magic's website I put that the project would not take place for at least 6 months and that this was really more of a request to get an idea for a budget. Within 24 hours I was scheduling appointments. And this is where the problems started. Below is a typical phone conversation

Company Rep: Hi, may I speak with Phillip?

Me: This is phillip

Company Rep: We received a request through service magic and would like to schedule your free estimate.

Me. Great!

Company Rep: What day and time works best for you

Me: Wednesday evening

Company Rep: Okay that will work. Are you Married?

Me ... pause for a second ... : Yes

Company Rep: Would your wife be able to there while our representative goes over the options with you?

Me: No she works during that time.

Company Rep: Is there a different day that would work best for both of you?

Me: No, she works evenings and I work days so the little time during the week we have together we do not schedule any thing.

Company Rep: Ok, well we can understand that but we really need both of you their would you like us to contact you later when there is a time that will work?

Me: No, that is okay there are other businesses that are coming have a nice day.

Company Rep: oh okay goodbye.

To be fair not every company was stuck on forcing my wife to be there with me. All of them did ask for her to be there and I understand why they would ask. The companies that did show up were prompt and very knowledgable about their various products. However what I was not ready for was the pushy salesperson. I forgot about how high pressure sales tactics work. I think at one point a sales rep faked a phone called at 8:30pm on a friday night to his supervisor to see if he could offer me 0% interest for 24 months if i signed up for siding that night.  

I eventually managed to weed out the companies that were set on having both me and my wife there, made it over the hurdle of the high pressure sales tactics to finally arrive at the price. The work ranged from $6,000 to $15,000. 

Moral of the story: Three 5 gallon bucket of paint every year is cheaper than 20 years of siding.