New siding is one of those projects that quietly does two jobs at once: it protects your home’s structure from moisture and weather damage, and it’s usually the single biggest driver of curb appeal you can buy. If your siding is cracked, warped, fading unevenly, or you’re chasing recurring moisture problems in the walls, re-siding is often the fix — but the cost swings dramatically depending on the material you choose, and most online estimates lump together numbers that don’t reflect what a full house actually costs.
This guide breaks down what vinyl and fiber cement siding actually cost installed in 2026, what makes a bid come in high or low, and includes a quick calculator so you can plug in your own home’s size and get a realistic range before you start calling contractors.
What the Project Involves
Full siding replacement typically includes four phases: removing and disposing of the old siding, repairing any damaged sheathing underneath, installing house wrap (a moisture barrier), and hanging the new siding along with trim, corner posts, and flashing around windows and doors. If you’re already planning a window replacement, doing it alongside a siding job is common — it lets the crew flash the new windows into the new siding in one pass rather than working around old material twice.
Cost Breakdown by Material
Vinyl siding runs about $5 to $8.50 per square foot installed for standard panels, split roughly between $3–$7 per square foot for materials and $2.50–$5 per square foot for labor. Insulated vinyl (panels with a foam backing for extra R-value) pushes the high end up toward $10–$12 per square foot. For a typical two-story home with around 1,600 square feet of exterior wall area, that puts standard vinyl in the $8,000–$13,600 range before removal and permits.
Fiber cement siding (the category that includes brands like HardiePlank) costs meaningfully more — typically $8.50 to $14 per square foot installed, a 40–60% premium over vinyl. The material itself costs more, but the bigger factor is labor: fiber cement is roughly five times heavier than vinyl, requires specialized cutting tools to avoid silica dust exposure, and takes a larger crew longer to install. On that same 1,600-square-foot home, fiber cement typically lands between $13,600 and $22,400 in materials and labor alone.
Additional costs that apply to either material:
Removing and hauling away old siding adds $500 to $3,750 depending on the material coming off and how much of it there is — vinyl is cheap to strip (roughly $0.25–$0.75 per square foot), while old nailed wood lap siding takes more labor per board and runs $0.50–$1.50 per square foot. House wrap or a comparable moisture barrier adds another $0.50–$1 per square foot, or a flat $150–$300 on smaller jobs. Permits for re-siding typically run $150 to $500 in most jurisdictions, though some areas charge as much as $1,500 depending on the scope of work and whether structural sheathing repairs are involved.
What Drives the Price Up or Down
A few factors explain most of the spread within each material:
Sheathing condition matters more than anything else once the old siding comes off. If the crew finds rot or water damage in the plywood or OSB underneath — common on homes that had a slow leak for years — expect $2 to $5 per square foot extra for that section just for sheathing replacement, on top of the siding cost itself. This is the single most common reason a siding quote comes in over the original estimate, and it’s worth asking any contractor how they handle unexpected sheathing damage before you sign a contract.
House complexity changes labor time significantly. A simple rectangular ranch is fast to side; a home with lots of dormers, gables, bump-outs, or multiple stories requires more scaffolding, more cutting, and more detail work around corners and trim, which can add 15–30% to labor costs even at the same total square footage.
Siding profile and finish also matter. Basic clapboard-style panels are the cheapest option in both materials. Board-and-batten profiles, shake-style panels, and pre-finished color options (especially in fiber cement, where factory-baked finishes cost more than field-painted) all add to the per-square-foot price.
Regional labor rates vary widely — coastal and major metro markets often run 20–40% higher than the national averages above, while rural areas with more competition among installers can come in below them. This is exactly why getting three local quotes matters more for siding than for almost any other exterior project; the spread between a low bid and a high bid on the same house is often thousands of dollars.
Realistic Total Range
Putting it together for a typical ~1,800-square-foot two-story home (about 1,600 square feet of wall area to cover):
Vinyl siding, full replacement: roughly $9,000–$16,000 total, including removal, house wrap, and permits.
Fiber cement siding, full replacement: roughly $15,000–$25,000 total for the same scope.
These are national averages — actual bids will vary by region, home complexity, and the condition of what’s underneath your current siding. Always get at least three itemized quotes so you can compare what’s actually included (removal, disposal, house wrap, and trim work aren’t always itemized the same way from contractor to contractor).
Cost Calculator
Enter your home’s approximate exterior wall square footage and pick a material to get a rough installed-cost range. This is a planning estimate only, not a quote.
Practical Tips
Get itemized quotes, not lump-sum numbers. Ask each contractor to break out material cost, labor, removal/disposal, house wrap, and trim separately so you can compare apples to apples — lump-sum bids make it easy to hide a skipped step like house wrap.
Ask specifically how sheathing repair is billed. Since this is the most common source of mid-project cost increases, get it in writing whether it's a per-square-foot add-on or a separate change order, and what their typical rate is on homes similar to yours.
Don't skip house wrap to save money. It's one of the cheapest line items in the whole project relative to the moisture protection it provides, and skipping it can shorten the life of both the sheathing and the new siding.
Time it with other exterior work if you can. If your roof or garage door also need replacing in the next year or two, bundling exterior projects can reduce total scaffolding/staging costs and give you a more cohesive final look, since color and trim choices across roofing, siding, and garage doors all interact visually.
Verify installer certification for fiber cement specifically. Manufacturers like James Hardie require specific fastening patterns and clearances to honor their warranty, and an installer without that training can void coverage even if the work looks fine at first.
As with any major exterior project, treat these figures as a starting point for budgeting, not a quote — get at least three local bids before committing, since regional labor rates and the condition of your existing sheathing can move the final number substantially in either direction.
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