Most cost guides give you a $/sq ft range and stop, which is useless when the thing you actually need to know is whether the bid in front of you is fair. This page shows the whole bill — every line item, the quantity behind it, and where the unit price came from. Numbers are for a two-story house with a 132 ft perimeter and 2,266 sq ft of wall, re-sided in fiber-cement lap including tear-off, house wrap, and soffit and fascia, at national-average labor rates.
The most useful thing to understand about a re-side is that you are mostly not buying siding. The fiber-cement lap delivered to your house accounts for 29.1% of what you pay. Labor — installation, tear-off, soffit and fascia — is 44.8%.
That is why two bids using the identical product can differ by five figures. The part that varies most between contractors is the part that isn't the siding.
| Line item | Quantity | Cost | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Installation labor | 2,266 sf × $4.60/sf × 1.06 (2-story) | $11,049 | 33.4% |
| Fiber-cement lap siding | 25 squares × $385/sq | $9,625 | 29.1% |
| Contractor overhead | 15% of materials + labor | $4,277 | 12.9% |
| Tear-off & disposal | 2,266 sf × $1.25/sf | $2,833 | 8.6% |
| Trim, corner posts & J-channel | 514 lf × $4.60/lf | $2,364 | 7.2% |
| Soffit & fascia labor | 132 lf × $7.00/lf | $924 | 2.8% |
| Soffit & fascia material | 132 lf × $6.50/lf | $858 | 2.6% |
| Fasteners, flashing & sealant | 2,266 sf × $0.22/sf | $499 | 1.5% |
| House wrap + seam tape | 2,266 sf × $0.16/sf | $363 | 1.1% |
| Permit & inspection | flat | $250 | 0.8% |
| Total | $33,041 | 100% |
Grouped a different way: materials $13,708 (41.5%), labor $14,806 (44.8%), and permit plus contractor overhead $4,527 (13.7%).
Same wall area, same scope, same crew rates — only the product changes. This is the honest way to compare materials, because a per-square-foot range published in isolation hides how much of the difference is labor rather than the product itself.
| Material | What it is | Mat. $/sf | Total | Per sq ft | Life |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vinyl lap | D4 / D5 double-lap · lowest cost, zero finish | $2.65 | $23,279 | $10.27 | 25–40 yr |
| Insulated vinyl | Foam-backed · adds R-2.0 to R-2.7 | $3.95 | $27,846 | $12.29 | 25–40 yr |
| Engineered wood | LP SmartSide · lighter cut than fiber-cement | $3.75 | $30,663 | $13.53 | 30–40 yr |
| Board & batten | Vertical panel + batten · FC or engineered | $4.00 | $32,910 | $14.52 | 35–45 yr |
| Fiber-cement lap | HardiePlank / Allura · pre-primed 8¼" | $3.85 | $33,041 | $14.58 | 40–50 yr |
| Cedar bevel | Western red cedar · stain or clear-coat | $5.20 | $36,448 | $16.08 | 30–40 yr |
The spread from vinyl lap to cedar bevel is $13,169 on this house — 57%. That is a real difference, but it is smaller than most people expect, because tear-off, wrap, trim, soffit, permit and overhead are identical no matter what goes on the wall. Roughly $21,052 of this job — 63.7% — gets spent regardless of which product you pick.
Siding quotes are hard to compare mostly because bidders include different things. Here is what each piece of scope is actually worth on this house.
| Scope line | What it covers | Total | Adds to the bid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Siding, trim & fasteners only | Product on the wall. Nothing else. | $27,317 | — |
| House wrap (WRB) | Membrane + taped seams over exposed sheathing | — | +$417 |
| Tear-off & disposal | Strip one layer, dumpster and haul-away | — | +$3,257 |
| Soffit & fascia | Wrapped while the staging is already up | — | +$2,049 |
| Field paint / stain | Two-coat finish — cedar always, fiber-cement if unprimed | — | +$5,472 |
| Full scope as priced above | Everything except field finish | $33,041 | — |
Per-square-foot cost falls slightly as the house gets bigger — the permit and mobilization are close to fixed — but far less than on a small trade like concrete, because siding is overwhelmingly a per-square-foot job all the way up.
| House | Perimeter × height × stories | Wall area | Squares | Total | Per sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small ranch | 130 lf × 8′ × 1 | 990 sf | 11 | $15,982 | $16.14 |
| Mid-size ranch | 160 lf × 9′ × 1 | 1,360 sf | 15 | $21,425 | $15.75 |
| Two-story colonial | 132 lf × 9′ × 2 | 2,266 sf | 25 | $33,041 | $14.58 |
| Large two-story | 190 lf × 9′ × 2 | 3,260 sf | 36 | $47,476 | $14.56 |
| Region | Labor multiplier | Total | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southeast / Midwest | ×0.88 | $30,998 | $-2,043 |
| National average | ×1.00 | $33,041 | — |
| Northeast / West | ×1.28 | $37,808 | +$4,767 |
| Major metro | ×1.45 | $40,703 | +$7,662 |
Run these numbers for your own house.
Same data, same arithmetic, your measurements.
Figures are generated directly from the same pricing file the calculator uses, with the same formula — the page and the tool cannot disagree. Prices are a synthesis of published 2026 cost indexes rather than original field research, and we say so plainly.
We apply a flat labor multiplier by region:
This is a modelling assumption, not a research finding. The same multipliers are applied across every trade on this site. They are a reasonable way to adjust a national average toward a local one, but they are not derived from siding-specific regional data, and we would not want them cited as though they were. Except in the region table above, every figure on this page uses the national-average setting (×1.00).
An estimate, not a quote. Rotten sheathing, lead paint on a pre-1978 house, multi-layer tear-off, scaffolding on a steep lot, and custom trim details all move real numbers, and none of them are visible until the old siding is off. The single largest risk on a re-side is what is found underneath — budget a contingency for it. Use this page to judge whether a bid is reasonable, not to replace one.
Found this useful, or spotted something wrong? Tell us — corrections are welcome, and we update the underlying pricing file twice a year.