BDU Siding College™

Siding With Quality: Styles of Wood Siding

What you will learn: why cedar siding can save you money, why cedar siding can naturally balance temperatures for interiors, why cedar siding is a natural noise-reduction element

Wood siding is a mainstay in the siding industry. Made from one of the most resilient and reliable natural materials in the world for siding purposes, wood offers many benefits. Strength, practicality, and a dash of style are only the beginning of what you’ll gain in wood siding. But there are a great many styles within the range of the most popular wood siding lines. All of them lend a specific architectural effect. Here are a choice few styles of wood siding to be considered…

Cedar as a building material is hard to beat for sheer visual appeal, particularly as siding. The warm cinnamon tones of new cedar shakes, shingles, bevel, and channel siding are hard to resist for the earthy effects many homeowners are looking for. But one of the major benefits that cedar siding is known for is its natural insulation properties. This not only means comfort, but it can also mean money in your pocket too. As a long-term homeowner, the lower costs heating are a definite payoff. So is the resale value of your property. But, what is it about cedar that makes it so suitable for the retention of heat in the winter and a deflector of heat in the summer?

Bevel Wood Siding

Bevel siding is widely used, produced by sawing the wood lumber at an angle resulting in a pair of wood pieces that are thicker at one end. One piece is roughly textured by the sawing process, the other is either the same, or it is smooth. This latter characteristic is determined by grade, and by the demands of preference on the part of the consumer. Bevel siding is installed horizontally. The tapered, overlapping boards allow for the shadow line effect which defines bevel siding.

Channel Wood Siding

Channel siding is a type of lap siding which can be installed either horizontally or vertically, depending on the desired effect. Channel siding is defined by the overlapping profiles of each board with a groove between each. This groove creates a unique "channel" effect, even while the boards are interconnected underneath their profiles. This design allows for effective weather-resistance and accounts for shrinkage and expansion too.

Cedar Shingles and Shakes Siding

Cedar shingles are more tailored in appearance, sawn into smooth, dimensionally even pieces. Cedar shakes are split from the original cedar wood rather than sawn both sides, producing a more rustic look. Depending on the effect you’re after, cedar shingles and cedar shakes offer a unique approach to the more traditional bevel and channel siding varieties. Between the above varieties of wood siding, there remain to be further subsets of wood siding from which to choose.

Shiplap Siding

Shiplap wood siding is a subset of siding that is characterized by the interlocking notch design where each board is nailed to the next. Shiplap siding is designed to deter rainfall damage, and allow it to slope off of the face of each board without collecting in the grooves. Due to the interlocking design, shiplap wood siding is known to be more watertight than many clapboard varieties of wood siding.

Cove Siding

Cove siding is recognized by its rounded channel that exists between each siding piece. Effectively, cove siding is a variation on channel siding, which is designed to allow the proper drainage of rainwater. Cove siding shares a similar interlocking design as shiplap siding.

Clapboard Siding

Clapboard siding is a more straightforward design, where each piece is defined by a gradual decrease in thickness, creating a wedge that is meant to overlap in a vertical installation.

For all types of siding, your choice of whether to install vertically, horizontally or diagonally can depend on the amount of rainfall in the area in which you live. If there is a lot of rainfall, it might be best to choose a vertical installation to allow for proper runoff. Seek advice from your salesperson about which variety of wood siding is best for the type of installation you have in mind.

Back to Siding College