If you’re in the middle of looking for a siding contractor in Edmonton (or any other type of contractor, really) you’ve probably come across a few “jack of all trades” type of companies. The Services page on their website can read like a laundry list of construction projects: “Roofing, Siding, Framing, Demolition, Decks, Fences, Landscaping, Drywall, Additions, Basements, Bathrooms… We Do It All!”
Have you ever heard the old saying about how a jack of all trades is a master of none? This definitely holds true in construction just as in any other profession.
So what’s the problem?
While there are many skills that transfer from trade to trade (for example, good saw skills are essential for framers, deck builders, and James Hardie installers), it takes experience to know how to best detail the unusual one-off issues that crop up on any renovation project. This is particularly true for siding renovations.
Here are just a few of the issues that might come up when dealing with a jack of all trades on a siding renovation:
Do they know the current building envelope codes, or are they just going to replace 60-year old siding the same way it was originally installed?
Do they have a plan to detail vents, lights, A/C clusters, and power masts, or will they just seal everything with gobs of caulking?
Do they have the skills to perform specialized tasks, such as caulking James Hardie siding? Having general experience with caulking does NOT mean that they will do a good job of caulking HardiePlank, which overlaps every 7 inches.
Do they know how to properly measure an exterior and order materials? If not, the project will take days longer to complete as the installer deals with material shortages and distributor pickups.
Do they have the right equipment to safely complete the work?
Here’s an example of an unsafe setup that we saw next door to one of our projects.
You may have noticed a theme here. Nearly all of the specialized knowledge in siding renovations comes into play for the preparation and finishing stages. Any experienced siding contractor knows that if the prep and finishing work aren’t up to snuff, it won’t matter how nice the siding itself looks: the whole job could be ruined.
How Much Experience Does a Siding Contractor Need?
The amount of experience needed depends on the project in question. Looking back through our project files, we started to see significant improvement in our execution after 50 full exterior renovations. That’s the minimum number of siding renovation projects we’d recommend as a baseline for any contractor you might hire.
If your project is through a competent builder or project manager, the project specifications will help even a less experienced installer deliver a good result. If you have an experienced project manager with an airtight set of specs, we’d recommend a minimum of 15 full siding projects.
(Of course, experience isn’t everything. You could have all the experience in the world and still not deliver because of inferior materials, poor project management, or a corner cutting attitude.)
Drawing from our experience as manufacturer’s reps for James Hardie Building Products, we know that a jack of all trades contractor will complete between 2 to 5 siding projects per year. This will of course vary from company to company, but on average these numbers are very accurate.
By the numbers, it would take a jack of all trades contractor somewhere between 10 to 25 years to achieve the minimum benchmark of 50 completed siding renovation projects.