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cellular PVC siding product, Celect, is a good example. So too is the company's new Royal Estate line of vinyl siding, which launched this spring. It comes with enhanced UV protection and a new locking system as well as a number of new aesthetic attributes like deeper 5/8-in. shadow lines on the butt ends. It is market- ed under the tagline "Woodgrain presence. Efortless endurance." One of the most successful product in- troductions this year has come from Tapco. Wholly apart from its successful Foundry line of vinyl siding, this spring the company rolled out Grayne, a new composite engineered shake and shingle product. "We have taken a really authentic look of a shingle and re-created it in a pre-fnished product," says Jonathan Wierengo, Tapco's marketing and product development leader. "So we are going after that wood industry with a pre-fnished composite panel. And with this composite panel — just like you would with pre-fnished shingles — you have the ability to have pre-fnished shingles from us in one of six colors. And we are fnding that is just having a huge impact." Each of those six colors is in the darker range, which is consistent with the bolder color choices being made by consumers. "And that is one thing when you talk about siding from a technology standpoint: We believe we are on the forefront, but others are there too on the forefront," Wierengo says. "Tey are introducing the technology to be able to do darker colors and the technology, and have those colors last much longer than they would have, fve, 10 and 15 years ago, the technol- ogy to create wood through new materials. Te authenticity that you can get out of it is just incredible." Low maintenance and great aesthetics also drove the development of Ply Gem's previous- ly mentioned Solar Defense product, which is ofered under its Mastic line of vinyl siding. Te colors — Natural Slate, Newport Bay, Mahogany, Brandy Wood and Red Brick — are very bold and rich. And they come with a limited lifetime "No Fade, No Distortion" warranty, says Ply Gem's Jerry Blais. "So the new technology that we have brought to the marketplace is a combination of cool, refective pigment technology and a UV stabilizer polymer," Blais notes. "Te combination of those two elements has put us F O R M A N Y Y E A R S, asphalt-impregnated paper or felt was the standard housewrap. Lighter weight, weather-resistant, vapor-per- meable housewraps have become the standard today. They can be installed quickly on a home, and they perform well, especially if it is sealed carefully at the seams. DuPont Tyvek and Typar are two of the more dominant brands in this space. But there are a number of additional ways to get the job done. There is a spray-on product from Tremco and others. And then there are weather-resistant, vapor-permeable barriers that come installed on board panels, like ZIP System from Huber Engineered Woods where only tape is required after the panels have been installed. In 2014, building products manufacturer Grace Construction Products came out with a self-ad- hering weather barrier product, VYCOR enV-S, that is sticky on one side and goes on like wallpaper, says Dave Baur, product manager for Grace Residential Building Materials. Two key benefits of the product are its success as an air barrier in addition to being a weather barrier and an ability to form a seal around the many nails and fasteners that get added to the house when new siding goes up. "This sheathing has a sealing and gasket effect around fasteners that are used to secure sid- ing," Baur notes. "We explain to contractors, and the light usually goes on when we talk about this. They spend a lot of time trying to air-seal a house. When they are done, they apply their siding material and they put thou- sands of unprotected holes through that air barrier, and it is totally unavoidable." The product is available nationally. | Self-sealing Fastener Holes in a diferent space to ofer us a performance guarantee to that homeowner of no fade and no distortion. Te way it works is that fade is measured in Delta E Hunter units. Tere is a tool that you use to measure those. We all do it the same across the industry. So what the 'No Fade' means is there is no fade for fve years for one Hunter unit. Te naked eye cannot see a color change at one Hunter unit. And then for six years to forever, it is no more than two Hunter units. Te traditional siding warranty is around fve Hunter units." MIXING LOOKS AND SPECIALIZATION Another dominant trend in siding today is the fully designed exterior. Many of the manu- facturers today are introducing new SKUs to add specialty looks and to allow contractors and consumers to achieve specialized looks for individual homes. At least fve manufacturers have introduced vertical board-and-batten products. And many have added various sizes and fnishes of shakes and shingles to target various regional styles. ProVia's Heartland ofers a new board-and-batten SKU as does CertainTeed under its Cedar Impressions line. Meanwhile shakes and shingles anchor many new product lines, including Tapco's new Grayne composites. "From a product standpoint," says CertainTeed's Brian Kirn, "we are seeing a lot of mix and match colors and materials. We have many jobs that do traditional horizontal siding where they can move over to Cedar Impressions, or they can move over to a board-and-batten vertical style. We are defnitely seeing a lot of that — where as before everything was very monochromatic. Homes are very unique these days. Te old days every home was clay with a brown or dark color roof. Now we are seeing defnite swings in color and contrast." | QualifiedRemodeler.com | ForResidentialPros.com QR July 2015 49