A: It is true that steel and aluminum siding are a little more expensive than vinyl siding. However, it is important to understand the different advantages to each before determining which would be most cost effective in actual use.

Steel and aluminum siding are metal products which are coated with color. Vinyl siding is made of solid piece vinyl, so the color cannot be scratched off, as it could with the metal siding products. Vinyl is also more dent resistant.

Steel siding is the most durable in snow country, or in areas of severe cold. Both steel and aluminum offer greater energy efficiency than vinyl, which translates into lower heating and cooling costs for years to come. Because they are metal instead of plastic, they can withstand more heat than vinyl, as in the case of fire.

Although siding companies usually promote one type of siding over another, all major siding manufacturers make all three types of siding. Therefore, if you insisted that you wanted one kind of siding over another, almost any siding company can give you cost comparisons on all three types. I recommend you contact at least three siding companies and ask them for such cost comparisons. That should help you make your final decision.

Finally, check with your insurance company about whether having metal siding instead of plastic would affect your insurance rates over the years. If yes, it would be one more number to crunch when comparing the relative costs of different types of siding.

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by Kathy Maynard, reprinted courtesy of HomeAdvisor.com