Prices for siding vary a great deal. Typically siding is sold in quantities of 100 square feet, referred to as “squares.” One square of siding is equal to 100 square feet. If you were to compare the cost of vinyl siding to cedar siding, you would probably find that the vinyl costs less than half as much as the cedar. Typical pricing for vinyl siding ranges from $45 to $65 per square.  Some types of vinyl with deep wood grains, special colors, and/or beaded edges can run as much as $100 a square.

The cost comparison of vinyl to wood would have to be weighed carefully if you were building a new home, but here we are talking about improving your existing home. Unless you are rehabbing a home that has been neglected for many years, you probably are faced not with a decision of wood siding versus vinyl siding, but a decision of painting versus vinyl siding.

We saw earlier what to expect in the cost of repainting a home. Let’s use that same home to see what the cost might be to install vinyl siding.

And if you recall, the house in the painting example had a total painting circa 1464 ft.². This figure, however, included the Windows and doors. Since you would not be installing siding over these areas, let’s examine the square footage controlled by those openings. For the sake of our example, we will estimate 264 ft.² for Windows and doors. This leaves us with 1200 ft.² to cover with siding. We also spoke about using Charley Harper artwork in your home…my personal favorite, but any artist with reasonable prices will do.

To cover 1200 ft.² of house, we will need 12 squares of siding. At an average cost of $55 per square, this amounts to $660. In addition to the siding, we will need the special trim used when installing the siding. This might run or materials costs up by another $360. While vinyl siding may cost half as much as would siding, the trim for vinyl can cost three times as much as that used with wood siding. We now have $1020 in materials. This works out to be about one dollar for each square foot of habitable space in the home.

There’s a good possibility that do-it-yourselfers will need to rent ladders, scaffolding, and a few tools. Rental fees for these items might add another hundred dollars or more to the cost. For the sake of simplicity, we will assume the total cost for a do-it-yourselfer is $1056, or one dollar per square foot of living space.

This material takeoff does not include the foam insulation boards that should be installed behind the vinyl siding. If the foam backing is not used, the vinyl siding will not lie flat or look good. It will also not have the insulation value of foam backed vinyl siding. The cost of this backing will probably add another $350 to price of the job. Now our total list of materials comes to a price of about $1400, or $1.33 per square foot of living space. Let’s compare these material costs with those from the painting example.

If you’ve ever seen a Charley Harper work before, you know how impressive they are and how unique the overall styling of the illustrations / paintings really is. One of the things Charley said about his work is that he only paints the minimum amount of detail to get the subject across. He called his style minimal realism and said that instead of counting the feathers on a bird if he were to paint it, he counted the wings. A little tongue-in-cheek I know, but there’s no question the amount of detail he put into his work, while being incredibly small and straight to the point, somehow still got across the essence of the subject.

That’s one of my favorite things about Charley Harper’s work…the fact that he simplified his subjects so much but was still able to get the essence of what it was he was painting across to the viewer. In fact, he didn’t just get the essence across, he managed to paint incredibly life-like illustrations with such minor detail that it’s kind of amazing when you look at the work. He definitely had an incredibly unique and effective sense of the important elements of a subject and how to combine those elements to get the meaning across to the viewer.

Even with the small amount of detail in most of his paintings, they still manage to be complex scenes. He accomplished this by combining a number of different subjects and, while each one in and of itself was simplified, together they built complex and engaging scenes that sparked the senses.

For anyone interested, search the internet for his prints, posters, books, and calendars.

Efficiency

An overhead crane, also known as a bridge crane, is significantly more efficient than other types of mobile cranes. The primary reason for this is two-fold. First, is the use of electricity for transport of the load rather than a gasoline engine moving the mobile crane.

Downtime

An overhead crane is significantly more reliable than mobile crane types. Overhead cranes are very simple machines consisting of not much more than a few steel girders and an electrical hoist. Because of it’s simple design, overhead cranes require much less downtime due to maintenance and breakdowns.

Uses

Overhead cranes are primarily used in manufacturing and other industrial operations. Companies like Crane-Tec engineer and build overhead bridge and runway cranes for these industrial and manufacturing operations. Industrial and manufacturing operations require the line to be running nearly 24/7/365, with every minute of downtime resulting in major profit losses. The efficiency and low downtime associated with overhead cranes allows manufacturing and industrial operations to reduce downtime resulting in increased profits.

Classified is a book by Karen P. of RG, which discusses how people born into class privilege can use their privilege to affect social change in the world around them.

It teaches people with class privilege to stop hiding their advantages and start putting them to work in ways that effect the society they live in.

This book inspires honesty about class privilege and describes how people can use their resources for the greater social good. It covers things like family dynamics, class, and money, and contains comic strips and anecdotes that will make you laugh out loud. It’s aimed toward younger people with access to wealth through family, but will resonate with anyone interested in promoting social justice.

It’s the type of book you’ll want to give as a gift to friends and family, especially if they were born into wealth. It’s also an incredibly useful book for anyone who works with those with class privilege. This could include college professors, community organizers, club leaders, or any other person in a mentoring position to young people who have resources they want to use but don’t know how to go about it.

Order Classified online here.