Today we’ve added some major changes to the siding calculator algorithm which make it calculate siding materials and installation price much more accurately. New major algorithmic changes include addition of two new settings which will better define the type of your house and will help calculate siding materials more accurately:

Added House / Roof type settings for Gable, Hip, Multi Gable and Raised ranch types of homes

Before adding this function the siding calculator assumed that your house is just a box. Now it can account for the triangular sections of the wall, which are different depending on your roof type. Now it can make a difference between Hip, Gable, Multi-gable and Raised ranch types of roof and correctly calculate additional siding materials needed to be installed an these triangular walls sections, or not at all in case of a Hip roof, where the roof line is straight and the home is in fact a box.

Added roof pitch calculation to account different roof slopes

With the addition of house/roof types, it became important to also use the correct roof pitch can make a big difference in total siding cost calculation. Also even if your home is not that big, you still want to calculate siding prices as accurately as possible. We added a roof pitch selection with Flat, Low-slope, Medium-slope and High-slope options. These correspond to roof pitch of 0, 4, 8 and 12 respectively. Unlike calculating a roof size, in a siding calculator roof pitch will not make that huge of a difference when you go from 4 to 6 in 12 roof pitch. That is why we included only 4 options for the roof pitch.

Other changes to siding calculator algorithm

New siding calculator now assumes that you have 8-foot ceilings in your home, an thus each floor of your home is about 9 feet high. Before, siding calculations were based on 10 foot floors. Now a 4 story house will have a height of 36 feet instead of 40 feet previously, which can add significant error to overall siding prices calculation.

Also the siding calculator can now account for the odd shaped Raised Ranch homes, by adding 54 sq. ft. to the total siding area (a 3×9 feet bump-out on each side of the house). Roof slope is also calculated by adding 3 feet to the gable side (width). It is important that if you calculate siding materials for the raised ranch home, you measure the house at the bottom – just above the foundation, and do not add the front bump-out – the calculator will do it automatically.

Future features to be added tot the calculator:

Functionality: Right now the siding calculator is nearly complete – the only few things we plan to add improve are the option to select ceiling height of your home, which can make a big difference in overall siding materials and prices calculation. Another major update we plan to include is the Soffit / Fascia installation which is common on most siding jobs – typically siding contractors will install perforated vinyl soffits and aluminum wrapping on all fascia boards / rakes, etc. The calculator already includes windows and door wraps with aluminum copping.

Under the hood: – right now the calculator does not account for siding materials waste on gables, and additional labor involved in installing the siding on an angled plane – we plan to add waste factor to gable roof types, to make siding prices calculation more in line with what siding contractors would charge. Second, we plan to add progressive siding prices algorithm for small jobs such as sheds, etc. Although most of the time, siding will be installed on entire house some jobs are small, while setup costs are the same, so we need to account for higher per sq. ft. pricing.

Siding Calculator for your company website

We plan to make the siding calculator available for construction companies and siding contractors who want to install it on their websites, so your customers can calculate the cost of a siding project online. This feature will be implemented within few days of this article. The siding calculator for website will be free of charge and will include reference to SidingCalculator.org – optionally we can make a custom version for you, to match your site design, colors, and the siding materials that you install / siding prices that you charge – second option will come at a small annual fee.