Does Insurance Cover Siding Damage?

Siding is not only a necessary element of your home’s exterior, it protects your home from adverse weather and insulating it for optimal energy conservation, It also functions as your home’s overall aesthetic. Then, a storm can come along and wreak havoc on your siding, puncturing holes from fallen, cracked branches, and smashing into panels with flying debris causing siding damage.


Homeowners are left scratching their heads with what to do next, and if this sounds similar to the mess you find yourself in, you could be left wondering if your siding insurance will cover the horrendous damage inflicted to your siding.

A Common Hiccup in Siding Insurance Coverage

Not all siding is created equal—that is to say, your home could be older. How many homeowners across the United States have an entirely brand new home, built in the last five or so years?  The answer is: not very many.  For the vast majority of homeowners, their homes were likely built in the 20s and beyond, sometimes even earlier than that, so for them, it means siding that is most decidedly not new. There’s a good chance that for these older homes, the siding was never updated and was installed on the house over the original framework at the time when vinyl siding was just striking its heyday. Vinyl hit its stride in the market in the 60s and 70s. Although its original debut was about a decade earlier in the 1950s, it became a cost-effective replacement for aluminum siding. Back then, homeowners were thrilled at this cheaper, yet still as durable siding alternative for their siding. As a result, so many older homes maintain this same, originally-installed vinyl siding to this day. For insurance purposes, this presents a bit of a problem.  Sure, it’s a testament to the siding’s longevity through decades of weathering storms and outer elements. However, when the panels get bested by wind, hail, or whatever else Mother Nature throws at it, insurance companies are then tasked with the chore of trying to replace this original siding.

Matching Siding Insurance and How it Works

The bottom line is what’s covered in your insurance policy is most likely common perils that cause damage like: wind, hail, fires, tornados, and if you’re on the coastline, hurricanes or tropical storms.  While your siding is technically covered by these cases, your insurance company could run into this issue of not being able to locate matching siding to replace it.  What does this mean for you, then?


This is a frequent problem for homeowners and so begins a long, sometimes months-long search to try to locate matching siding.  Insurance companies may try to convince homeowners to settle on what they think is a “close enough” match, but now the house is strapped with mismatched siding that can be detrimental to the home’s aesthetic. It’s not just how the house looks, either.  Having two different types of siding on a house will hurt the resale value, dragging down its curb appeal.  Not only is this something that potential homebuyers will notice, but if they don’t, their house inspector certainly will. If you’ve put work into your home, you don’t want the fact that your insurance company was too cheap to spring for matching your siding with your home. Because this is a commonly experienced issue, insurance companies introduced matching siding insurance, allowing homeowners a better deal in matching siding when faced with damage from a common peril cause listed on and covered by their policy. Insurance companies will cover the cost of replacing the damaged sections, and then reimburse homeowners up to a certain amount, say about $20,000, of the costs to replace the undamaged siding so that the entire house will match. Keep in mind that insurance companies won’t be replacing your old siding for normal wear and tear.  If you move into a home and notice a few scuffs and puncture marks on the siding, you probably can’t file a claim for that and expect to get all new siding for you house. Read your policy carefully as it will likely tell you that for insurance coverage for siding, the damage must be caused by one of the listed common perils, which typically are weather-related.

Insurance Does Cover Siding Damage

Yes, homeowner’s insurance policies do cover siding damage, but reading the fine print, most of them only cover the siding that suffered the damage, and so homeowners could wind up with mismatched siding. If your policy is generous, the insurance company could reimburse you for up to a certain dollar amount to replace your entire house in order to obtain matching siding to maintain the value of your house.  Otherwise, you may have to work to prove that by having mismatched siding, your insurance company is lessening the home’s resale value.

Start With Feldco For Your Next Siding Project

If you've just had your home damaged by a storm, you might be looking into new siding. Feldco has been trusted on thousands of siding projects throughout the Midwest. Start with a free quote today.