Any info on PVC clad seamless steel siding

[Gerald Wilcox]

Does anyone know of inherent problems with this type of siding? The manufacture wants me to evaluate the siding on a home that has problems. 1) PVC not adhering to steel core mostly on north side, 2) fading on the south side.
Manufacturer wants to paint, homeowner wants siding replaced. Product has a limited lifetime warranty and proration of product value. The metal is a galvanized steel.......has anyone run across problems with this type of siding? The siding was installed about 11 years ago.

[Jerry Peck]

Does anyone know of inherent problems with this type of siding? The manufacture wants me to evaluate the siding on a home that has problems. 1) PVC not adhering to steel core mostly on north side, 2) fading on the south side.
Manufacturer wants to paint, homeowner wants siding replaced. Product has a limited lifetime warranty and proration of product value. The metal is a galvanized steel.......has anyone run across problems with this type of siding? The siding was installed about 11 years ago.

"Product has a limited lifetime warranty."

The only way to answer your question is to read the warranty and see what the warranty is actually warranting: against color fading?; against manufacturing defects (separation would be a manufacturing defect unless someone sliced it open)?; see what is covered and what is excluded.

When you first posted about "PVC clad seamless steel siding" my first thoughts were things like: differential expansion between PVC and steel will create shear forces at the adhesion layer; PVC will get hot, metal will get hotter inside, and probably cool faster, causing condensation between the metal and the PVC; what idiot thought of that product and didn't think that through? ;) ; things like that.

[Gerald Wilcox]

Indeed Jerry, that is exactly what I was thinking. The company wants to use paint to repair the siding, but what if the pvc continues to delaminate from the steel core? Obviously the paint wouldn't matter.......

[Michael Chambers]

Depending of course on just how the warranty is worded, your safest bet would be to tell the manufacturer to replace the siding in the areas affected. The worst thing they'll do is not ask you in as a consultant on another one. If you let them get by with painting a possibly inferior product, then the home owner may come after you in another year or two when the nicely painted vinyl starts pealing off the galvanized steel, and you've let the manufacturer off the hook. Jerry's right on with his concerns about the differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion between these two very dissimilar materials.