We have cedar impressions in clay on our house. We haven't noticed any significant fading. Our understanding is, the darker the color, the more fading you will see. We pulled the colors from the stone siding. You said part of your house...what is the rest of your house? Are there colors you should coordinate with there?

In the Same Boat here ... 115 year old house, cedar shakes and clapboards sheathed in vinyl. We have removed some of it and found it either in great shape or discovered a few less than distressing things (some minor wet rot, a missing foot or so of clapboard on a porch pier). On our side is that the house was left just stained (unpainted) until the mid 60's, then in the mid-late 70 was sided with vinyl. and it IS cedar ... We dont know what well find elsewhere(we removed about 7% so far) but think it will be far less expensive to remove and repair than leave the vinyl and watch more wet rot happen (ok, hidden beneath the vinyl, but you know what I mean). Neighbor houses of the same vintage (also cedar and stained for the first 50 years of their lives) are in pretty good shape ... you'll never know till you take it off ... My biggest concern is that our house is a full 4 stories tall ... and I am scared to death of heights ... YIKES

Because the joints are not sealed, vinyl siding has a very high permeability rating over 40 perms (similar to the wood siding) so it is unlikely to trap moisture long enough to damage the old siding (I assume it is painted). Another issue is whether to put house wrap behind it which might further slow the drying of the wall to the outside. But we don't know the climate or the kind or amount of insulation so I won't try to guess. If appropriate for the wall design, you could use a highly permeable house wrap like Tyvek behind the vinyl siding but only if the old siding is painted. For the vinyl siding to be level it should be installed on a level surface. That can be achieved with reversed shingle or clapboard shims or vertical strapping but the floating vinyl may be more susceptible to damage, but I don't have first hand experience with that. It might be better to remove the old siding. You should also carefully consider how to detail the openings, facias and corner boards.

I made the post to learn which has been limited to speculation, not experience. For those of us in the East, what 150 million, traffic suggest more, vinyl is very popular and is used in new construction. One neighbor is considering replacing his 30 year old vinyl with Hardie, just for a change... . I've lived in NJ longer than that and have never experience hail damage... Colorado? hail is a concern, not here. Still I don't like the touch of vinyl and from what I have found in other searches is the insulation applied as part of the manufacturing process does indeed make the siding much firmer to the touch, straighter and flatter. I have not yet gotten any quotes, but was told insulated vinyl is about 40% less, and due at least in part to requiring less than 1/2 the man hours to install Hardie an none of the hazardous to saw material (cement board) precautions. I am getting quotes on covering my trim with vinyl for either vinyl or Hardie siding. I'm also considering replacing my gutters and down spouts with the 6" size to mostly illuminate the the need to clean leaves out of the gutters. I've been doing that for over 25 years and am just too old to get the second story gutters, especially the one at right angle to a very steep garage roof, not a roof to walk around on. Again, I have a lot of still good cedar clapboard siding and estimate I need to do only two sides of the house in Hardie (say).. that cuts the cost more than in half as I also plan to do the 1 story garage walls myself. It is the vertical board and baton I believe it is called. I may just pull it all off and use Plywood with the same vertical pattern. .. absent all the joints and cracks. Edit: I see another concern was raised while I was bloviating above. The process that was described to me, I think both for cement board and vinyl, insulated or not: remove the existing siding, install a new vapor barrier. I believe both vinyl and and Hardie is then installed using a hanger type .. screwing to studs and the like. This says to me as far as vapor is concerned, neither protects against vapor from inside that gets through the interior vapor barrier and the vapor barrier installed over the sheathing - plywood in my case. As the insulation on the vinyle is nothing more than something filling the lap spaces, just as Hardie does because of its thickness and stiffness. However, the insulation has a much higher R value than does the Hardie, which I'll be is close to zero. Cement and even wood are poor insulators.