Ask three siding contractors what it costs to reside a house in New Hampshire and you’ll get three numbers that are $15,000 apart — with almost no explanation of why. We’ve been on the other side of enough kitchen-table conversations in Exeter, Dover, and Laconia to know how frustrating that is. The house is the same. The walls are the same. So why the spread?

This guide lays out what siding replacement actually costs in NH for 2026 — per square foot and per whole house — for every material we install. We’ll also walk through what drives one quote higher than another, the line items that should be in every proposal, and the hidden costs that show up mid-job if nobody planned for them. No teaser pricing. These are the numbers we quote from.

How Much Does Siding Replacement Cost in NH?

Here’s the thing nobody tells you about siding pricing: the material itself is often less than half the number. Labor, tear-off, disposal, housewrap, trim work, and staging make up the rest — and those costs don’t change much whether you pick builder-grade vinyl or HardiePlank. That’s why jumping up a material tier costs less, proportionally, than most people expect.

Installed pricing includes tear-off, disposal, housewrap, and standard trim. Excludes structural rot repair, which is quoted after tear-off.

Quick math note — a “2,000 sq ft home” refers to living space, but what you’re actually paying for is wall area, which on a typical two-story colonial runs 1,800–2,400 sq ft after subtracting windows and doors. A sprawling ranch has more wall per square foot of living space than a colonial. Gables, dormers, and bump-outs all add cutting time and material waste.

What Makes One Siding Quote Higher Than Another?

When we price a residing job, these are the levers that move the number:

• What’s coming off. One layer of vinyl strips fast. Old wood clapboard with two layers of paint-era material underneath — common on pre-1960 homes in Portsmouth and Newburyport — takes twice the labor and doubles the disposal weight.
• Sheathing condition. We find rot on roughly a third of the residing jobs we do. Usually it’s a few sheets around window corners and below roof-wall intersections where a missing kickout flashing dumped water down the wall for years.
• Height and access. A walkout basement side that’s three stories off grade needs staging. Tight lot lines, decks, and landscaping you’d like to keep alive all slow production.
• The trim package. Wrapped fascia, new soffits, window and door casings, corner boards — trim work is fussy and can be 15–20% of the job. It’s also where cheap quotes cut corners first.
• Insulation add-ons. Fan-fold foam is standard under vinyl. Upgrading to 1-inch rigid foam board adds roughly $1.50–$3/sq ft but meaningfully tightens up an older home while the walls are open.

Siding Cost by Material: What We Actually Recommend

Standard and insulated vinyl — $6.50–$12/sq ft

Vinyl is still the workhorse of NH residing, and modern .044-gauge panels are a different animal from the wavy builder-grade stuff on 1990s subdivisions. It handles freeze-thaw fine, never needs paint, and a quality install with proper nailing — snug but not tight, so panels can move — will outlast the homeowner’s patience with the color. Insulated vinyl adds a foam backer that stiffens the panel and quiets the wall. Our take: if the budget says vinyl, spend up on panel gauge and installation quality, not on gimmick features.

LP SmartSide — $10–$14/sq ft

Engineered wood, and honestly the sweet spot for a lot of our customers. You get the deep woodgrain look of real clapboard, it takes paint beautifully, and it’s tougher than fiber cement against impact — hockey pucks, ladder dings, woodpeckers. The treated-strand substrate has to be kept sealed at cut edges, which is an installation-discipline thing. Done right, LP’s 5/50 warranty is one of the strongest in the category.

Fiber cement (HardiePlank) — $12–$16/sq ft

The premium standard, and what most people mean when they ask about “the good stuff.” It’s inert — doesn’t burn, doesn’t rot, doesn’t interest carpenter ants — and ColorPlus factory finishes hold paint 10–15 years even through NH winters. It’s heavy and unforgiving to install, which is why Hardie pricing varies so much between crews that do it weekly and crews that dabble. On salt-air homes in Rye and Hampton, fiber cement’s stability is a real advantage.

Cedar — $14–$20+/sq ft

Nothing else looks like it, full stop. White cedar shingles weathering silver on a Lakes Region camp is about as New England as it gets. But go in with open eyes: cedar wants stain or paint every 5–8 years, and skipping a cycle gets expensive. It’s the right call for the right house — and the wrong call for anyone who doesn’t want a maintenance relationship with their siding.

Should You Repair or Fully Replace Your Siding?

We do plenty of siding repairs in the $400–$1,500 range, and for isolated damage that’s the honest answer. The tipping point comes when the material itself is at end of life. Thirty-year-old vinyl gets brittle enough that removing one panel cracks its neighbors — you fix one spot and create two. Matching faded colors is nearly impossible; the patch reads like a patch from the street. When repairs stop staying fixed, put the money toward the wall system instead.

The Hidden Costs Most Siding Quotes Leave Out

We pulled siding off a home in Stratham last fall where a missing $30 kickout flashing had quietly fed water behind the housewrap for a decade — the sheathing at that corner was spongy to the touch and the rim joist needed a carpenter. None of that is visible from the driveway. It’s why we won’t quote siding from a truck window, and why the tear-off inspection matters more than the brochure.

What to look for in the proposal: a stated per-sheet price for sheathing replacement agreed before work starts, a named housewrap product, new kickout and step flashings at every roof-wall intersection, and disposal included. If insulation board is in the conversation, it should be its own line item so you can see what you’re paying for.

When’s the Best Time of Year to Reside a House in NH?

This surprises people, but siding is a four-season trade here. Vinyl gets brittle in deep cold — below about 10°F we’re careful with cutting and nailing — and fiber cement caulking wants 40°F+, so a January install just sequences around the thermometer. If you’ve been quoted a long wait for summer, ask about a late-fall slot. Same house, same crew, less waiting.

How to Compare Siding Quotes Without Getting Burned

Three quotes for the “same” job are rarely the same job. Check that every proposal specifies: the exact product line and panel thickness (not just “vinyl siding”), full tear-off versus overlay, the housewrap product, trim scope in writing, the rot-repair allowance, and both the manufacturer and workmanship warranty terms. A quote that’s $6,000 lighter usually got there by going over the old siding, skipping trim, or leaving rot repair as a mid-job surprise priced at their leisure.

And one more thing — ask who’s actually on the wall. Much of the residing work in Southern NH is subbed out to whoever’s available that week. There’s nothing inherently wrong with subcontractors, but you deserve to know who’s building your wall system and whose workmanship warranty stands behind it.