Embodied carbon of siding materials
Michael Maines
| Posted in General Questions on
Not a question but I thought others might appreciate the BEAM tool analysis (https://www.buildersforclimateaction.org/beam-estimator.html) I recently used to compare options.
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That's enlightening to say the least. Somewhat surprised how [relatively] low vinyl siding is, compared to the steel and fiber cement options.
One question... what's the 'denominator' here? X sq. ft. of siding (at Y exposure, for the lap products)?
Everything is by the face square footage so it's easy to estimate. I don't recall the overall square footage but the installation details for each material:
Pine 1x6: flat (as if tongue-and-groove)
Red cedar 1x6: flat (as if tongue-and-groove)
LP Smartside: 5/16"
Vinyl: 0.040" double 4.5" exposure
Steel: 24 gauge (they have various options but I used the "average" option since we hadn't chosen a product)
Fiber cement: 5/16". They have two options and I don't recall which one I used but I don't think it made a big difference either way.