History of Siding in Atlanta: Everything you want to know.

Are you interested in matching your house siding to a particular era or classical style? Here’s a history of siding for Atlanta that may help you make your choice. Take a quick look through the time line of housing styles in the area, including:

1700s Plantation Style

For a long time plantation homes dominated the countryside of Georgia and had an impact on all housing styles throughout the state. For these homes, weatherboard siding was a common siding choice. This very traditional form of siding continues today. It looks like overlapping tiles of horizontal wooden boards continuing down the side of a house.

1700s-1800s Colonial Style

Colonial style homes existed alongside plantation style home and were a popular option for more urban-style houses at this point in the history of siding. These homes tended to use lap siding, or straight horizontal wooden boards lined up next to each other, often with grooves between each board and sometimes, like weatherboard, overlapping.

1800s Board and Batten Homes

As the 1800s continued, siding grew more complex and board and batten styles became popular. Board and batten used quaint, vertical board panels interspersed with raised ridges (often on only part of the home). Clapboard, a more minimalistic form of lap siding, was also used during this time.

Early 1900s NeoClassical Revival Clapboard, Wood and Plaster

In the early 1900s history of siding, architects began to experiment and combine many types of styles and worked with many forms of clapboard, weatherboard and lap siding. They were also more willing to experiment with wood and plaster when it came to siding, pillars and more. This led to the proliferation of new experiment in plantation and colonial styles, but often on a smaller scale or changed to fit more urban environments.

1900s Ranch House

The Ranch house style, while present in the United States for a long time, became particularly popular in more urban and suburban areas like the Atlanta region in the 1900s. Ranch homes tended to use a combination of board and batten siding and lap siding, or a more unique wide vertical plank siding style. Prairie houses, with their traditional lap siding, also grew much more common during this time. Today, many modern houses use siding based on these designs, because ranch siding is both versatile and simple.

Late 1900s Materials Substitutes

As the 1900s progressed and multiple variants of ranch and prairie styles became common in the Atlanta area, different materials also grew in popularity. Vinyl was particularly popular because it could mimic classical styles at a very low cost. However sturdier materials, like cement fiber, could replace older wood materials and last much longer in tough weather conditions.

If you have questions about siding and how to draw inspiration from the past, call Findlay Roofing today.

Image Source: Flickr