Siding & Exterior Cladding
Siding in
Cochrane, Alberta.
Chinook cycling is hard on cladding, and Cochrane gets more of it than anywhere. We re-side across town with materials chosen for the thermal swing and the flashing behind them done properly.
Siding in Cochrane
What Cochrane actually needs from a siding job.
Vinyl siding has to be hung so it can slide, with fasteners centred in the slots and left slightly loose, because it expands and contracts across the full annual temperature range. Cochrane puts it through that cycle harder and more often than any other town we serve, thanks to the chinook. Installed tight, a wall buckles in summer and works its nails free through winter, and the majority of failed vinyl we replace here failed exactly that way rather than from age.
Cold brittleness compounds it. Vinyl loses impact tolerance below about minus twenty, so a west-facing wall taking wind-driven ice in a Cochrane February is where it cracks. Add the hen-egg hail this town saw in 2024 and the case for engineered wood or fibre cement gets straightforward.
On the hillside communities there is one more factor: exposure. Sunset Ridge and the upper Heritage Hills elevations catch wind and driving weather that valley-floor streets do not, and a long wall there benefits from engineered wood’s 16-foot lengths, which reduce the number of seams the weather can work at.
About Cochrane
Cochrane is the closest of the Calgary satellite towns to the mountains, which makes it the most chinook-exposed community we work in. It grew 6.4 percent in a single year to roughly 39,400 people, with 913 new homes built in 2025 alone. It also took hen-egg-sized hail on August 5, 2024, sitting on the heavier southwest flank of the storm that produced $2.8 billion in insured damage across the region.
Where We Work
Cochrane neighbourhoods we cover.
Our Standard
What every Cochrane siding job includes.
Siding is the part of the exterior people judge from the street and the part that quietly decides whether your walls stay dry. We install vinyl, engineered wood and James Hardie fibre cement, and we build what goes behind them properly: a correctly lapped water-resistive barrier, head flashing over every opening, sill pans below, and kick-out flashing wherever a roof edge runs into a wall. That last piece of metal is small, cheap, and the most commonly omitted detail in residential construction.
Full tear-off and inspection
Old cladding comes off so the sheathing can actually be seen. Rot behind siding is common and always cheaper to deal with while the wall is open.
Proper water-resistive barrier
House wrap lapped shingle-style so water runs down and out rather than into the laps, taped at seams and penetrations.
Flashing done right
Head flashing above every window and door, sill pans below, and kick-out flashing where roof meets wall. Skipping the kick-out is how walls rot invisibly for years.
Vinyl siding
Hung with fasteners centred and left slightly loose so panels move through a 60-degree annual swing without buckling or pulling their nails.
Engineered wood
Real wood texture with far better cold-weather impact resistance than vinyl, in long lengths that reduce seams across a wall.
James Hardie fibre cement
Dimensionally stable, non-combustible, excellent impact resistance, and a factory finish that holds colour for decades.
Trim, corners and details
Tight mitres, proper corner posts and clean transitions at stone, soffit and roofline. This is where a siding job either looks finished or does not.
Clearances that matter
Siding held off grade, off roof decks and off horizontal surfaces so it is not wicking water at the bottom edge.
Cochrane Pricing
What this costs in Cochrane.
Real 2026 ranges for the Calgary region. Your written quote gives a firm number after we have been on site, because a price without an inspection is a guess.
Vinyl
$5 – $10 / sq ft
Typical full re-side $12,000 – $22,000
Engineered wood
$9 – $15 / sq ft
Typical full re-side $20,000 – $34,000
James Hardie
$10 – $18 / sq ft
Typical full re-side $24,000 – $45,000
Front facade only
$6,000 – $18,000
Street-facing elevation, often with stone or accent work
Ranges assume roughly 2,000 to 3,000 square feet of wall and include tear-off, house wrap, trim and flashing. Storeys and scaffolding, window count, gables, and any rot found behind the old cladding all move the number. For the full regional breakdown see our Calgary roof replacement cost guide.
What moves the number in Cochrane
Cochrane is the town where access is genuinely a line item. The ridge communities are built into slope, driveways are steep, and staging shingles on a hillside lot takes more time and more hands than a flat suburban pad. Pitch is the other factor. A significant share of Cochrane housing runs steep enough to need roof jacks and fall protection staging throughout, which is a safety requirement rather than an upsell, and it slows the job.
Permits & Local Rules
What applies in Cochrane?
The Town of Cochrane treats a like-for-like re-shingle or re-clad as maintenance, so no development permit is required. A permit applies where the work alters the structure, changes roof shape or height, adds floor area, or follows fire or flood damage. Several Cochrane hillside communities also carry architectural controls and slope-specific requirements, which we confirm before starting.
FAQ
Cochrane siding questions.
For a home with roughly 2,000 to 3,000 square feet of wall, vinyl runs about $12,000 to $22,000, engineered wood $20,000 to $34,000, and James Hardie $24,000 to $45,000, including tear-off, house wrap, trim and flashing. Hillside lots with more staging sit toward the top.
Effectively, yes. Vinyl needs to slide freely as it expands and contracts, and Cochrane’s chinook cycling runs it through that range more often than most places. If the fasteners were driven tight, panels buckle when they expand and work loose when they contract. Sometimes a section can be re-hung correctly; where it is widespread, replacement is the honest answer.
Fibre cement or engineered wood. Both handle the wind and cold far better than vinyl, and engineered wood comes in 16-foot lengths that reduce seams across a long exposed wall. James Hardie is the premium answer where the elevation takes the worst of the weather.
For most homes, engineered wood or fibre cement. Vinyl gets brittle below about minus 20 and cracks from impacts it would shrug off in summer, which matters in hail country. James Hardie is the premium answer if you are staying long-term or the elevation takes hard weather.
We do not recommend it. Going over the old siding means nobody ever sees the sheathing or the water barrier behind it, and hidden rot is common below windows and wherever a kick-out flashing was omitted. Tear-off is the only way to know what you are building on.
Regularly. Hail damages siding as well as roofs, particularly on west and north elevations, and it is frequently part of the same insurance claim. We document it with the roof so nothing gets missed.
More in Cochrane
Your whole exterior, one crew.
Roofing in Cochrane
Cochrane sits closer to the mountains than any town we serve, which means the sharpest chinook cycling in the region and hillside communities that take wind most streets never see.
Roof Repair in Cochrane
Hen-egg hail from August 2024, wind on the hillside communities, and the ice damming that follows a Cochrane chinook.
Eavestrough in Cochrane
Seamless aluminum formed at your Cochrane address and pitched so chinook meltwater cannot stand and freeze.
Soffit & Fascia in Cochrane
Aluminum soffit and fascia with the attic intake genuinely calculated and the eave opened up behind it.