Vinyl siding first made a dent in the housing market of the 1960s as an inexpensive cover up that could break the cycle of repainting every few years. In the 1980s, it bypassed aluminum in popularity.

Q: The house I grew up in had vinyl siding, and the trim around the windows was some thin, distasteful vinyl that had an end profile like the letter J. I thought it looked abominable. How can you make ...