Trading Out 1970s Aluminum Siding in Ames: A Replacement Game Plan
You run a hand along the wall by the back door and your palm comes away dusty white, a fine powder that used to be paint. Down near the hose bib there’s a dent the size of a fist, probably a stray baseball from a decade of summers. The metal ticks and pings when the afternoon sun hits it. This is aluminum siding doing what forty-year-old aluminum siding does, and on a lot of Story County homes it is well past the point of one more touch-up.
The chalk on your palm is the tell
Aluminum siding went up on thousands of Iowa homes from the 1960s into the early 1980s. It was a real upgrade over what came before, and plenty of it is still hanging on. But two failure modes show up again and again on the older walls we hear about in Ames.
The first is chalking. That white powder is the paint finish oxidizing and breaking down. Wipe it and it comes back; the color has gone flat and streaky, and no amount of washing brings the sheen back. The second is denting. Aluminum is soft. Hail, ladders, weed trimmers, and errant baseballs all leave permanent dings, and unlike vinyl the dents do not pop back out. Add in the pinging noise as the metal expands and contracts, and a wall that looks tired from the curb, and you have a house asking for a new skin.
Say a homeowner near Brookside has original aluminum on a 1972 ranch. The color chalks off on their hand, the south wall is peppered with hail dents from a storm a few seasons back, and the caulk at the window trim has crumbled. That is a classic candidate for a full re-side rather than another round of spot fixes.
Why patching old aluminum rarely pays
Here is the diagnosis part, because it matters for how you spend your money. Aluminum siding fails as a system, not one panel at a time. The finish chalks across the whole sun-facing side at once. The dents accumulate everywhere. And the color you need to match was discontinued decades ago, so even a skilled repair leaves a visible flag on the wall.
There is also what is hiding behind it. Older aluminum installations often went on with a thin or nonexistent weather barrier by today’s standards, and the insulation value is essentially zero. If your rooms feel drafty and the utility bills creep up every winter, the wall itself is part of the problem. When the old metal comes off, that is your one clean shot to add a proper weather-resistant barrier and even wall insulation before the new siding goes on.
If only one wall took damage and the rest is genuinely sound, a targeted fix can still make sense. Our honest take on where that line falls is in when a repair is enough and when replacement pays off. But for chalked, dented, single-pane-era aluminum, most Ames homeowners land on replacement.
Fiber cement or vinyl: what replaces the metal
Once you decide the aluminum is done, the choice is what goes back up. For an Iowa home, the two workhorses are fiber cement and quality insulated vinyl, and both are a big step up from tired aluminum.
Fiber cement is dense, rigid, and shrugs off hail far better than soft metal ever did. It holds a factory finish for a long time and gives you deep, crisp shadow lines. It costs more up front and the panels are heavy, so installation is more labor. Insulated vinyl, by contrast, is lighter, lower maintenance, and the foam backing adds a bit of R-value and stiffness that helps it lie flat and resist dents. Our rundown of insulated versus standard vinyl grades walks through how those tiers compare.
A realistic example: a homeowner replacing aluminum on a 1,600-square-foot two-story might weigh fiber cement for the look and hail resistance against insulated vinyl for the lower maintenance and gentler price. Neither is wrong. The right answer depends on how long you plan to stay, your budget, and whether you love the shadow line of a real lap board.
How the re-side actually comes together
When the crew starts, an aluminum tear-off usually goes cleaner than you would expect. The metal panels come down in long strips, the crew inspects the sheathing underneath for any soft or rotted spots, and then the wall gets a fresh weather barrier before the new siding goes on. Because aluminum is light, disposal is straightforward and the metal is recyclable.
Watch two things during the project. First, the transition details at windows, corners, and where siding meets brick, because that is where water sneaks in and where a specialist earns their keep. Second, timing. Most Ames re-sides run several days to a couple of weeks depending on the size and the material, and September is a good month to book it: the weather is workable and crews are pricing their fall calendars now. For a realistic sense of the schedule, see how long a full siding replacement takes on an Ames home.
If your aluminum is chalking on your hand, dented across the sunny walls, and driving up your heating bills, this is the season to plan it. When you are ready, reach out for a free siding replacement estimate and we will connect you with an independent local siding crew that specializes in exactly this work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can new fiber cement or vinyl go right over old aluminum siding? It is generally not recommended. Aluminum’s dents and uneven surface make a poor base, and layering over it traps the old failing barrier behind the new wall. Tearing off lets the crew check the sheathing and install a proper modern weather barrier, which is half the value of the job. For vinyl over vinyl the calculus is different, but over aluminum, tear-off is the sound move.
Is my old aluminum siding worth anything when it comes down? Aluminum is recyclable and scrap yards do take it, though the payout on a house worth of thin panels is modest. More useful is that the light weight keeps disposal simple and the tear-off fast, which helps keep the overall project moving.
My aluminum only chalks on the south and west walls. Do I have to redo the whole house? Not necessarily, but matching decades-old aluminum color on the untouched walls is nearly impossible, so a partial job can leave an obvious seam between old and new. Many homeowners re-side the whole house for a consistent look, while some phase it wall by wall to spread the cost. It comes down to budget and how much the mismatch would bother you.