Re-Siding SE Calgary, from Lake Bonavista to Legacy

The Homes and Buildings in Southeast Calgary

The City of Calgary labels Auburn Bay and Mahogany as 2000s communities, Chaparral as 2010s, and Cranston and Legacy as building out. The typical newer southeast house has builder vinyl on most walls and a dressier front elevation in Hardie board, LP SmartSide, board and batten or stone. That split creates a familiar problem: the front still looks sharp while a side or rear wall has cracked, faded or been patched with panels that do not quite match. Vinyl profiles and colours get discontinued, and weathered panels fade, so a few new panels may never blend exactly. The honest options are replacing a full elevation, or upgrading the vinyl walls to fibre cement so the whole house reads as one.

Where owners keep vinyl, thickness matters more than the brochure suggests. Premium vinyl lines run in the mid-.040-inch range, which makes the panel stiffer and less wavy, though thickness alone does not make vinyl stand up to hail. Where they move up, HardiePlank lap siding on the walls, HardieShingle in the gables and HardieTrim at corners and frieze lines give the rear of the house the same finish as the street side. McKenzie Towne’s traditional streetscapes, with lap siding, painted trim and porches, reward that kind of trim work most.

The older southeast is a separate market. Lake Bonavista, Queensland and Midnapore carry the City’s 1960s–1970s label, with aluminum siding, cedar and stucco on the originals and many houses already renovated at least once. Aluminum there tends to be dented and chalky, and cedar weathered. Douglasdale/Glen and Deer Ridge came later, in the 1980s–1990s, with early vinyl, stucco and cedar, and wood fascia that is usually ready for aluminum capping by the time the siding is replaced.