Best Siding Contractors In Metro Atlanta? Here’s Who You Should Actually Be Comparing

Thomas Williams, All American Renovations – Elite member of James Hardie™ ALLIANCE · Metro Atlanta and Middle Georgia

Who are the Best Siding Contractors in Metro Atlanta? This isn’t a ranking, and I’m not telling you who to hire. What I am telling you is who to put next to each other, because that’s where most homeowners go wrong.

If you compare us to a contractor who isn’t qualified to hang fiber cement, our number looks insane. Compare us to another James Hardie™ ALLIANCE member and you’ll see something different — the bids land close together, and you can actually choose on fit instead of price.

Why Does It Matter Who You Compare Us To?

Say you get four bids. Three are from ALLIANCE members and one is from a guy who’ll do it for fifteen thousand less.

That fourth number isn’t a better deal. It’s a different job. It’s the same square footage without the sheathing addressed, without trim wrapped, without the flashing details, and often without the tear-off — and you can’t see any of that on the estimate.

So a homeowner does the reasonable thing and assumes the three expensive guys are all overcharging. They’re not. They’re all pricing the same work.

When you line up contractors who are actually building to the same standard, the bids cluster. And once they cluster, the decision stops being about money and starts being about who you trust in your driveway for three weeks. That’s the decision you want to be making.

Who’s Worth Talking To In Metro Atlanta?

Five companies I’d put in that comparable set, and what I actually know about each one. Where I’m going on secondhand impressions instead of direct knowledge, I say so.

ROOFTASTIC AND BEYOND — Peachtree City / Newnan / Tyrone area. They install Hardie® siding well and they take care of their customers. Formerly PGRS, Professional Gutter Roofing and Siding; they rebranded the last couple of years. They’re also excellent at marketing, which is a real skill and not a knock. Worth knowing: they’ve been advertising a long-term workmanship warranty of their own lately. Good. I mean that — a rising tide raises the ships, and the more of us willing to stand behind our labor for decades instead of a year, the more this whole market has to actually follow best practices to survive it. Ask them for the specifics, and ask every other contractor on your list the same question.

PAINTING PLUS — Marietta. I know Charlie, the owner, pretty well — we’ve met a number of times at the Contractor Summit. He’s a good, decent owner who cares about his product, wants it installed correctly, and follows best practices. Family business, run on a lot of the same ideas we are.

EXOVATIONS — a large, full-service company doing work a lot like ours: additions, roofing, siding, windows, whole projects rather than one trade. From what I know, they do a decent job taking care of their customers. I’ll be straight that this one is more reputation than firsthand — I haven’t worked alongside them the way I have others on this list.

PACIFIC EXTERIORS — newer to this market, here somewhere in the last eighteen to twenty-four months. The owner came from the Pacific Coast, Oregon or Washington, and I’ve met him a handful of times at the Contractor Summit. My understanding is they’ve done hundreds if not thousands of ColorPlus jobs, so they know what installing it properly takes. Honest caveat: I haven’t heard much from local customers who’ve hired them yet, good or bad. What I can say is they’ve got a good name and an owner who clearly wants to keep it here.

NELSON EXTERIORS — Marietta . I’d known the name for years before I ever met anybody there.

I finally met Scott, the owner, at the end of the last James Hardie Contractor Summit. We crossed paths on the way out, he clocked my UGA shirt and my Hey Dudes and said something nice about them, and that was the entire interaction. Then we both turned up at the airport on the same flight home and talked for a long while about our businesses.

It was eerie how much of it was the same story. Same problems, same decisions, same reasons for making them. He’s an extremely nice guy, and I’d trust that he and his team would treat a customer the way I’d want ours treated — same as I’d say about Charlie at Painting Plus or Ed at Rooftastic and Beyond.

The honest caveat, and it’s the one I’d want from anybody writing this about me: I know the owner, not the work. I haven’t worked alongside them and I haven’t heard from their customers here. What I can tell you is what a flight’s worth of conversation told me about how he thinks about his company — which is more than I can say about a lot of people whose signs I see every week.

And us. We’re on this list the same way they are — not above it.

What Actually Separates A Good Siding Contractor From A Bad One?

Use the same yardstick on all of us, including me.

— Do they know James Hardie’s best practices — and do they take pride in enforcing them? Knowing isn’t the same as caring whether the crew follows it on a hot Thursday.

— Are they a member of the James Hardie™ ALLIANCE?

— Do they carry workers comp and general liability, and will they show you?

— How do they communicate before, during, and — most importantly — after? After is where it counts. Anybody’s pleasant while they’re trying to win the job.

— How easy is it to reach a human when there’s a problem? If it’s a fight to get a quote out of them, imagine what a warranty call feels like.

— How fast does a detailed written proposal show up, and how much does it actually explain?

— What have they signed up for that nobody made them sign up for? More on this next, because it’s the one most people don’t know to ask.

The Thing About Georgia Nobody Tells Homeowners

There is no roofing license in Georgia. There is no siding license either.

Not a lapsed one, not a hard one to get. There isn’t one. Georgia’s licensing board issues residential and general contractor licenses, and the state’s specialty boards cover electrical, plumbing, mechanical, low voltage and utility work. Roofing and siding aren’t on that list.

I’d like to see that change, and I’ll say plainly why: a license is a barrier, and the people it keeps out are exactly the ones you don’t want on your house. Not the guy who’s good at this and hasn’t gotten around to the paperwork. The guy who would never go get one even if he could — because he doesn’t want to, or because he doesn’t want anything he can be held accountable to.

Mechanical contractors have to clear that bar in this state. Roofers and siding contractors don’t. I don’t think a homeowner spending twenty thousand dollars on the outside of their house should get less protection than one replacing a furnace.

So until the state does something about it, the question worth asking is what a company has taken on voluntarily. The Georgia Roofing Contractors Association runs a voluntary licensing program for exactly this reason, and they’ve said they’ll keep working with the state toward a real one. We’re a GARCA member.

Manufacturer programs work the same way. Nobody makes a contractor join the James Hardie™ ALLIANCE or follow its rules about what he’s allowed to install. It’s a standard you pick up on purpose.

Ask any contractor what standards they’ve signed up for that nobody required of them. The answer tells you what you’re dealing with, in a state where the legal answer is “nothing.”

While We’re Here: What “Licensed & Insured” Actually Means

You see it on every truck in Georgia. It was painted on the side of mine twenty-five years ago, so I’m not pointing at anybody.

Here’s what it means when we say it, and when most honest contractors say it:

— Business licenses. We hold several, in the jurisdictions that require them. That’s a local permission to operate a business — it says nothing about whether anybody can hang siding.

— Insurance. Workers comp, general liability, commercial auto. We carry significant coverage on all three.

Here’s what it does NOT mean. It does not mean licensed gutter installer. Or roofer. Or siding contractor. Or deck builder. Those licenses don’t exist in Georgia, so nobody can hold one.

To a homeowner, “licensed” sounds like the state examined this company and approved it to do your specific job. That’s almost never what’s being claimed, and I don’t think most contractors saying it intend to mislead anybody — we all inherited the phrase.

So lean on the half of it that’s real, and verify that. Ask every contractor on your list for certificates of workers comp and general liability, and actually look at them. That’s the part that decides who pays if somebody gets hurt on your property, and it’s the part a contractor can prove in about a minute.

If they can’t produce it, you’ve learned everything you need to know.

When Would I Tell You To Call Somebody Else?

Straight answer: when we can’t do what you need.

We typically stay four to six weeks out, and sometimes six to eight. If you need your siding done in two or three weeks, we’re not equipped to do that well, and I’d rather tell you than squeeze you in badly.

When that happens, and it’s siding, roofing, gutters, windows or decks — south side of Atlanta, I’d tell you to call Rooftastic and Beyond. North side, I’d tell you to call Charlie at Painting Plus or Scott at Nelson Exteriors.

That’s not a courtesy. That’s who I’d actually name.

What Should STOP The Conversation Cold?

Some things are worth a second look. These are the ones where you should thank them for their time and not call back.

THEY WANT TO INSTALL OVER YOUR EXISTING SIDING. This is the big one, and I get asked about it constantly — can’t you just put Hardie® siding or vinyl over what’s there? I’ve torn off more houses than I can count that had multiple layers on them, and there was rot behind nearly all of them. Either the rot was already there and somebody covered it up, or the new layer channeled water into places it didn’t used to go and started the rot itself. If a contractor’s plan is to cover it instead of tear it off: hard stop. Run. Don’t pass go, don’t collect five hundred dollars.

THEY CAN’T SHOW PROOF OF WORKERS COMP AND GENERAL LIABILITY. A customer told me recently he’d had good conversations with two or three contractors, asked all of them for proof of insurance, and didn’t get it. He moved on. He was right to.

THEY CAN’T ANSWER BASIC INSTALL QUESTIONS. Not trick questions — the fundamentals:

— What’s the required clearance between the siding and the roof, or a slab? (The manual prints one to two inches. Ask them why it’s a range — the answer is the climate zone, and Georgia is at the one-inch end of it.)

— What’s the required ground clearance? (Six inches minimum, siding and trim to the dirt. And ask what they do when a house doesn’t have it, because plenty don’t.)

— Are your nails landing in studs, and do board joints land on a stud?

— Are you flashing joints, or caulking them?

— Where does kick-out flashing go, and why?

If they don’t raise this stuff on their own, that’s one thing. If they can’t answer when you ask, think long and hard.

THEY PRESSURE YOU TO SIGN TODAY. Ask yourself why somebody is that afraid of coming back next week to finalize a deal. Good work is still there on Tuesday.

THERE’S NO WRITTEN CONTRACT. Absolute no. A contract protects you and it protects the contractor — what’s included, what isn’t, the payment schedule, what happens with weather and acts of God. If somebody can’t or won’t put that on paper, you’ve learned everything you need to know.

What I’d Tell You If You Called Me

— Get three or four bids, but make them comparable. Four ALLIANCE members tells you what the work costs. Three ALLIANCE members and one guy with a truck tells you nothing.

— Ask every one of us for proof of insurance. Watch what happens next.

— Ask about tear-off before anything else. It’s the fastest way to sort the list.

— Don’t sign the same day unless you’re genuinely ready.

— Then pick the one you’re most comfortable with. Once the bids cluster, that’s the only variable left, and it’s the right one.

DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR ANY OF IT

Everything I’ve told you about how Hardie® siding is supposed to go on a house comes out of James Hardie’s own documentation, and they publish it publicly. Clearance requirements, installation instructions, quick start guides, the whole library:

James Hardie — Installation Guidance & Technical Documents

Here’s The Manufacturer’s Installation Instructions

Go read the quick start guide for yourself. It’s short, it’s got pictures, and you’ll know more than most people who’ll be standing in your driveway this month.

I hand this to customers all the time, and I know exactly what it means: a homeowner who’s read it can check my crew’s work. Good. That’s the entire point. A contractor who’d rather you didn’t know how this is supposed to be done is telling you something.