Alcoa Structure - Foam Backed Vinyl Siding
Alcoa Structure is the newest Alcoa product to try to compete with Craneboard. It has a blue foam behind its' vinyl siding panel and looks quite nice. Alcoa Structure is one of the newest foam backed panels to enter the highly competitive foam backed vinyl siding market. Structure has two very nice selling points.
One, it offers a single 7" wide panel which gives a very nice installed appearance and secondly it offers a Dow foam underlayment that should not absorb moisture. (We haven't had any problems with other Dow underlayments at this time and we live in Washington, but other siding systems use an additional moisture barrier) The Structure panel boasts an impressive 160 mph wind rating.
That is certainly one of the best. That is a bit surprising as the nail hem is only single strength as many other products have a doubled over nailing hem. My guess is the high wind rating is coming from the additional nails needed to install a single 7 panel vs. a double 7, and that the increase in nails is leading to an increase in wind rating from 130 mph to 160 mph. (CRANEBOARD vs. Structure)
This is a snapshot of the 7" Profile Design
In my opinion this is a well designed siding with the possible exception of the vinyl siding material and warranty follow through. It is also my opinion that the "system" does not handle moisture behind the siding as well as the proven Craneboard "system" does. It is designed to be installer friendly which is a good thing.
One thing Alcoa has always done well is accessory items like Door Surrounds, and their coil stock (vinyl clad aluminum) for "wrapping facia boards, etc." has always been of the finest quality hearkening back to their aluminum fame.
This is a stock Alcoa house picture which doesn't really do the wide vinyl siding pictorial justice. I am sure the 7 inch panel will be very impressive up close.
