Also called stone veneers, stone siding products are applied to exterior building walls to give the appearance of a solid stone or brick wall. It is available in both the traditional, natural stone as well as the imitation or faux stone exterior siding popular today.

Stone siding is perhaps the oldest siding material used in residential construction. Found on many older homes, it is still used today on mostly small portions of the exterior to add to the cosmetic appeal of other building materials used on the property. Slightly more expensive than other types of siding, stone siding is best suited for all purpose weather. It can survive some pretty rough rainstorms, or a very strong wind storm, and even the pelting from a hail storm. Rot, water damage and termite damage are also all in the past once you've armored your home with stone siding!

On the other side of the coin though, stone siding is also the heaviest material on the market. It takes heavy equipment and a lot of manpower to bring in the materials and secure them into place. It's not a DIY job for the average household as even many of the panels require two people to lift, let alone secure in place. It's also expensive and almost always requires the work of a skilled craftsman to both install or repair.

Whilst stone siding is very beautiful, it can make a huge hole in your pocket. If your budget doesn’t allow for the real deal, don’t worry, you can still achieve the look without the high costs by using another material, such as vinyl stone siding. Advances in the manufacturing of vinyl siding have made it so that your home will look like it’s sided with granite and the only people that will know otherwise are you and your contractor.

Simulated or faux stone siding is fairly lightweight in comparison to the real thing, making it much easier and cheaper to install. It is made of a cement backing with a veneer applied to it that will look identical to whatever stone you like, for example sandstone, limestone, granite and more. In fact, faux stone siding manufacturers often use real stone to create the molds for their simulated stone siding panels. These panels are also nearly maintenance free and may require nothing more than a wash with a garden hose every now and again to keep it looking great.