Save Money! Improve Your Home With Artifical Building Materials
Believe it or not, you can build with plastic and no one will ever know! It’s virtually impossible to tell the difference between artificial materials and materials found in nature.
And artificial is so much cheaper!
Here are some of the best state-of-the-art building material look-alikes:
Fiber Cement Siding
Average price: $13,000 to replace existing siding and trim with fiber cement
Savings: 25% less than wood
Unlike vinyl siding, which comes in large sheets, this consists of individual shingles or clapboards nailed in place one at a time to closely resemble wood. Made from recycled wood fibers mixed with cement, this siding won’t rot.
Manufactured Stone
Average price: $1,700 to create an interior floor-to-ceiling wall above a fireplace
Savings: 50% less than real masonry
Get the look of real stone for a chimney, a fireplace or porch posts with these artificial rocks that are molded from concrete and then individually tinted to slightly different colors for an authentic appearance.
Engineered Stone Countertops
Average price: $2,500 to $5,000 for an average kitchen countertop
Savings: Same price as granite, but needs no sealing
Made from chips of quartz pressed together with resins, the best-engineered countertops look like real stone that just happens to have an extremely uniform pattern on its surface (man cannot mimic a highly variegated look yet – maybe in a couple of years).
Cellular PVC Trim
Average price: $120 per window or door, installed
Savings: Costs 20% more than cedar up front but lasts longer and better
Made by injecting air into vinyl chloride (a liquid form of vinyl) and then forming it into solid pieces of trim, the resulting boards get cut, nailed and even shaped into custom profiles by the same tools and techniques used for wood.
Stamped Concrete Patios
Average price: $4,000 for a 16 x 20 patio
Savings: Half the cost of bluestone
Instead of laying individual bluestones, cobbles or bricks, a contractor can simply pour a slab of concrete and then emboss and tint its surface to make it look like any one of those far more expensive materials.
Find out more about Plastic fantastic building materials at Money.Cnn.Com
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