Does Vinyl Siding Fade?

We get asked a lot about the fade resistance of vinyl siding. And like a lot of topics having to do with building product performance, the answer of “it depends” is both 100% true and also completely dissatisfactory to most of our clients. So to answer succinctly, yes, vinyl siding does fade over time.

But how quickly does it fade and what does that fading look like?

To answer those questions, we need to provide some context. I started in the siding industry in 2012, and fading in vinyl siding (specifically in darker shades/hues) was a hot topic. Particularly working for James Hardie (a fiber cement siding manufacturer, and the main competitor of vinyl siding in the area), it was common to hear my home builder clients complaining about how their dark vinyl projects from 2008-2010 had prematurely faded, and the subsequent disappoint their clients had with the product.
But by the time we started Blue Jay in 2017, it wasn’t a topic of conversation at all.

In the mid 2010s, our recommended vinyl manufacturers (Royal, Gentek, Mitten) all came out with their own technology or innovation to protect against this. The UV protection built in to the product increased significantly, and the darker colours that had come on trend were now performing just as well as their lighter counterparts.

The best example we have of dark vinyl fading (or in actuality, it’s lack of fading) is courtesy of a heavy July hail storm that hit Edmonton in 2026. We had installed Royal’s Marine Blue vinyl siding on the home 3 years prior, and unfortunately a portion of their left sidewall had pieces damaged. The damage (highlighted in the photos below with yellow circles) was on random pieces throughout the wall, and thankfully not bad enough that the whole section needed replacement. So we got to spot replace individual pieces on the wall without replacing older, undamaged ones. Included in the gallery below are a couple “after” photos showing new pieces mixed among 3 year old pieces.

You can see the lack of fading present on this 3 year old install. Another recent example, this time on a medium shade of grey, is a repair we did for a homeowner who had a hole in a piece of vinyl right by their front door. Below is a photo of the damaged piece:

And here’s a photo of the brand new piece (amongst several original pieces above) after our replacement:

The original siding was installed in 2019. This front entrance has a SW exposure, and had seen 7 years of UV exposure and sunlight when these photos were taken. The new piece along is near impossible to distinguish from the pieces above and below.

Vinyl siding fades, but it fades at a slow and consistent pace that meets expectations in a way it didn’t 20 years ago.