What OpenRange hangs
One trade, taken seriously
Fiber cement, engineered wood, insulation-backed panel, and the millwork that finishes them — nothing else. No roofing, no windows, no driveways: the skin of the house is a whole trade on the prairie edge, and the crew that starts your wall is the crew that walks it with you at the end.
Wrapped before it is boarded
Every wall we close in carries house-wrap lapped shingle-style, seams taped and cap-nailed, and integrated flashings at every opening — before a single finish board goes up. If the weather arrives mid-job, it has to beat the tape, not the boards.
01
Fiber-cement lap — $9.10–11.80 / sq ft
5/16″ James Hardie lap at a 7.25″ exposure, blind-nailed on gauge, ColorPlus factory finish carrying its 30-year warranty against chalking and fading. It does not swell in driven rain, it does not feed a termite, and it shrugs off the hail that writes off a vinyl street.
02
Insulation-backed panel — $11.40–13.90 / sq ft
Foam-backed fiber-cement and insulated panel systems: the siding and a continuous insulating layer in one pass, R-3 to R-5 added at the face of the stud, fastened on its own engineered track so the foam never carries the board. The quietest upgrade on a windy section line.
03
Trim, soffit & fascia — $9–14 / lin ft
Fiber-cement corner boards and casings with 3/16″ sealed butt joints, ventilated soffit runs, aluminum-wrapped fascia. The millwork is what makes a re-side read built instead of re-skinned — measured to the linear foot, never eyeballed.
Straight rates
The rate card, printed like a weather report
Square-foot and linear-foot rates off last season’s finished jobs from Verlo to Nine Mile Ford — walls measured flat, openings counted, nothing rounded. Tear-off, dumpster, wrap, flashings and the magnet sweep are inside every number.
Full tear-off & re-side, Hardie lapfrom $9.10 / sq ft
Old siding off to bare sheathing, repairs priced before they surprise you, wrap, flash, hang, caulk, sweep
Insulated panel upgrade+$1.90 / sq ft
Foam-backed panel in place of hollow board, R-3–R-5 continuous at the stud face
Engineered-wood lap, painted on site$7.30–8.70 / sq ft
Treated strand core, primed, two sprayed coats in any color the street wears
Board & batten gable fieldfrom $8.90 / sq ft
Vertical panel with batten seams, vented gable panels included
Soffit, fascia & corner boards$9–14 / lin ft
Ventilated soffit, wrapped fascia, 4/4 cement casings, sealed 3/16″ joints
Storm scope, writtenfree
Wind and hail damage photographed from the ladder, written in the adjuster’s own format
Recent hangs
Three seasons of prairie work
Six walls from the 2025–2026 seasons, photographed at the final walk with nothing staged. The prairie light does the color-correcting.
How it goes
Nineteen days, storm permitting
Days 1–2
Walk-around & order
Walls measured flat, openings counted, samples left in your yard light for a week. The order goes to the distributor against your ColorPlus code, and the fixed quote is in your email before the truck leaves the yard.
Days 3–5
Tear-off & close-in
Old siding off wall by wall, sheathing repaired where forty years of prairie weather got into it, then the wrap: lapped shingle-style, taped, cap-nailed, flashed at every opening. The house sleeps watertight every night of the job.
Days 6–15
Hang & trim
Starter strip set to a laser, blind-nailed to the gauge, 10 mm rain-screen battens holding the wall off the wrap. The gauge sheet stays taped to the job box where you and the county inspector can both read it.
Days 16–18
Caulk, coat & clean
Butt joints sealed at 3/16″, site-painted runs get their second sprayed coat, and the magnet sweep runs twice — once for fasteners, once for pride.
Day 19
The walk
Every elevation inspected together, the touch-up kit left in the garage, and both warranties registered the same week — five years on our labor, thirty on the finish, both in your name.
The outfit, in figures
The prairie says
Word travels at the grain elevator
The June derecho took the west wall apart — ninety miles an hour across two miles of open section line. OpenRange had the wrap on before the adjuster called back, wrote the scope in his format, and matched the original lap profile inside a month. The new wall is better than the one the house was born with.
The insulated panels changed the house. The master bedroom sits on the weather side, and for the first winter since 1987 you cannot hear the wind in it — the thermostat noticed before we did. They also told us the garage wall did not need the upgrade, and knocked it off the order.
Three quotes, one demo: the salesman talked for an hour, OpenRange set a corner sample in the drive and let me put a fingernail in the butt joint. You could see the gauge marks on the sample course. We signed that afternoon, and the schedule they printed is the schedule that happened.
Before you call
Straight answers, wind-tested
The five we get on every first call into the yard. If yours is not here, the shop line at the bottom of the page runs seven to five, prairie-wide, ladder included.
How much does hail actually do to fiber cement?
A 1.75-inch stone at terminal velocity leaves a mark you can wipe off with a rag; the same stone writes off a vinyl panel outright. That is the whole argument for cement on the prairie — the roof takes the insurance claim, the walls just take the weather.
Can you re-side over what is already there?
We will not, and the reason is not upselling: an overlay traps the old layer’s moisture against the sheathing and halves the fastener rating the manufacturer will honor. Tear-off to bare sheathing is the only hang we will put our five-year labor warranty behind.
What is an insulation-backed panel honestly worth?
On a sheltered in-town wall, not much, and we say so. On a section line facing two miles of open west, it is the difference between a bedroom and a drum: R-3 to R-5 continuous at the stud face, and the siding rides its own track so the foam never carries the board. We quote it only where the wind earns it.
How do you handle the insurance after a storm?
We photograph every strike from our ladder and write the scope in the adjuster’s own format — measurement, cause, code, line by line. You file it, we meet the adjuster at the wall, and nothing gets torn off until the number is agreed. The deductible is yours; the argument is ours.
What happens if the weather turns mid-job?
The wrap is the weather skin, and it goes on before the boards do — an open OpenRange house has already ridden out two named storms without a drop inside. The schedule prints storm days in as buffer, so a green forecast is a bonus and a gray one is not a surprise.
Storm walk-arounds within 24 hours of the call, prairie-wide · spring hanging calendar fills by April · (555) 031-4478 · build@openrangeexteriors.example
Put the wall on the calendar
Town, wall age, and whether this is want, wear or weather — the walk-around is free, the storm scope is free, and the quote is fixed to the measured square foot. build@openrangeexteriors.example