This property has Diamond Kote RigidStack siding and Staggered RigidShakes prefinished in olive with sand nail fin trim. Photo courtesy of Diamond Kote Building Products
How to create exquisite exteriors with Diamond Kote’s pre-finished siding
Diamonds. They’re extraordinarily hard, long-lasting, high quality, and aesthetically pleasing. Not coincidentally, those adjectives also describe the products manufactured and sold by Wisconsin-based siding experts Diamond Kote® Building Products. Founded in 2004 and employee-owned, the company’s main manufacturing facility currently operates at 600,000 square feet. Two other locations—in Rapid City, South Dakota, and Stuart, Iowa—were added to keep up with unprecedented product demand across the U.S. and in Canada. These are just some of the benefits of their pre-finished siding.
1. Extraordinarily Durable
Designed to resist a variety of potential damage, whether from storm debris or errant baseballs, Diamond Kote’s proprietary finish is made from only the best materials and comes with a rare 30-year no-fade warranty. Not all paints are created equal,” says Andy Strey, Diamond Kote’s brand development manager. “The difference is what goes into them. With Diamond Kote, we only use the highest grade raw ingredients, and that’s what gives us the best performance long-term.”
In its unflagging pursuit of excellence, Diamond Kote also partnered with LP® SmartSide®, a top-tier engineered wood product that’s treated to withstand extreme temperatures, heavy humidity, freeze/thaws, and includes a hail warranty. The pairing is a match made in siding heaven. “It’s not going to mar; it’s not going to require touch-up painting,” Strey says. “It’s going to be durable enough to handle job site abuse and then hold up long-term for the property owners.”
This property uses Diamond Kote Terra Bronze RigidStack siding, sand board, and batten with white nail fin trim and nail fin outside corners. Photo courtesy of Diamond Kote Building Products
2. High Design
Whether you’re designing a commercial or residential project, clients can choose a contemporary, traditional, or rustic look. Diamond Kote offers an array of options that includes 23 solid colors and six duo-blends, with the ability to do custom colors. The application process is entirely automated for consistent quality every time. And designing to your clients’ tastes is easy with horizontal, vertical, or shake/shingle profiles. Diamond Kote’s proprietary siding system products enhance installation and the overall design of a project.
The popular RigidStack™ siding, offered in smooth or textured, accounts for more than 60% of horizontal siding jobs. Designed with a spline to stack and lock together, RigidStack can be installed 22% faster than traditional lap siding. “It’s a tighter fitting panel, so it resists wind up to 200 miles per hour,” Strey says. “It also looks flatter and straighter on the wall, making the shadow lines more consistent.”
Diamond Kote’s Protective Trim System employs nail flanges to create hidden fastener corners and lineal trim. Nail fin one-piece corners produce a much cleaner look and save installers from having to touch up nail heads, which can be very labor intensive.
3. Ecologically Sound
Because Diamond Kote uses such a durable substrate and only the best ingredients, siding requires only one coat. That’s obviously a plus from a manufacturing standpoint, but it’s also better for the environment, because while the product is completely waterborne, less is always better. “It was developed that way from the get-go to be HAPS-free for the benefit of our employees,” Strey says. “And we have very little wasted paint in our process. Even the minimal amount of excess paint that’s invariably a byproduct of the manufacturing process is disposable. An in-house press process extracts water and leaves behind only pigment that’s easily dried before it’s properly disposed of.
Using state-of-the-art equipment, Diamond Kote’s robotic sprayers apply finish to the boards with minimal overspray to prevent waste. In addition to the uncompromising quality of its products, one of Diamond Kote’s biggest selling points is the efficiency of its complete system.
This storefront uses Oyster Shell Staggered RigidShakes, Smoky Ash RigidStack siding, and nail fin trim prefinished in coffee. Photo courtesy of Diamond Kote Building Products
4. Efficiency
Diamond Kote uses the one-stop shop mentality to supply only the best materials and pre-finishes all products in-house to create a fully compatible siding system in the industry.
“When somebody is looking to use a siding product, they get a high-quality finish as well as all the parts, pieces, and accessories to get the job done right,” Strey says of products like color-matched flashings and RigidMount™ Blocks (for mounting lights, vents, and electrical fixtures). We make sure everything is compatible—that from accessory to accessory, all the colors match so clients don’t have to source out several manufactured items and combine them on a job site. We do all that work behind the scenes.”
