Steel siding in Minnesota and Wisconsin
Steel siding carries the longest hail warranty of anything we install, and the company that writes it is fifteen minutes from our Golden Valley office.
EDCO Products manufactures at 8700 Excelsior Blvd in Hopkins, Minnesota. Their ENTEX steel siding is engineered for the climate it is made in, which is not something you can say about most exterior products sold here.
The hail warranty, exactly
This is the reason to consider steel in this market, so here are the terms rather than a summary:
- 50-year Hail Protection Warranty on embossed surfaces.
- "Hail Damage" is defined as damage exceeding 3/8 inch.
- Hail larger than 2 inches in diameter is not covered.
- 20 years of full coverage on materials and installation labour for the original homeowner.
- After year 20, material only, depreciating 10% per year through year 30.
- Fade coverage if the product shows colour fade of more than 5 Delta E units from normal weathering or UV within the first 30 years.
- Transferable once within 20 years for a $100 fee, converting to material-only coverage.
Read the 2-inch ceiling carefully, because it is honest and it matters. On April 14, 2026, Dane County took reports of 3.00", 3.50" and 4.00" hail. Nothing on the market survives that. What steel does is cover the storms that actually happen most years — the 1.00" to 1.75" events that are the bulk of Minnesota and Wisconsin hail — for fifty years.
What steel actually does under hail
It dents. It does not crack, chip, hole or shatter.
That distinction runs the whole claim. A dented steel panel is still a weathertight wall. A cracked vinyl panel or a chipped fibre cement board is a water path. So with steel the question in front of an adjuster is cosmetic damage and matching, not building envelope failure — which is a different, and usually easier, conversation.
The embossed grain matters here too, and it is why the warranty specifies embossed surfaces. Texture hides small deformation. A smooth steel panel shows every stone; a cedar-embossed one absorbs a surprising amount of hail before anything reads from the street.
The rest of the case
- No repaint cycle. Ever. The finish is factory-applied to coil before forming.
- Noncombustible. Steel does not burn.
- Insects and woodpeckers have no interest in it. In the wooded parts of the Chippewa Valley and the western suburbs, this is not a small thing.
- Dimensional stability. Steel moves less than vinyl across a Minnesota temperature swing, so panels do not oil-can and buckle the way thin vinyl does on a hot south wall.
- Recyclable at end of life, and usually with actual scrap value.
The honest trade-offs
Cost. Steel is at the top of the siding range, generally above James Hardie and well above vinyl. On a hail claim where the carrier is paying replacement cost, that gap is smaller than it looks. Out of pocket, it is real.
Dent repair is replacement. You cannot pull a dent out of a formed steel panel the way a body shop works a car. A damaged panel comes off and a new one goes on, which makes colour availability the whole game — see below.
Installation is unforgiving. Steel is cut and formed on site with specific tools. Cut edges have to be treated or they rust. A crew that installs steel occasionally will leave you a wall that looks fine for two years.
The look. Modern embossed steel reads convincingly as wood from the street and less so up close. Some people care and some do not, and you should stand in front of a real installed wall before deciding, not a sample board.
Colour matching is the whole siding claim
On every siding material, the claim turns on whether the damaged panels can be matched. On steel it is more acute, because repair means replacement.
If the profile and colour on your house are current, a partial repair works and the claim is small. If either has been discontinued, a partial repair produces a visibly two-tone elevation, and the correct scope is the full elevation — sometimes the full wrap, where elevations are visible from the same vantage point.
That is a factual question with a documentable answer, and establishing it is work that has to happen before the adjuster writes the estimate. We call the manufacturer, get the availability in writing, and put it in the file with the photographs.
See how roof and siding insurance claims work in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Common questions
Does steel siding rust? Not at the face — it is galvanised and coil-coated. Cut edges and fastener penetrations are where rust starts, which is entirely an installation-quality question.
Is it noisy in rain or hail? No more than any other siding. Siding is fastened to a solid wall with insulation behind it; it does not behave like a metal roof over an open attic.
Will it dent from a ladder or a thrown ball? It can. So can an aluminium gutter. It is steel, not armour.
Can it be installed in winter? Yes, and that is one of its advantages here. Steel does not get brittle in cold the way vinyl does, so a late-season install is not a compromise.
Is EDCO the only option? No, but it is the one manufactured in Minnesota, and the hail warranty above is theirs. We install what the house and the claim call for.
What we do
We install steel siding across the Twin Cities, Madison and the Chippewa Valley, most often on hail-exposed elevations and on homes where the owner is finished with repainting. We also install LP SmartSide, James Hardie and vinyl.