Melamine is more brittle but they are both plastics  so you need to get some paint that adheres well to plastics.  

PVC & CPVC get brittle over time and can crack especially at glue joints and threads, CPVC more so than PVC.

It appears the old boards are very dry and brittle, and would take significant effort to remove without damage for re-use...unless you can provide the free labor for that task.

Lexan (not plexiglass which is too brittle) sheet over each reachable window and door Lexan is the same material used for bullet proof windows but for that use it has to be much thicker than what we need.  

I was furious that he would waste my time like that.I have no idea how old the roof is, but the current shingles are pretty brittle.

If someone bounces a ball of your house in 10 years and cracks a piece of brittle vinyl siding, how are you going to match this fairly faded piece of siding, even if you can still get a new piece?

Also, do you have knob and tube that looks brittle?

The hardie board which was buried in about 3" of dirt, was completely brittle.  

Over time vinyl siding becomes brittle and is more prone to cracking.

Upon the age of the remodel job the sheetrock nails pull thru and the rock gets brittle which creates cracks.