Hardiplank siding...opinions please.

[Luther Oswalt]

I have it on my house, garage and shop. It is maintenance free and is a beautiful siding ... you will cerntainly like it ... be sure to follow their instructions when installing it ...
Leo

[Bryan Parlor]

I am considering using prefinished hardiplank siding on my home. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks,
EG

I have been very pleased with Hardie shingle side but it was very time consuming to install (our house has a lot of windows and a 45 deg roof going down three floors). I would have used the Shingle side panels if they had been approved for use in our area. Its holding the paint very well.

To keep the dust down I scribed the cuts with a utility knife and snapped the shingles in a workmate. Any cut ends that were visible were cleaned with the utility knife. Its helpful to put the nail holes in on the ground if your hand nailing.

I used the Hardie plank as a starter strip and cut those by the score and snap method but I found the plank material has a different composition and is harder to cut with a knife than the shingles. I did buy a carbide tip knife but found I liked the utility knife better.

Bryan

[george wilson]

No,I am not confusing Hardie with masonite siding. I had a house with that stuff on it years ago. I had to keep replacing it. A contractor friend mentioned to me that the paper layers rot in Hardie. He would not use it again.

Unless they started using something other than paper in Hardie,I'd be careful about it. Find out WHAT is holding the concrete together. This is just what I've been told about it. Be careful.

[Ben Franz]

I used HardiPlank on several projects, including my own house. I've never heard anything about delamination problems in the siding or panels. They did have a similar product used for roofing that degraded severely under constant UV exposure so maybe that's causing some confusion. There hasn't been anything in trade publications about Hardy siding problems. I like the product a lot and don't hesitate to recommend it to clients. I haven't used the prepainted stuff because of cost and I think there's too much "wear and tear" on prefinished goods in the typical construction environment.

Cutting is very hard on typical carbide tools and the dust is horrible. An alternative to the special saws is a set of power shears - I use Snapper shears but there are alternatives available. I find them to be as fast as sawing and more portable for use on scaffolding or pump jack staging. I cut from the back side and use a speed square as a guide. Tight cutouts are easy with a jigsaw and carbide abrasive blade. My $.02.

One other thing to watch - the siding is very flexible and will show any waviness in the underlying framing. It doesn't bridge over dips the way a cedar or redwood product does.

[Jonathan Spool]

I have used the shingle siding and love it. Prefinished is an excellent plan. Don't confuse it with LP siding which is crap.

[Ed Calkins]

We used the shingle siding on our house (in 2001) and it has been excellent. Prior house (cabin) had cedar and woodpeckers constantly attacked it. We are in a fire risk area and you can hold a propane torch to the hardie shingles without combustion. I would never use any other "man made" siding but Hardie is great and the shingle product we used (comes in varying widths to look realistic) looks just like cedar shingles. We used latex paint and after 8 years it still looks new. Ed

[Mike Elo]

Just follow the NEW installation procedure. When I put mine on my new house in 2001 hardie instructions said to leave an 1/8" gap on the butt joints and fill joint with a non specific filler. I used Vulkem 116. Now I have a new house that almost all the butt joints have failed. I complained to Hardie and the man said it was considered general maintenance to have to replace the caulking every 5 years or so. So much for low maintenance. Now I have to repaint and re-caulk every 5 years or so. But I can buy cheaper paint. I don't need 15 year paint now. The new procedure said to leave the butt joint tight and don't caulk and and putt flashing behind each joint. I think this makes the joints looks like crap. I would go ahead and put a little caulk in each joint just so they weren't so visible. It does seem to hold up well and takes paint great. A cheap diamond tipped saw blade will cut this stuff for a long time, it is very dusty though. I would probably use it again.

[Scott Schwake]

Now I have a new house that almost all the butt joints have failed.

Ditto that, here's what mine looks like

[Steven Valentine]

One of the best things I did when building my house. I did not use the prefinished stuff, but the Mexicans, ahem, Latin Americans did a fantastic job painting. They used Flood stain (similar to Cabot solid stain)...an excellent product, and they hand brushed two coats of a fairly dark shade of green. Looks incredible. Just don't use the Hardi products for your trim boards. We were told to use Mira-Tec (at least I think that's the name) and it is great as well. Out lumberyard specifically did not even carry the Hardi trim boards as they had bad experiences with them previously. Also, FYI, if you use Hardi soffit boards (12" and 16" wide) be careful, because they break incredibly easily. You can buy shears, or special blades ($50), but it works just as well to take a used circular saw blade and turn it around backward on your circular saw. And don't forget a good dusk mask. It is concrete afterall. Also, the price shouldn't be a problem...it's a third of the cost of cedar, and vinyl to me looks like crap. Hope this helps.

[Steven Valentine]

Should have used the 50 year caulk...

[Kelly C. Hanna]

We installed about 350 sf the other day to replace some beveled siding on an old house. Used the shears and wasn't all that impressed with them. The cut was a bit sloppy and it had a back bevel in the wrong direction.

The product is fantastic....if I were to have any siding choice it would be Hardi-Plank.

[Alan Trout]

Overall the Hardie siding system products are good. It is just like anything else installed wrong it can be a problem. And being an inspector I have seen many instances of not being installed according to manufactures recommendations. Far as durability it is far superior to most wood sidings and much better than vinyl at least in the hot climates. It holds paint well and I have never seen any delaminate. I have even seen it used for unapproved locations such as boat houses and docks in direct contact/exposure with water and it has never come apart.

Good Luck

Alan

[Bill White]

Used it on two homes, and am using it as accent shingles on the one we're building now.
Had to go to battle with the insurance agent to convince him/them that is did NOT class the home as a "siding" home (class 10 ins. rating). Finally won the war on that one.
Stuff cuts well with an old-fashioned siding shingle cutter like was used on asbestos siding.
Bill

[Brian Backner]

+1 on the Hardi Plank siding. Had my house redone about 12 years ago - one of the first in New England - I had to have it imported direct from Hardi as the only distributor we could find was in California. I had it shipped directly to the Cabot finishing plant and had it prepainted. Even with that it was STILL cheaper than cedar. It's starting to look it's age now, meaning it will soon need to be repainted, but it has held up well.

One thing I would recommend, because of the caulk breaking away at the butt joints, is to put a piece of flashing vertically behind those joints. Extend it several inches above the top of the row you're installing to within about 1/4" of the bottom (so 1" onto the previous row with the standard 1-1/4" overlap). Six or eight inch width would be fine. If you are using corner boards, make sure you flash behind them as well (I nailed them onto the house only at the corners with long finishing nails on a 45 degree angle - this allowed me to lever the the corner board up to slip the flashing behind it. When I was done flashing both sides of the house at the corner, I came back and nailed off the corner board before caulking.

Brian

[Terry Brogan]

A comment and a question. Someone mentioned R-value. There isn't any, to speak of. It's buried in the website detail, and well buried at that. It's very small. That being said, the standard Hardie is 5/16, but they make another version that's twice as thick, 5/8, called Artisan Luxury, that was, last time I checked, only being marketed and sold in the South. I looked into it because I live in Chicago and would appreciate a heavier siding in the winter. But I couldn't find anybody who'd installed it or liked it, and getting it up here was going to be a pain. Anybody heard of it?

http://www.artisanluxury.com

There's a product called bear skins for back-flashing butt joints:
http://shop.bearcubproducts.com/