Fiber Cement Siding

[buckeye]

My wife and I are looking at installing a Unibilt modular home on our new 15 acres we just purchased. I was thinking of getting the home delivered without vinyl siding and having fiber cement siding installed. Has anyone had any experience with this type of siding? I am open to any and all suggestions. Thanks in advance.

 

[Rodneyd]

I replaced the gable ends of my house last year with Hardi-plank siding, made by James Hardi and available at Home Depot or Lowes (and I'm sure at other places as well). It's not easy to work with and cuts are harder to make than wood because you have to use a masonary blade on the saw but I would do it again. It paints well and the paint job is suppose to last up to 10 years if you use a quality paint. Add the fact that it doesn't warp, crack, burn and to me it was well worth it. From 5 feet away it looks every bit as good as the real wood. Downside is that it isn't cheap, heavier than wood products and brittle to work with so if you are using the 12' lengths of lap siding you have to be careful you don't break it. After 15 years in this Texas heat my cedar siding and facia board was warped, split and looked bad, despite the several coats of paint, etc I put on. I would say, go for it.

Rod

 

[GlennT]

We had a large shed (garage) built a year ago and it is sheathed with 4 x 8 foot sheets of the cement board. It seems to be an excellent product; however, it does have the disadvantages mentioned earlier--weight and brittleness. Use a contractor or carpenter that has worked with the stuff before; our's hadn't and had to learn on the job. The cement board is difficult to nail through--especially the 1 x 4 inch trim. You have to use a nail gun adjusted for this material or drill holes in the trim. It dents easily and pieces break off easily if you try to set nails too close to the edge. Once up, however, the siding should last a long, long time and it looks good. I like the fact that it is fireproof, also. You do need some young turks to carry 4 x 8 foot sheets; those suckers are HEAVY!!

 

[dmccarty]

Buckeye,

I have not used the stuff but if I reside my house before selling I'm pretty sure I'm using the cement siding. There are shears made just to cut the stuff but they are 250-300 dollars. Supposed to make cutting easier. There was an article in Fine Homebuilding within the last year about installing cement siding. You might want to find and get that issue. It might help in your decision.

I was talking to one of my neighbors the other day. I've known him for a couple of years now but have never been up to his house. He had what looked to be cedar shake siding on his house. I knocked on a shingle and it had the density and felt like a cedar shingle. Turns out the stuff is fiberglass! Fireproof and never has to be painted. Look REAL nice. He built the house maybe 10 years ago and the stuff was around $120 per square.

I'm going to try to get some info on this stuff. I might side our new house with this and maybe our current house.

There was a long discussion on modular housing in either the Off Topic or the Rural forum within the last 3 months or so. If you have not read the discussion I would encourage you to do so. When we bought our land we wanted to be in the house by the end of 2000, have a certain finished price and certain size. 1800-2000 square feet. We talked with at least a half dozen modular home builders. Spent months with the one we figured could provide the best product. When we had finally gotten what we wanted in the house it was 70-75 dollars a square foot. Our additions were windows and more electrical, phone, LAN outlets. Nothing really major. No hardwoods or tile. We will be building a stick built house for that price.

Hope this helps...
Dan McCarty

 

[GlueGuy]

We re-sided the south side of our house with Hardy panel siding two years ago (60' wall). The original siding was totally warped from the southern exposure.

The Hardy stuff is mildew proof, rot proof, termite proof, fire proof, etc. etc. Seriously sturdy stuff.

The downsides are that it's HEAVY. It is somewhat brittle when handling, so you need to be careful until you get it up. You need to be careful when nailing near the edges. It needs a good shear wall underneath (not great in shear strength).

We painted it with Kelly Moore "Four Seasons" paint that is 100% acrylic. I think this wall will still be standing when the rest of the house has turned to dust.

The GlueGuy

 

[BigDan]

We just finished rebuilding our house (tore the old one down to the foundation and added on/rebuilt from there). We planned and did use fiber cement siding. We are very happy with the result. The only problem is that our supplier (Curtis Lumber) insisted that it was only available primed. When our contractor started installing it, the manufacturer's rep came out to teach them how and left samples of prepainted. So, we now have primed siding on that we have to go back and paint.....

 

[BigDan]

Also, instead of using the fiber cement trim, we used vinyl "boards" as we intend not to paint the trim...

 

[TxBilly]

I have the siding on my house, but the trim work is wood. After 4 years, I had to paint -not because of the siding, but because of the wood trim /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. The siding still looked as good as when put on new. I have recently built a house at my property and used the Hardi on all - siding and trim. I really like it and feel good about the fire issue since I am not close to a fire department. I also used a metal roof and hopefully my maintenance will be very low. With the siding and roof, my insurance was a good bit lower also /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

 

[njrqs]

Hardi Plank hey

Another Aussie invention made it's way to the US!

Great to see. Yes we use it extensively here. Termite resistant, water proof etc.

Cheap, durable etc.

It can be cut with a diamond blade on a grinder. There is no asbestos in it.

Cheers

<font color=blue>Neil from OZ.</font color=blue>

 

[rlk]

Buckeye, I just put an addition on my house, and used Hardi-Plank. I liked it so much that I came back and re-sided by detached garage with it, as well as the gables on the house. It is great stuff, fire proof, termite proof, mildew proof, etc. Use a high quality paint and it should last a long time.

I did not get the primed Hardi-Plank, as that was not available through my supplier, so primed it myself, then added 2 coats of Benjamin Moore paint after it was hung. Looks great.

If you do the work yourself, be sure to use a dust mask when cutting, as you will create a lot of dust. I have a 18 volt Dewalt cordless circular that I used for all cuts. I started out with a high quality carbide tipped blade. Naturally it did not stay sharp very long. My supplier told me to put the blade in the saw backwards, or use an old cheap saw blade. I did both, and never had a problem with the cuts (other than the dust). I tried to rent the shears to cut with, but the rental shops had not heard of them.

As others have mentioned, the material is heavy however 2 people can handle it easily. The wife would hold one end while I nailed.

Also, I was cautioned to not use a nail gun, as sometimes they set the nails too deep. You only want the nail to be set so the head is flush and not below the surface. In some tight/awkard spaces, I did use a finish nail gun to temporarily hold the planks in place until I could permanently nail them. (Kinda hard to describe this, but when you get to the tops of the gables it is difficult for one person to hold the plank and nail at the same time while hanging from a 24 foot ladder).

Anyway, I don't think you will be disappointed with the Hardi-Plank. Have not tried other brands, so can't comment on them.