HardiPlank or Vinyl?

[Rustyiron]

Well whatdaya know,James Hardie Siding Problems | Hardiboard Class Action Lawsuit

 

[polkwrangler]

my house was built in 2008 and the hardi planks have held up great so far in humid florida weather...they caulked the joints where they but up and then painted it still looks great

 

[kenmac]

I believe hardy plank advises against caulking the joints..They now say to use a flashing behind the joint instead of caulking

 

[CalG]

I believe hardy plank advises against caulking the joints..They now say to use a flashing behind the joint instead of caulking

That's because the caulk will eventually fail regardless of how much the material costs or claims to last.
Then water gets behind the siding, the sheathing get's wet and if flake board, holds moisture. Then the siding stays soaked and the sheathing rots.
Ask me how I know.

I used roofing felt for the flashing, as ALU is also not recommended for contact with the cement board siding.

Grace Ice and water membrane works too.

 

[EddieWalker]

Well whatdaya know,James Hardie Siding Problems | Hardiboard Class Action Lawsuit

I know a contractor around here who have also tried to sue Hardie claiming it causes cancer. His son has brain cancer and he wants Hardie to pay for his treatments and compensation for pain and suffering in the amount of millions. He wasn't a very successful contractor and ended up becoming a substitute teacher. I don't know how his son is doing, I gave up listening to him years ago.

I've seen too many frivolous lawsuits to give them much attention. In time, you might be proven right, but in my experience, I don't know of a better product for lap siding then Hardie.

 

[om21braz]

This may be an alternative to look at:
Royal Building Products

They are soon to have this product to market with random vertical grooves to give a more realistic look. The homework has been put in on it in New England and Florida and it's holding up well.

 

[om21braz]

This may be an alternative to look at:
Royal Building Products

They are soon to have this product to market with random vertical grooves to give a more realistic look. The homework has been put in on it in New England and Florida and it's holding up well.

 

[Coyote machine]

In 2009 I had Hardiplank siding with the pattern, (not the smooth clapboard like look), installed after stripping my house down to the sheathing. We used Kleer PVC for all corner boards, window trim, etc. The HB was pre-primed at the factory and then given another coat of their specified paint, giving us a 30 year warranty on the painted boards. We put 1" blueboard over the sheathing before attaching the HB, and used SS ring shank nails properly spaced. And the boards were spaced at the butt ends, as specified, and flashing was installed at all butt joints. All cut ends were given 2 coats of the same paint from applicator bottles supplied by Hardie.

We used it on the entire existing house and the 30 x 30' foot addition and 12 x 15 foot L addition. Then we installed smooth surface HB on our 50' W X 40' D brand new barn building. Then we bought the house next door on spec, and replaced an old garage with a brand new one, 26' W x 30' D. Again all HB siding. We have had ridiculous amounts of snow, torrential rains and Sandy and Irene whip all of the houses, and barn to no avail. The existing siding, vinyl, on the spec house has warped in the sun, gone brittle and cracked, and is just impossible to deal with. If it weren't a spec house I'd tear it all off and replace the rest of the siding with HB, no questions asked.

IMHO, if properly prepped, flashed, coated as specified, the HB is bulletproof. And I've dealt with cedar shakes, pine and cedar clapboards, and cedar shake shingles in VT and on the coast of CT, and nothing does the job HB accomplishes.

The ONLY thing that needs any attention is my southern exposure side of my house needs to be washed and given another coat of paint to reduce sun exposure fading, compared to non southern sides. No failure, just some fading. Acceptable in my opinion. YMMV.

BTW, I've never experienced any mush or water absorption issues here in VT on HB.

 

[Egon]

Often we overlook the tried and true Stucco.

 

[dmccarty]

Often we overlook the tried and true Stucco.

But stucco has to be placed on correctly built walls the prevent water from entering the structure of the house. I saw a lot of stucco used in FLA where the stucco was simply placed on plywood or OSB that was nailed to the wall frames. Surprise, surprise, you could see the 4x8 sheets already swelling from the water. Then there was/is the plastic stucco that caused so many problems. This stucco would not let water in or out of the wall, but if water managed to get behind the plastic stucco, and the wall was not built correctly to handle the water, and most walls were not, then there was water damage to the house.

Mess up the installation and any product will have a problem...

We thought about stucco for the house in our area but bricks just make more sense for a variety of reasons. But a brick house needs the wall built right too or their will be problems.

Later,
Dan