Fiber Cement: Color In Or Paint?

austinbirdman

Hey, I did not see a thread addressing this particular topic and think it's worthwhile - I want to hear opinions on whether it's better for customers to paint fiber cement siding or to purchase it with the applied-at-the-factory options from James Hardie, Certainteed, and the other manufacturers. I am about to install some Hardiplank lap siding for someone on an addition -- it will be 625 sf of exterior siding for the addition, plus another 600 sf to cover some old asbestos siding on their existing home (the existing is mostly masonry with some asbestos). This will be my first Fiber Cement experience so I've been gleaning excellent tips from past posts. But this color question I'm not sure of.

house bldr

I do quite a bit of the pre-finished at customer request.Its alright but I'm not completely sold on it.Some of the draw backs-you can't face nail,you have to nail the top and cover nails with next row,a problem on long gable angles,under window cut outs,ect. You have to use color matched caulk everywhere,only available by the case around here! Quite a few small blemishes in the finish=possible future problems. We always make corners and wrap with metal as long as the cutomer can pick a trim color that they don't mind as a corner color.The local lumberyard tells us corners that match the siding are $$$ and always arrive broken.I think a good quality paint job will last just as long and alleviate some of the above problems!

cmwacasey

paint it yourself with high quality paint.I installed some unprimed hardi lap siding in 1996 and it was never painted.looks the same today as it did in 96.( installation was done in predominatly dry texas hill country.)

cmwacasey

old-fashioned time tested methods are generally the methods to hang your hat on.IMO do not trust new stuff.

Grumpy

In my opinion it is much better product when factory applied. It is done in a controlled enviroment in terms of humidity and temprature. In addition it is not simply applied with a brush but it is flood coated like a water faucet then smoothed with various brushes, thus more material actually penetrates the product.

Set the quality of the amterial aside for a moment, touch ups will be necessary on site when installing a prefinsihed product thus adding minimal cost over installing a bare or primed product. However compare that minimal increase to hiring a painter to paint the entire house... ON a 30 square house the cost increase to install all pre-finished siding and trim boards may be $2000 above primed price. However A painter may charge around $5000 to paint the same house.

When I tell my customers this, exactly as I have explained above, not one has ever opted for the painter to come in after I was done.


You can face nail if you want to. You are not supposed to face nail fibercement anyways, except trim boards etc... and we usually purchase color-match nails. Also we get the OSI Quad color match caulk and always always always buy a few gallons of color match stain for touch up.

Remember you can have the manufacturer install their paint and many states also have seperate pre-finish factories. I usually opt for the pre-finish factories because they offer a much wider range of colors and that sometimes alone sells the job. Another part of the reason I usually opt for the prefinish factorties is for the prefinished nails and color match stain. I've had a hard time matching some of the "stock" hardie and Certainteed colors.

So to summarize, there is no reason to paint new wood or fibercement siding anymore when you can get it done better and cheaper than the "time tested" or "old school" methods of having a carpenter do the install and a painter do the painting.

P.S. Any painter will tell you to paint it after it's installed

supercrew

you cant but you can

my kinda boss...

__________________
i only work off drawings

dshcontracting

Not supposed to face nail?? What about the 8.25 hardi plank on an old house? You have to face nail every 16 inches, no questions asked. I would rather paint it. That's what we do. The paint from Hardi isn't all that great. Scratches easily and hard to touch up.

RoyMelnick

The most effective way to have a finished house with a realistic look of "wood" by using Hardie Plank is to professionally paint it after install. We typically use the pre-primed product that way we can do the install, caulk the joints and then properly coat it in the field. It comes out to the same cost as ordering the pre-painted product and applying a field finish for consistency. The major problem with the color plus touchup kit is that it flashes when applied so you can see the joints and any touchup areas stand out. We also use a stronger paint in the field than most of the pre-finishing companies. Consistency is in the final finish coat. Longevity is in the quality of paint used.

pdxdesignbuild

I recently completed two homes in the Pacific NW, and installed Certainteed Weatherboard 4'x10', over a rainscreen with 3/4" furring, 24" centers. The panels were attached to the furring with SSTL ring shank nails. Due to time and delivery delays, I have installed both the prepainted (starting 10/07) and primed product, probably a 50/50 mix. I am finding that the prepainted board is cupping (or crowning to the outside face) as much as 3/8" on a 24" wide section now that summer is here. The larger panels have split, and in many cases completely. Many sections you can visibly see the cupping and on a warm sunny day are moving so much and pulling out the ring shank nails. The primed only boards, are performing as expected without any issues.
Has anyone else seen or heard of this problem? Certainteed's orignal response is to provide replacement material only without labor. They tell me that the nailing pattern isn't exactly what they want to see (however both my local supplier and siding sub agreed on the nailing pattern used) and wont cover the labor. If it was truly a nailing problem, wouldn't both the painted and primed material behave the same way? i am convinced it's a manufacturing problem, but i'm getting headwind to get this problem resolved. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

wallmaxx

I'm using the "Cedar" pre-stained Hardie. It looks great.

Sportbilly

FHB this month had an article on just this subject. I'm not a siding guy so I won't venture an opinion, but go read it for yourselves