[Grumpy]

What are your guys opinions on cedar vs fiber cement siding like James Hardie? Also in your opinions is it worth the extra cash to prestain the fibercement? Have you heard any negative comments about the stain on the fibercement?

 

[Unregistered]

cedar vrs hardiplank

hey guys first time user here but ill definately come back .as far as cedar siding goes its very nice to look at but a whole lot of maintence is required to keep from rotting out the walls around windows and doors. I cant tell u how many houses ive come across where the cedar acts as a sponge and holds water against the house becuz of inproper caulking and painting.ive had to rebuild whole walls on houses becuz of this.hardie plank is great stuff a little more involved in instullation becuz of predrilling some of the nailing holes but it doesnt soak up the water like cedar does.hope this helps.

small cont in MD

 

[Crankshaft]

We don't prestain the hardie board. Just caulk and paint with SW after installation. We do very very little predrilling. Use PC full head nailer and keep going.

 

[Grumpy]

Crank the hardie is available prestained from the lumber yard in most cases. All you have to do is osme very minor touch ups and your done. Costs MUCH less than hiring a painter and it's stained on ALL sides, not just the face.

 

[Teetorbilt]

Grumpy, I'm sold on Hardeeboard and everybody that I know is too. When I get my roof done I'm replacing the fascia and dripedge with Hardeetrim.
The only downside is that it's heeaavveee! They need to add some Helium into the mix.

 

[Adenmoor]

Grumpy, I'm sold on Hardeeboard and everybody that I know is too. When I get my roof done I'm replacing the fascia and dripedge with Hardeetrim.
The only downside is that it's heeaavveee! They need to add some Helium into the mix.

LOL

 

[Grumpy]

Hey Teetor. There is nothing wrong with Hardie, however I discovered a better combination. Try Certianteed weatherboards siding and use Miratec trim boards. The Miratec looks and feels more like wood. It costs slightly more but I think it is a much better product. The Certianteed weatherboards have a better warranty than the hardie siding and to be honest the wood grain on the weatherboards looks less engineered than the hardie. Like I said nothing is wrong with the hardie I just think the certianteed and miratec could be better products.

You think the trim boards are heavy? Try installing t1-11 fibercement 4'x8' sheets! Wow!

 

[Teetorbilt]

Grumpy. Personally I would like to forego the 'woodgrain' look and go back to the 50's "smooth' look. IMHO fake woodgrain always will look like what it is.

 

[Grumpy]

Your right, I agree the "Fake" woodgrain does definetly look fake, however if choosing the lesser of the two evils, I'd choose the weather boards.

The smooth looks nice on some homes.

 

[Unregistered]

Hardiplank stain

You mention stain on the Hardiplank. I have seen only primed and unfinished versions. They also prohibit oil based coatings. I am looking for a true stain to eliminate scrapeing and peeling when it is time to redo the siding coating. Am I missing some info? If so where can I find it. I have gone through the Hardie site.

 

[Grumpy]

I can't even buy unfinished. It all comes primed for me. Use a solid Latex stain manufactured by Cabot or Olympic.

Hardie won't have the pre-stained info at their site. Hardie is not the ones who do the pre-staining. Cabot and Olympic license various lumber yards with their technology and authorize them to perform the pre-staining process.

Where are you located? I only know of lumber yards in my area. You might try calling a cedar/cement siding distributor in your area and ask them if they sell pre-stained. There are only a few in IL that actually do the staining, but many many distributors that re-sell the stained product.

 

[Unregistered]

Different Unregistered than above here.

We use hardi, smooth unfinished as our standard siding with real redwood trim. No pre-drilling required. We never have used any pre-finished method seems like it would be just as much work to touch up by the time you finish all your caulking, etc.

 

[Grumpy]

Touchups are necessary. Sometimes the nail head needs touching up. Sometimes there is a scratch on the board. Sometimes where you cut will "splinter" and the cut needs a touchup. Like I said touchups are necessary. If your not touching up, you may be leaving points of water entry into the siding substrate, which is not good...

BUT touching up a spot here and a spot there takes no where near as much time as hiring a painter to paint the entire exterior. Also our siding installers caulk all butts where one piece of siding meets another piece of siding or trim. This is necessary for a long lasting system and because I am giving a warranty, I am not leaving this up to a 3rd party painter.

If you use pre-stained, the caulk color matches exactly to your trim or your siding, which ever color you order. When I say matches exact I do mean exact. The pre-stain facility dyes the caulk with the same stain they use for staining the siding and/or trim. You don't have to touch up the caulk.

 

[Unregistered]

Have you checked up on these jobs 3 or 5 years later. I find it hard to belive that caulking, factory finish and touch ups would look exactly the same when new or that they would hold up exactly the same with time.

 

[Grumpy]

The siding is prestained. The caulk matches the stain. The touch up stain matches the stain. Infact the caulk and touch up are mixed at the same time that the pre finish stain is mixed. ALL the above mentioned materials come with the 15 year color warranty. I pass this warranty to my customers. I have checked on a few of the jobs as I have driven past with unrelated business in the enighbor hoods.

I have had no complaints and view the job to be satisfactory even after they have aged a few years. Do they look exactly the same? I can't say for sure. Everything in this world ages. Everything is aging evenly.

The pre-stain process has been around since the early 60's. That's plenty of time to refine and improve the process. Nothing lasts forever!

 

[Unregistered]

Indianapolis

Guys-interesting discussion. What I know about the touch-ups necessary is this...touch up only the nail head or the "spot" While the color is a great match, the sheen of the touchup paint is different. so basically, don't smear the caulk or paint around and you'll be fine.
Also, contact your local Hardie rep--the one who works for the company, and he can arrange to get a tech support person (our guy is actually an ex-installer who has obviously put up a lot of this stuff) to come and train your crews! What a deal, and they seem to really know their stuff.

Pat Sullivan

 

[Grumpy]

Yes thanks for bringing that up. Damned near every manufacturer in the roofing and siding industry will give you and your crew free training. One guy even came out and worked a half day with us once.

 

[Tenn sider]

Hardie siding

We have found the caulking supplied with the pre-finished hardie does not match well after a few months it is very visible We have opted to place a four inch wide piece of coil stock behind each seam and just butt the product together the factory ends are already painted and you can not see the coil between the seam.
We rarely use James Hardie anymore. Weatherboards by certainteed is a far superior product Thier woodgrain is actually a mold from real wood! rather than an artists rendition of wood grain.
They also can prefinish a 3 coat product that looks like stained wood
Tenn Sider

 

[Tom Struble]

i used the weather boards 4x9 grooved panel with prestained finish around here i had to bring in more then i needed bucause of a minimum order requirerment but from a distance youd swear it was cedar nd 5 yrs later still lookin good:thumbsup:

 

[KAG]

Certainteed Pre-stained Redwood Finish

This was done last January. Smart trim was used around the windows and corners then painted. The redwood stained finish and wood grain looked good. The touch up paint and caulk matched perfect.