Fiber Cement Siding question---

How are you guys making long rips where wall meets soffit? All we have to cut with is a circular saw with a fibercement blade. I suppose a guide for the saw might work best but don't think we have one around. Are you doing any face nailing or screwing where the wall takes a bump or dip? (in order to pull the siding tighter to the wall to avoid a gap). Any shims or anything where the walls are off? I figure this would take a lot of messing around. We are using an air nailer and find it works well. Bostich. Thanks!

thesidingpro said:

I use a 16g stainless trim nail to face nail.

The top rip my guys have no problem keeping it straight.

On big jobs we have used a table saw.

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Thanks!
I thought about bringing out the table saw to rip it also. Haven't seen any larger than circular saw fiber cement blades however. We sacrificed our miter saw blade today making butt cuts, the blade was kind of old anywho. When you say 16g?

most often cape cod for the corners and window/doors trim, azek for accent trim for porch soffit, fascia, and deck post cladding


for nailing closing strips of harti at the soffit we run a bead of clear caulk onthe back to act as sealant and adhesive then face nail with the 15 gauge nailer loaded with stainless steel 2 1/2"

advanced_energy said:

normally,what kind of trim are you guys using around windows and doors?
are you using azek? whats the most common?
what are you using for corners? does hardie have an actual hardie plank corner piece? do they hardie door and window trim?
is each seam(where the butt joint is) get flashed under neath?
thanks guys

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I know I'll get the treatment for this, but it does have relevance to the thread.:shutup:All trim is Azek.

The majority of my customers will only except cement trim (they tend to think they have to have cement trim if they have cement siding). We usually use a 4" around doors and windows, 6" for corners. We make all our rips on the table saw, including windows. Since hardi wants a 1/4" space above all dripcaps (not caulked), for us the table saw gives the cleanest, most factory looking cut. No one up here uses vinyl soffit except for trailer, modular, and prefab homes. Aluminum is used 90% of the time.