I'll say right up front that I know very, very little about siding installations, or Hardie Plank; I'm a painter and just found this forum. However, my dad's house was resided two years ago using Hardie Plank, prefinished. in one area of the house, the back of a detached garage, some of the finish is flaking off the siding, starting from the bottom edge of the planks.
The area that's flaking off is fairly high off the ground. One piece of the Hardie Plank began flaking during the first winter it was on the house; this winter, the piece directly above it started flaking off as well. There are other boards in that area that show some bubbling along the bottom edge of the product, which looks like it's about to start failing as well. (I can't post photos because I just registered.)
All the other product on the house seems to be fine, including the back wall of the house facing the same direction. All the product was purchased and installed at the same time; unfortunately, the original contractor was a casualty of the economy.
To me, this appears to be a defect in the finish on the siding. I would assume the siding itself is still viable. My dad has about 20 boards leftover from the original installation, stored in a dry basement. Hardie's warranty would offer the price of the affected product times two, which is a miniscule amount at the moment. My questions, if you'd be so kind:
1) Better to remove the affected and questionable pieces and replace with new? Or repaint?
2) Could it have just been a few boards in that particular lot of product that are failing? Or does he have to worry about the entire house having an issue?
3) Has anyone else encountered something similar? The product seems to have a good reputation, and these problems are not in the area of cuts the contractor made or close to the ground, it just seems to be a general finish issue.
4) Any tips on prep/priming for painting if it's better to go that route?
Thanks for any assistance.
The area that's flaking off is fairly high off the ground. One piece of the Hardie Plank began flaking during the first winter it was on the house; this winter, the piece directly above it started flaking off as well. There are other boards in that area that show some bubbling along the bottom edge of the product, which looks like it's about to start failing as well. (I can't post photos because I just registered.)
All the other product on the house seems to be fine, including the back wall of the house facing the same direction. All the product was purchased and installed at the same time; unfortunately, the original contractor was a casualty of the economy.
To me, this appears to be a defect in the finish on the siding. I would assume the siding itself is still viable. My dad has about 20 boards leftover from the original installation, stored in a dry basement. Hardie's warranty would offer the price of the affected product times two, which is a miniscule amount at the moment. My questions, if you'd be so kind:
1) Better to remove the affected and questionable pieces and replace with new? Or repaint?
2) Could it have just been a few boards in that particular lot of product that are failing? Or does he have to worry about the entire house having an issue?
3) Has anyone else encountered something similar? The product seems to have a good reputation, and these problems are not in the area of cuts the contractor made or close to the ground, it just seems to be a general finish issue.
4) Any tips on prep/priming for painting if it's better to go that route?
Thanks for any assistance.