Exterior Siding? Steel or Fiber Cement?

[dalola]

Looking for opinions/experiences with exterior siding, based on the following:

In an effort to, A) reduce maintenance on tall ladders, and B) improve my homes looks & curb appeal; I'm considering a siding change on the upper gable half of the north side of my house. It's currently all cedar lap, and is need of refinishing. It's about 35 feet to the gable peak, so maintenance is not fun up there. About 26 feet wide, no odd shapes or cut-outs, 2 windows on the second story, 2 on the first story, in a square pattern. The plan would be to strip the siding (with trim & soffet) from the second story floor & up. Keep & refinish the cedar from just below the the second story floor to grade.

I'm seriously considering a contrast using vertical board & batten. My short list is fiber cement (James Hardie) or steel (Edco). Again, low/infrequent maintenance is the #1 priority, looks & durability #2.

Thoughts & opinions?

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Just did my hunting camp that I am building with Hardie board 4x8 sheets and used batten strips every 16" to trim it out, I love the look but I will still have to paint it every 10 or 12 years. My house is Hardie lap siding and it's 16 years old and it's held up well but it has to be painted every 10 or 12 years, my barn is painted metal siding and I don't have to do anything at all to it but to me it wouldn't look as good as the Hardie board. Charlie.

 

[PILOON]

We did my daughter's house with primed Hardie that we installed vertically rather than horizontally.
It actually, at the time, was one heck of a deal as nobody wanted 'primed' over pre painted.
This was for a second story addition whereby the lower level was all wavy (very costly) cedar.
That was 12 years ago and from the looks of it she'll not need and re painting (actually opaque stain) for a long while yet.

The end look with wide wavy cedar on lower level and vertical Hardie on top is very pleasing.

LOL, the roof needs re covering but the hardie is still good to go.

My house is all vertical wood (pine) and I completely sanded down to bare wood 4 years ago and applied 2 coats of opaque stain and darn it it is so mildewed that I need to re coat it again.
My take is that since we no longer have oil based stains or paints (environmental laws you know) and those water based stains seem to absorb dampness and if not in direct sunlight they simply grow mold.
I might simply drive south of the border and purchase some good old fashioned oil opaque stains for the next re coating.

Yeah, when I built we wanted real wood and not cheap looking vinyl or aluminum siding and we are now paying the price.
Sure wish hardie existed when I built, that or Canexel.

 

[Stimw]

Here is before, after primed and after painted Hardie Lap Siding on my 2564 sq ft house.
I sided the WHOLE house by myself 2 years ago.
And I had to use Hardie Backer Screws on the whole house because it has metal studs.
Just read the instructions and follow them.