Hardie Plank / Hardie Board siding ???

[pharmvet]

Im planning on putting my home on the market. Its 3/4 brick with 2 exterior wall in siding. The siding has begun to chip and break (bottom row). Im considering replacing the existing siding with Hardie Plank siding. Does anyone here have experience with this material. I would like to hear your experience with it regarding durability, installation, etc. thanks

 

[Licklog]

We built our home in 2001 with Hardieplank siding and Hardie trim pieces. Could not be happier. It looks like wood, wears and holds paint as well as anything I have seen. Been ten years and all I do is wash the siding. I wish I had been smart enough to use composite for my decks, then I would have been happier.

I have attached a pic from last winter to give you an idea.

 

[Alan L.]

All of my trim on a brick home is hardy and I really like it. Its only been 4 years so not much of a durability test yet, but so far so good. Looks great.

 

[charliepff]

I have seen it from the fire department stand point. The resistance to flame is great. If I could afford to tear the vinyl off of my house and replace it with hardy board I would do it in a heart beat.

 

[CurlyDave]

Another plus for Hardie. I have had it on two homes and it is great.

The only real drawback is that it eats saw blades and produces copious amounts of dust during cutting. There is a special set of shears that look like mutant, overpowered electric scissors, for cutting the boards, but not the trim, that reduce the dust, but take quite a bit of skill to operate.

 

[dmccarty]

I put some Hardie siding on our shed barns. You are supposed to paint it but I never did since the sheds are temporary. They have been temporary for about five years and are holding up just fine even without paint.

The biggest pain is the cutting. I used a razor knife since it sorta works, just takes time, and it was cheap. At some point I am going to built a proper well house and will use Hardie. When I do this I will buy the sheers to cut the siding.

However, I saw an advert the other day for another tool to cut the siding. It looks like a very heavy duty paper cutter. I need to research it to see if it really works, is easy to use and is cheaper than the sheers.

If you use the planks there are some nifty gadgets that help hold and align the planks for nailing.

Later,
Dan

 

[9973720wb19]

have hardie on my 3 year old home in MD. it's great, looks new, no loose boards. we got the gray color and the contractor "field painted" a coat on it after install. however, I'm not sure that was needed.

 

[jinman]

Im planning on putting my home on the market. Its 3/4 brick with 2 exterior wall in siding. The siding has begun to chip and break (bottom row). Im considering replacing the existing siding with Hardie Plank siding. Does anyone here have experience with this material. I would like to hear your experience with it regarding durability, installation, etc. thanks

Dang Mike! It's a shame you are picking such a great product for the "next guy" to enjoy.:confused2: Too bad you didn't have it originally. I just had the whole south side of my house done with Hardie Plank to replace cedar siding that could not stand the sun's heat and drying. Watching the installation, the workers just cut the siding with a carbide tipped skilsaw blade (battery operated) and the siding came pre-primed. My contractor sealed every siding joint and along trim with sealant for an air-tight and water-tight seal. From the looks of the siding, I wish I had my whole house in it. I have no experience with longevity, but it sure comes with a great reputation from others. I think the James Hardie products all excel against sun, hail, and wind. Get a good contractor with lots of experience and you will not be disappointed.

 

[Bird]

Mobile homes (or manufactured housing, if you prefer) used to be bad about the siding rotting along the bottom because moisture got between the siding and the trim that held the skirting in place. But several years ago, our younger daughter bought a double wide mobile and I was surprised to find all the siding was hardipanel; never any rotting. And it was gray in color when she bought it; kind of a dull, slightly chalky looking, color. So she decided to have it repainted in a light beige color. I figured that change in color would require at least 2 coats for adequate coverage. However, she had it done with one coat of Behr exterior latex from Home Depot, covered completely and looked great. Of course she sold that place quite some time ago, but we were by there last month and it still looks good.

 

[sld]

That stuff is far superior to other siding products except maybe masonry.

I have the shears and they work great for straight cuts. I am still learning how to do the notches or holes for tricky cutouts.

Be careful, the dust it creates from saws is very bad for you. The shears produce no dust, just a curlycue of material as it cuts.

In the past, I used a jig saw. It ate blades pretty fast but the dust was a lot less.

 

[2manyrocks]

The owner of a fairly large roofing company here put it on his house. He's pretty particular, and I don't think he'd use it unless he thought it was a good product.

 

[Western]

My brother has it on his new house. He bought a saw to cur it and a special nailer to make it easier. So far he still loves it, brags all the time:laughing:

Has my Nephew power was it once a year with well water as to keep the city water with bleach of of it, or so he say's.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

New house across the road from me used it, looks nice. You can get it prepainted in certain colors.

 

[foggy1111]

We built our home 10 years ago. Brick and Hardy Board. I bought pre-primed Hardy and painted it after it was installed and caulked. Last summer our area had soft-ball sized hail. Much of our community was re-roofed and re-sided. I had my roof replaced - but never even got a ding in the Hardy Board. Many of my neighbors replaced steel and vinyl siding.

Our home still has the original paint....and it looks GOOD. My garage doors are beginning to fade (and I had them painted with the same paint as the Hardy siding)....but the Hardy siding looks like new. To me its the best product since sliced bread. If I build another home.....It WILL have the Hardy product on it.

 

[buck12]

I have hardi on my shop and have been pleased. In my opinion it is the next best thing to brick.

 

[flusher]

Im planning on putting my home on the market. Its 3/4 brick with 2 exterior wall in siding. The siding has begun to chip and break (bottom row). Im considering replacing the existing siding with Hardie Plank siding. Does anyone here have experience with this material. I would like to hear your experience with it regarding durability, installation, etc. thanks

My double wide manufactured home has Hardiplank (red) and Hardipanel (white) siding. Installed in Sep2005. No problems so far.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm a contractor and I use Hardie all the time. There are several brands of saw blades out there to cut Hardie with that just slice right through it real easy. They have three of four cutting teeth on the blade, and they through chips as they cut, but there isn't very much dust. You do have to wear saftey glasses as those chips can be dangerous.

The trim is a bit thick for a nail gun, but you just have to tap the nails the rest of the way in. Deck screws work too.

It's the best stuff out there and I highly recommend it.

Eddie

 

[texbaylea]

WE did some renovation to our house 2 years back and used Hardie products for trim and the gable walls above the brick.

We added a new kitchen and that is sided in Hardie Plank.

I was thinking about the recent wild fire North West of Houston and how many houses might have survived had they had used Hardie siding.

Vernon

 

[RippySkippy]

Love the product...hate the dust...small price to pay. Holds paint, and is a superior product to anything else out there.

I know it's probably not recommended, but I always used the diamond concrete to cut the siding...works really well, but good lord the dust does fly. It leaves a small "bur" on the top side being cut, but a quick rub with a scrap removes it.

For round holes, the solid carbide tile bit in a roto zip works very well, especially if you have the circle jig. Again DUSTY!

Keep high quality dust masks and safety glasses handy...you'll need them.

 

[Uncle Doug]

We had it put on our small frame home 3 years ago. We did paint it about 6 months later and it still looks good. We do have one piece that cracked due to stress. Our soil here on the gulf coast moves alot with frame homes without pilings.