Good afternoon everybody. I’m a long time lurker, but this is my first time posting. I have a 1930s colonial w/ an addition built sometime in the 90s. Due to some flashing issues when the addition was built, I have to replace the rotten sections of sheathing and siding on the addition, and eventually use that same new siding on the rest of the house as the existing siding rots. I’m looking at the hardie artisan beaded lap siding to better match the old growth siding on the original part of the house, but I’m a little concerned whether the old foundation will be able to support the added weight of this thicker FC siding.

The original part of the house has a brick foundation w/ 14″ brick footers. Most of it has an unfinished basement, but it is partial crawlspace as well. It has 1/4″ slate shingles for the roof and the soil is mostly clay. There has been a little settling under the part of the house that’s sitting on crawlspace, but no issues with the structure sitting on basement. I believe that settling may be in part due to the fact that the gutter downspout outlets led straight down on both corners of that portion of the house for decades. The original part of the house has old growth cypress lap siding 3/4″ thick beveled and beaded, and the hardie artisan sample matches very closely, but I’m honestly worried about the weight being 4.55lbs. per square foot, given the clay soil, the brick foundation/footer, and some of the settling that’s already occurred.

I’m also considering the non-artisan hardie beaded, which comes in at about 2.3lbs. per square foot and is much cheaper. It just doesn’t have the same look and shadowlines as the old siding.  I’ve considered having a structural engineer take a look at this, but wanted to get some opinions here first from folks who may have worked with the artisan or have experience with heavier cladding on older homes. Thanks in advance.

This is what I’m considering: https://builderswarehouse.com/james-hardie-artisan-beaded-lap-siding-825×144-primed-1pc.html