Hi everyone. I’m a few years away from having a new house built and I’m trying to get a good picture in my mind about some of the materials I will use. I’ve been hearing a lot about some of the composite siding available that looks much more natural than vinyl and holds paint very well. One of the manufacturers is James Hardie Siding. Does anyone have any experience with these materials? What are your opinions of James Hardie Siding, or any other manufacturer? I’m also a very environmentally conscious person, and am wondering if these materials leach any substances that could be harmful.
Thanks
Ryan
Replies
ry91,
The Hardie fiber-cement siding is great stuff, often discussed here. Try searching the site here; you should find a lot. No known health issues other than dust inhalation and back strain for the installers. I live in drywood termite country, and used Hardie products to enclose my cornices when I redid my roof.
Bill
I prefer Certainteed's Weather Board siding. I think the sealing process is somewhat better and the embossed cedar impression on the product is by far the most realistic.
That being said, I have not heard or experienced anything bad with the Hardi Plank
Environmentally I think the major brands are equivalent. They have a lot going for them. There are several environmental benefits in their favor.
First, is the extreme durability and very long life. With a life span of at least 50 years, possibly several hundred, it won't end up in a landfill for a very long time. Second is the appearance. People rarely mention ugliness as an environmental hazard, but it's quite a large one, in fact. Install something ugly and the next homeowner is going to rip it out and send it to the landfill. So ugly is as much an environmental drain as disposable. The fiber cement materials being much better looking than many alternatives are likely to remain in productive use for a long time. Third, they essentially have only three ingredients: sand, cement, and cellulose fiber. It's quite an environmentally benign composition. Fourth, the materials hold paint so well that you may very well not need to paint for 15 years compared to a much shorter interval for all the various wood based products. They also take acrylic and latex paints, in fact, they cannot be painted with oil based paints.
You don't mention your location, but resistance to insects, hurricanes, fires, hail, etc. is excellent.
Of the major brands I've only used the James Hardie product, and like it very much.
Even though the material is truly a "composite", the industry does not use that term. I think the reason is that there have been other materials, such as particle board, that crumbled after a few years which were called composites. Fiber cement is a very different material and I think the industry wisely avoids associating themselves with the pressed cardboard products.
Hardie's website is http://www.jameshardie.com