Fiber Cement Lap Siding HardiePlank Lap Siding

Table of Content

• Hardie Plank
• Fiber-Cement: Green Building Material
• Hardie® Plank Lap Siding
• The Appearance of HardiePlank Siding

HardiePlank is partly wood, in the form of cellulose, and partly mineral. Break a piece of HardiePlank, and inside you will see a brittle core interlaced with wood fibers. Lee has over two decades of hands-on experience remodeling, fixing, and improving homes, and has been providing home improvement advice for over 13 years.

While optional, fiber-cement siding is usually painted upon installation. Carpenter ants and termites are always a problem for wood siding. Insects do not care about HardiePlankbecause, even though the siding does contain cellulose fiber, there is not enough cellulose to attract the insects.

Hardie Plank

Browse the photos below to see James Hardie products on real Hardie homes. The primed boards still need to be end sealed when cut prior to install. They said there was a lot of touch-up work they’d need to do at the seams with the pre-painted planks. If install cost is too high, you may want to install primed Hardie and paint yourself.

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Fiber-Cement: Green Building Material

As a rule of thumb, HardiePlank is about three times more expensive than vinyl siding. Factor in the cost of painting HardiePlank (with its embedded color, vinyl siding essentially is pre-painted) and the price difference increases. But fiber-cement siding, especially HardiePlank, does a remarkably good job of returning project cost upon sale. Another consideration is color if you’re going with pvc trim.

HardiePlank is considered to be fire resistant, but not fireproof. The accurate definition is that HardiePlank does not contribute combustibles towards a fire. By contrast, vinyl siding, derived from petroleum, significantly feeds flames.

Hardie® Plank Lap Siding

Just remember to re-prime with a good concrete product ( I use Sherwin-Williams Loxon primer) and 2 coats of a good topcoat. If you do NOT re-prime...I have heard of paint jobs being "burned thru" because of the PH value of Hardie. The cellulose fibers used in HardiePlank are not derived from endangered species of wood. The cement and sand used is in great abundance. Also, no toxic materials are used in the production of fiber-cement siding.

You can’t paint pvc trim dark colors, but there are prepainted dark trim options. Yes it would be more expensive for prepainted siding. It's a finished product, and have to be more careful with the install.

Exterior Products

We went with hardie, and the results are great. It’s a small house and we added windows, so the square footage was low enough that the extra cost really didn’t matter. We had an experienced installer, and everything was quick and clean. I painted after because I didn't want factory color and I was painting the trim anyway.

There is paint touchup and color-matched caulking. Also, have to handle prefinished with kid gloves so as not to scratch the finish. We invented fiber cement and remain committed to continually raising the bar for the rest of the industry.

Enter your zip code, and we’ll customize this site to show you the unique combination of James Hardie fiber cement products and ColorPlus® colors available near you. At close to 1/2 inch thick, HardiePlank is nearly as thick as wood house siding. Contrast this with vinyl siding, which can be as thin as 0.035 inches thick. A neighbor a few houses down went pre-painted and the paint touch-ups and caulking stick out like a sore thumb even though the color is technically the same. Was so glad we didn't go the pre-painted route after they did theirs. HardiePlank, along with other major brands of quality fiber-cement siding, is usually more expensive than vinyl siding.

For decades, James Hardie has made the most beautiful, durable fiber cement products on the market. Also, unlike vinyl siding, HardiePlank can easily be painted. You can either go with the neutral color that HardiePlank arrives with or you can paint it. Over the last decade, this project has consistently returned 75 percent or more of its initial cost upon resale.