Hardie board siding has been growing in popularity due to families whom have less time to properly maintain their homes because of hectic work and family schedules often opted for a more low-maintenance exterior siding products. Hardi board siding has been giving the relief many are looking for, low-maintenance and long lasting, but does it measure up to its reputation? Or, is this just pure “Grade-A marketing” as usual?
How about an actual point of view from a siding contractor and not from some marketing company? I’ll give you my siding professional opinion here with the pros, cons, and prices of Hardie board siding to see how it looks under scrutiny.
Hardie Board Siding: The Pros
• Longevity — When it comes to exterior hardy plank siding, James Hardie Industries offers one of the best warranties on the market, a 50-year limited transferable warranty. When a company offers a huge warranty as that, it’s hard to say no to their siding options. So how can they offer a big warranty? It’s simple really, Hardie plank siding is completely rot and insect resistant, and can even withstand the corrosive salt spray near the coastlines.
• Appearance— Another great quality of Hardie board siding is that it can be made to look like any type of wood house siding out on the market. You can have the look of cedar shingle siding, clapboard siding, etc.. The siding color options are unlimited to your tastes and these colors are usually warrantied to up to 15 years on the finish.
• Fire Resistance— James Hardie Building Products, states that fiber cement siding “is comprised of more than 90% sand and cement, making it inherently resistant to flames.” Watch this video below to see how well hardiepanel siding compares to vinyl siding and wood house siding — I’ll let you decide the rest!
• Storm Resistance— As a siding contractor in Massachusetts, I’ve witnessed some harsh weather, be it the brutal winters, Nor’easters, hot humid summers, fiber cement siding has proven its ability to withstand the brutal punishment mother nature tends to throw at her..
Okay, so let’s discuss the Cons of Hardie board siding..
So what’s not to like about this type of house siding? Well, as a siding contractor and installer, I’ll tell you that a couple things come to mind due to experience in siding installation. First, Hardie plank siding installation is much more labor intensive because of its weight when compared to other types of siding. Second, nothing is maintenance-free! Hardipanel siding does require painting every 10-15 years.
• High Installation and Labor Costs— Due to its composition, fiber cement siding requires more time to install and resources required for proper installation. When compared to vinyl siding cost, fiber cement siding out weights its comparison by three times.
• Maintenance— Just because Hardi board siding comes backed by a 50- year warranty, doesn’t mean it will look the same as it did the day you installed it. The baked on finishes sold by most lumber yards are only guaranteed for 15 years. Please note, the siding will most likely outlive you, but it does require a paint job every 10-15 years – that’s better than wood siding, every 7-10 years.
The Cost
The one thing that still boggles my mind as a siding contractor and installer, the prices of fiber cement siding! It’s still way to high in price to justify not using and other type of siding. I mean sure, fiber cement siding has a lot of great qualities, but so doesn’t any other type of siding. Having fiber cement siding installed on your home when comparing prices to vinyl siding, you’re looking to pay almost double!
So in my honest opinion, the quality finish in fiber cement siding looks great, but the high cost in installation and siding prices need to come down, so if you’re willing to pay the high premium, go for it, it’s still a great product..
About cost, it is cheaper to use vinyl siding. New York houses are beginning to use this material for their houses since it’s cheap yet beautiful.
I would most certainly have to agree with you on that one, vinyl siding prices are among the most affordable house siding options anyone could make. However, hardy plank siding still would have to remain a top-dog in siding due to their resistance to fire.
Wonderful article about hardie board siding : ) My husband and I are considering having hardie board siding installed on our house. However, my husband likes vinyl siding too. Not to sure really what will use considering we are planning to sell our house this spring. What do you think would be a great siding option for us?
Once again, thank you for your help.
Heather
Hi Heather, I’m happy you found my article about hardy plank siding helpful. To answer a couple of your question regarding hardie plank siding cost and vinyl siding cost I’ll do my best to provide you some help.
Hardie board siding is always one of my top choices in house siding. Hardie plank siding has all of the same qualities as vinyl siding in regards to low-maintenance. However, vinyl siding isn’t fire-resistant like hardie board is. Also, hardie board siding resembles the look of real wood siding without the high maintenance that comes along with wood siding.
Now, if you’re looking to sell your home this spring, have a look at the type of house siding that your neighbors have on their homes. The reason for this is, if everyone in your neighborhood has wood siding, you might decrease the value of your home by having vinyl siding installed. So in essence, installing hardie board siding would be the better option – more pricer. However, if this isn’t the case, vinyl siding prices are highly affordable and would be the top choice in a resale of your home.
I am a siding contractor in Nevada & California and install both vinyl and fiber cement siding. We have found that the James Hardie siding has a closer look to real wood than vinyl siding. we install alot of this product in the Lake Tahoe area as it is easier to maintain than Cedar or Redwood siding yet maintains that wood look.
The Tahoe area weather is harsh from it’s mass amounts of snow and uv rays from the sun at this alititude vinyl siding just can’t hold up to these conditions. What we found was the best fit for this area was the James Hardie Siding.
Do you have to caulk the siding where it laps?
Hey Mike,
I was really impressed with the video & fire resistance of the Hardie board. I work for a home builder that uses Hardie Board exclusively for all the “wood” trim on their mainly brick & stone homes. I live in the Dallas area in a home that is approximately 20 yrs old. The home is brick exterior with some wood accents as well as the chimney being done in wood from ground to top (which I thought was odd when I first saw it since I am uesd to homes that are mainly wood siding with brick chimneys). The Texas sun has toasted the wood. Even though it has been painted over the years it is no longer worth painting & all has to be replaced. With the severe Texas weather of extreme heat & hailstorms, I am now convinced that Hardie Board is the only way to go no matter what the cost.
I may even suggest to anyone getting ready to sell their home, like the couple above, that hardie board would be a good selling point, especially if they showed your video.
I would also like to see the response to the caulking question.
I plan to install some 4X8 Hardie board siding. What type of nail gun should I use? A 16 guage finish nailer or a framing nailer?
does it have gaps??
We found Hardie board at Home Depot, but it is the textured kind. Do they make one that is smooth? Our siding is smooth and we need to replace the bottom row and would like to use Hardie board.
I have a house with hardie plank and after 10 years I have some siding which has cracked around windows. I assume the installer had moved the siding and created a stress which over time cracked vertically. My question is there a material that I can use to fill the cracks?
I have been planning on putting Hardie board on the dormers of my farm house, but my contractor can’t find the stucco look and he doesn’t want to order a pallet. This is house is in north central OK. Does anyone know where I can get the stucco look sheets without buying a pallet. Also, does it need a board behind it for strength. I saw a house built out of it and it weaved in and out like it needed something behind it.
Does anyone else have trouble accessing jameshardie.com? Every time I try the links Google brings up, there is no connection.
Does anyone have a phone number or a link that works?
I have been in market for new siding for my house for a while because I want to make sure I get the best product for the right price. I live out west and it is often really dry and there are frequent wildfires. I have been looking for a reliable siding that was fire resistant. I tried to view your video, however it was unavailable, but I managed to find another YouTube video that was helpful in demonstrating the different flammable properties of various siding materials.
I have been looking at hardiplank for a little while now but I have to admit that the hardi board prices were causing me to look around for an alternative.
I want something very fire resistant, and another option was metal siding. Unfortunately I love the appearance of hardi siding since it will give my house that wood appearance that I’ve wanted.
Can you please give me your opinion on whether I should choose metal or hardie? Your post did a great job of shedding light on hardie board problems but what about metal?
We just built a new home in Minnesota and used the “wood grain” hardy board siding. It’s pricey but looks real and is beautiful. I need advice on the best way to attach a picture, hanging basket bracket, stone plaque, etc to the hardy board. Since it’s a fiber cement, i’m scared to nail anything to it as it might crack. Any Ideas?
Due to the composite nature of the cement board, you need to prime the ends of all the cuts, and caulk every joint, and there’s allot of them due to the fact that the hardie product only comes in 12′ lengths.
Bought our new manufactured home in 1999. Our property home site is at 3690 ft. alt. in north central Idaho. The Hardy Board on the north side of house started splitting and cracking after four years and has progressively grown worse. When the first damage occured, Hardie honored the warrenty. How ever, they only cover the cost of the Hardy board at the closest dealer. In our case, that was 85 miles. The most expensive cost of the repair was the labor, not the materials. Now, after 11 years, the whole north face of the house really needs to be recovered. Noted in contracters comments that the edges of the planks need to be sealed. I’m thinking they were not on our home. The builders warrenty has long ago expired and in fact that builder is no longer in business
we are purchasing a home in Ozona Fl and will replace the existing vinyl siding with Hardie Plank for sure!!
Thanks for sharing the pros and cons of Hardie Board Siding. This article gives me an idea about the advantage of having hardie board siding. Will definitely give a try hardie plank.
I live in Central North Carolina and installed Hardie Board siding, soffet and facia on my home when we rebuilt it. One thing which I don’t think has been mentioned is the critters don’t like it. We have not had any trouble with squirrels in our attic, I have noticed they can chew there way through plastic (vinyl), wood or masonite siding with ease. The critters and I can live in harmony.