It is similar to getting a claim with Michelin, they have a great warranty, but don't think their product ever needs it. This is what I have heard, I have never had a claim on any of mine.

 

I am going for a different style, and do want something that requires less maintenance, or maybe I should say the wife likes the lapboard look, and I'm kind of tired of this look.
Price is always an object with me, no matter how much money I may have/
But quality is more important, but I want to get out as light as possible. The roof takes about 55 square of roofing, I'm not painting it any more because I've never been comfortable on that steep roof. The porch roof is 8/12 and the upper roof is 12/12.
My original intent with the thread is to get opinions on the best type of siding. I'm not worried about resale value as I plan to stay here for the rest of my life. I just want it to look good, and have the best quality siding, preferably one that will last 30 years or so without painting
In this area, it's always as humid as an armpit, and we don't have as much wind as most places. So we have to use latex paint because any oil base just peels right off. The problem I've found with the latex is more like it just decays off. But a paint job with two coats is good for about 7 years.
I do have the aluminum columns picked out{Ionic, maybe Corinthian}, and think 4" lapboard would change the look of the house completely.

 

Tumba - I used to work at Hardie - there's a number of positives about the product - as it is a dimensionally stable product, it does hold paint extremely well (ie, no thermal or moisture expansion/contraction of the product - paint will not crack as it eventually does on wood such as cedar.) Additionally, it does not attract termites - I would imagine this would be a concern down there.

You could go either way with Hardie - prefinished or prime. The prefinished warranty is 15 years from what I remember. What's nice about it is that the plank actually gets baked after painting giving you a much more durable finish than any paint job in the field. The downside of prefinished is that your installer needs to know what they are doing - ie, repaint cut edges that will be in the field with Hardie touch-up paint, keeping the boards clean during installation, etc, etc. One thing to be extremely careful of is the installer going down to Home Depot & buying touch-up paint - although the color will match, the sheen of the paint will not - viewed from an angle, it will look like oil spots on your house.

If you go with the primed material, check into some of the paint mfgs - there are some that offer extended warranties on Hardie.

If you're looking for a very low maintenance exterior, consider a trim like Versatex.... be careful on some of the PVC trims - they move alot when the weather gets hot. Hardie does make their own fiber cement trim as well but it is a little more difficult to install - once it's up, it's up for good though. The trim also comes prefinished as well - something like a Dewalt battery finish nailer is perfect for installing - you don't want to be patching large nail holes all over the place. They also came out recently with fiber cement cove moulding and other pieces now as well.

Best advice I can give you is go to a reputable good roofing/siding dealer for your material (you should be able to get exactly what you want - there's 4 different widths of plank) - the key is going to be installation and using the PROPER tools.... it's really not difficult to install yourself if you have the time and right tools - check out the Gecko gauge & other tools at www.pactool.com

If you can get your hands on one, Hardie does make a "Best Practices Guide" for installers/contractors.... it's a great source of info on proper installation, what voids warranties, clearances, slip fashing, tools, how to cut (prefinish face down), etc, etc. Your local Hardie Installation Specialist (call Hardie corporate for name/info)should have these handy....

Hardie also makes there own housewrap and flashing tape now as well - very good stuff. For a housewrap (water-resistive barrier), you want a wrap with a perm rating in the 10-20 range. Felt is a perm of 5 and standard Tyvek is 55-58. If you look at all the good wraps, 10-20 is the sweet spot - fine for letting vapor out but not so permeable to let solar driven vapor back into the wall cavity. You may want to check on whether Hardie now offers an exteneded warranty if you use their wrap, tape with their siding. Whatever wrap you use, be sure to tape your seams to create a continuous air barrier - the amount of moisture/humidity that can go through a small hole is exponentially greater than any going through a substrate itself.

Good luck.... if you're still thinking of vinyl, go get a movie called "Blue Vinyl" off of Amazon - documentary done by a Long Island girl whose parents were going to replace their cedar siding with vinyl.... funny but quite interesting.

If you are going Hardie, make sure your installer knows EXACTLY what they are doing and has installed it previously - ask for several reference sites and go see them/talk to the owners. If you ever want to see a homeowner cry, tell them that their installer did NOT nail to studs as they should have (only nailed to 7/16 commodity OSB) and the only solution to alleviate the rattling noises in the wind/wavy planks, etc is to now face-nail the entire house, patch the nail holes and repaint.

 

I guess there just is no nail it up and forget it fix huh? I'm getting lazy in my old age. The wood on it is in pretty good shape, as I stated before, there is only one tiny spot in the back where the wood is showing signs of decay. Maybe I'll just take the hand rails off the porch and put Doric columns on it, then hire a painter and call i a day.
I thought maybe I could put vinyl on it, and just wash it occasionally, but it sounds like that stuff fades and decays also. I have seen pictures of vinyl sagging and stuff like that, and was wondering if there was a top notch brand that was better.
Thanks for all the advice, I knew I could get straight talk here, thats why I poised the question here.
Thanks again for all That replied, all advice is appreciated.

 

MikeF150

I will check out the prefinished Hardi, when I read it the first time all I saw was the "Prime" . i also notice PawPaw said that is what is on his house. it looks good. That maybe where I end up.
But you also mentioned using Versatex for the trim. So the Hardi doesn't make the Trim pieces?
Thanks again.

 

What I plan on doing to my house.
http://www.usseamless.com/

And here is a nice little comparison chart.
http://www.usseamless.com/best_choice.asp

Oh and it has a lifetime fade warrenty.

 

I like that, but there are no franchise within 200 miles. I'm going to look up some zips like Memphis and Dallas to see what I come up with.
Do you have any idea of the cost of this product?

 

No idea on the cost, thats why its what I plan on doing and not what I am going to do. I have the same problem there are no dealers within 200 miles of me.

 

Hardi does make a trim peace, but we don't use it, that stuff was way to brittle, I think the first job we tried to use we had about a 50/50 breakage rate, that we sent back, the first load when the lumber yard dropped it off half of them where already broken lol.