Learn Everything About Hardie Board Siding for Your Home in this Guide
The siding you choose has a major impact on your home.
From the aesthetic to the integrity of your home’s exterior, your siding matters. You may be starting to see signs that it’s time for a siding replacement, which means you may already have started researching what types of siding may be the best choice for your home. If you haven’t considered James Hardie fiber cement siding for your siding replacement, you haven’t really started looking yet.
The right siding gives your home personality and color and also offers protection from the elements. It’s understandable to be frustrated with cheap siding materials that fade or start to look shabby—or worse, start to let moisture into your home.
James Hardie is without question the best-performing fiber cement siding you can use. Our team at American Way Exteriors chooses it time and time again thanks to the unparalleled look and durability of Hardie siding. There are countless options to personalize the look of your home, and it lasts longer than any other siding you’ll find.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at what makes Hardie siding such a reliable choice for your siding replacement and what you need to know before getting started.
What Is James Hardie Siding?
Just what makes this James Hardie siding so special?
Hardie siding is a kind of fiber cement siding that’s made from Portland cement, sand, water and cellulose fibers. You also may have heard it called Hardie Board or HardiePlank, a brand name that has become synonymous with high-caliber fiber cement siding thanks to its unbeatable quality and style. Compared to other siding materials like vinyl, James Hardie fiber cement siding is thicker and sturdier. It’s even fire and pest resistant, unlike many other kinds of siding.
Hardie siding is known for its durability. It comes in all kinds of colors and styles, successfully mimics the look of wood grain, is incredibly resilient, and has a fantastic warranty.
Why does this matter to you as the homeowner? First of all, there’s no doubt of its visual appeal; it makes for an incredibly attractive home exterior.
Fiber cement siding also performs better than other traditional siding materials like wood and vinyl:
- James Hardie fiber cement siding is noncombustible. It won’t feed a fire like wood or vinyl.
- Hardie siding was designed to avoid issues like moisture and rot.
- Fiber cement siding from James Hardie is engineered to stand up to the demands of your specific climate.
- Fiber cement siding is unappealing to pests like woodpeckers and termites.
Fiber cement siding also has been created to outlast its competitors. Replacing the siding on your home is an investment, and James Hardie siding will look great and last for years to come.
The Advantages of Hardie Siding
Why should you choose Hardie siding? Let’s examine the benefits you’ll enjoy if you choose James Hardie for your home siding replacement project.
Green siding options
For homeowners who are looking for sustainable siding materials, you’ll be pleased to know that Hardie siding is incredibly eco-friendly. In 2020, Hardie siding was named “Greenest Siding Brand” by Green Builder Media’s Readers’ Choice Survey.
Fiber cement siding is an enduring product with less upkeep and requires fewer resources. That’s why it has a 30-year transferable warranty and needs very little maintenance. James Hardie also has implemented a “Zero to Landfill” project to manufacture products efficiently and reduce landfill waste.
Pest and fire resistance
Hardie siding holds up against pests like stink bugs and termites, and it’s designed to be resistant to woodpeckers, which means you’ll never have to replace compromised siding thanks to nearby birds.
Fiber cement siding is also noncombustible. It won’t feed fires as vinyl or wood siding does. It won’t contribute to a fire because there’s nothing to burn. Your family will be protected by Hardie siding.
Climate friendly
HardiePlank products are engineered for specific regional climate conditions. Here in Dayton, your siding has very different needs from siding in Texas or Florida. Hardie siding used in Dayton is designed to hold up against snow, ice and moisture and will last through a hot, humid Ohio summer too. With Hardie siding, you get home siding materials that are engineered to withstand your weather conditions.
Stunning Hardie Siding Style Options
James Hardie siding offers countless style options so you end up with a stunning home exterior that’s catered to your design style. There are seemingly endless possibilities when you choose Hardie siding to match your color and style preferences.
HardiePlank Lap Siding
For a traditional look, HardiePlank is a timeless siding option with numerous color and texture choices to find the right aesthetic for your home. With so many options, you’re bound to find one to enhance the look of your home’s exterior.
HardiePanel Siding
Growing in popularity with the rise of vertical siding and a board-and-batten design, HardiePanel is a great option for stylish exterior siding that will look beautiful throughout its entire 30-year warranty. Achieve the clean lines necessary for a streamlined, modern farmhouse or minimalist look.
HardieShingle Siding
If you want a handcrafted look for your home without the maintenance of cedar shake shingles, HardieShake will give you the authenticity of real shake shingles minus the worry of curling, rotting, splitting or warping. It’s the perfect choice for Cape Cod and cottage homes but also can accent a gable or the top half of your home across many architectural styles.
HardieTrim & HardieSoffit
Create all kinds of architectural accents, and protect your home’s exterior. You can accentuate columns, windows, gables, corners and doors and introduce gorgeous colors with HardieTrim. HardieSoffit comes in vented and non-vented options that protect your eaves and exterior walls from moisture and pests.
Countless Color Options of Hardie Siding
Your siding replacement project doesn’t have to mean choosing the same colors. You can update the look of your home with Jame Hardie’s beautiful assortment of color palettes for everything from siding to trim to soffits.
James Hardie siding is available with ColorPlus technology. What does this mean for you? Less work. ColorPlus technology is a special process that bakes the color into the siding before it ever leaves the factory. This process ensures that the color has well adhered to your siding for less maintenance and less upkeep.
ColorPlus Warranty
James Hardie ColorPlus Technology comes with a 15-year limited warranty that covers paint and labor to protect against peeling, chipping and cracking.
Just how many color options do you have? James Hardie siding’s Dream Collection comes in over 700 different colors, which means there are endless possibilities when it comes to the looks you can create.
As if that’s not enough, Hardie siding’s Aspyre Collection offers unequaled luxury and countless artisanal colors and siding options for a truly one-of-a-kind home exterior.
Choosing Hardie siding doesn’t mean you’re locked into the colors that James Hardie has to offer. If you have your sights set on a particular shade of a certain color, you also have the option to order siding that has been primed. This siding can be painted any color by any painting company for a look that’s entirely yours.
A Comparison: How Hardie Siding Beats the Competition
How does James Hardie siding hold up compared to other siding styles? Here’s the low-down on why our team at American Way Exteriors will choose Hardie siding every time.
Hardie Siding
Hardie siding is incredibly versatile and can mimic the look of almost any kind of wood siding on the market, like wood lap boards and cedar shake shingles. It lasts a long time, comes with a 30-year limited warranty, and is resistant to rot and insects. It’s storm-resistant, and with ColorPlus technology, it can come in a seemingly endless array of colors to match your style.
Hardie siding is 90 percent sand and cement, which means it never will contribute to a fire. It’s a great option to keep your family safe and to ensure you always have siding that looks great, maintains its color with very little maintenance, and is sturdy and affordable. You simply can’t go wrong with Hardie siding!
Vinyl siding
Vinyl siding is relatively inexpensive and doesn’t need painting, but the positives about vinyl siding seem to end there. Poor installation of vinyl siding means your siding can crack, bulge or warp, and over time it can fade and lose its luster. Sometimes it even can crack or break from the stress of the house settling or an errant rock flung by the neighbor’s lawnmower.
Vinyl siding can become brittle, and after a few years of icy Ohio winters and lots of hot sun, it won’t look as good as it did when it was installed. Being made from plastics, it will contribute to the flames during a house fire. Installing may even lower your home’s value!
Wood siding
Wood siding can be beautiful, but it is incredibly labor intensive and costly to maintain and replace. While it can be shaped and sized easily to fit your needs and provide beautiful effects, wood siding needs to be regularly sealed, stained or painted to prevent moisture from creeping in and causing wood rot. This may be done every seven years, but different materials vary, and some stains will need maintenance every two years. It’s all susceptible to termites, woodpeckers and stink bugs and provides no protection in a house fire.
Wood siding doesn’t always hold up well against the elements. In Ohio where we get a great deal of rain, ice and snow, wood siding requires a lot of maintenance and repair.
Brick
Brick offers some positives in that, by design, its nature and moisture repellent and won’t contribute to a fire. But brick has some color limitations, and painting brick is a tedious, challenging process, one that’s hard to do without the help of a professional. Brick siding is very durable, but it’s also quite pricey.
Ideas and Inspiration for Gorgeous Results
Do you need a starting point? With so many beautiful siding styles and brilliant colors to choose from, it can be helpful to gather inspiration to ensure your siding replacement project is one you love for years to come.
Whether your home has a traditional colonial feel or a completely contemporary design, your siding needs to reflect your style. You may find that you can achieve the perfect modern farmhouse look with simple HardiePanel styling, or you can experiment with colors for your siding and trim to achieve the perfect craftsman bungalow or cozy Cape Cod cottage.
There’s no beating the traditional, welcoming look of a colonial-style home with white HardiePlank siding, black window trim, and a pop of color on the front door, but you also can take a more adventurous route and play with more modern color palettes and siding styles too. Whatever direction you want to go, James Hardie products can make it happen.
James Hardie even has an exterior house color visualizer so you can imagine your exact siding style and color combinations and see them come to life. It’s much easier to trust that you’re making the right choice when you can see it all together. You can experiment until you find the perfect color combination or work with our siding experts to discover the perfect siding choices for your home and style.
Want even more inspiration? Here’s a compilation of a few recent siding replacement projects we’ve done in and around Dayton!
Installation of Your James Hardie Siding
Whenever you have work done on your home, it’s best to hire a qualified professional to do it. This is no different when you are dealing with the siding installation, where the siding should look beautiful and also protect your home from weather and pests. You need a siding contractor you can trust to do the job right.
At American Way Exteriors, we work diligently to protect your Hardie Siding, keep your yard clean, and give you an outstanding finished product with exceptional craftsmanship and pricing at a great value. Our goal always is to ensure our customers are totally pleased with the work that we do.
We closely follow the manufacturer’s installation procedures for the entire line of Hardie products. James Hardie has high standards for the manufacture and installation of their products, and we work carefully to install your siding correctly so that it looks great and lasts too. Even the storing, cutting and cleaning up of fiber cement siding all should be done in a particular way, and we follow these guidelines to the letter.
We store James Hardie products in their original packaging to protect each piece from moisture during installation, and each piece is cut custom to best fit your home. We also use caulk and flashing to be sure your exterior walls don’t bring moisture into your home. We use the recommended power nailers and direct-to-steel fastening tools for a secure siding installation.
American Way Exteriors is a James Hardie Elite Preferred contractor. We don’t treat your siding installation project as just another job; we know that it’s your home and you’re counting on breathtaking results and precise installation, which is why we take your installation so seriously.
The Cost of James Hardie Siding
When you have James Hardie siding on your home’s exterior, you aren’t just getting a siding replacement; you’re building on the value of your home too. Hardie siding is a long-term investment in the appearance and infrastructure of your home. And it outlasts other exterior finishes that require more maintenance. You’re getting siding that saves you the hassle of other siding options that need to be repaired, refinished or replaced more frequently. James Hardie siding holds up.
How much will it cost?
What should you plan to pay for your siding replacement project? With James Hardie fiber cement siding, the cost of siding is around $10 per square foot for the materials and installation.
Why not cut costs and do it yourself?
Some homeowners are deterred by the siding cost or the cost of installation and may try to replace their siding themselves. The problem here? They aren’t able to work as quickly and don’t have the expert training a James Hardie Elite Preferred contractor will have. They may find that they have installed the siding improperly when they discover major moisture damage spreading within their home. It also can crack if handled incorrectly, and you need special tools and nails for the project.
Fiber cement siding is not something you reliably can do yourself. Siding replacement is a job best left to the professionals.
What additional expenses may factor into the cost of my siding and installation?
James Hardie board is heavy. A 100-square foot section weighs around 300 pounds! Your American Way Exteriors siding contractor will carefully evaluate the integrity of each stud and beam in your home to ensure it is structurally sound to withstand the weight. After time or exposure to moisture, these beams can weaken. You may end up paying to replace some of this framing, but you end up with a much stronger, sturdier home.
Sometimes, older homes with outdated fiber cement siding may have asbestos. If this is the case for your home, you may incur some additional fees for the safe removal of these dangerous building materials.
Why James Hardie? Why American Way Exteriors?
James Hardie siding is a worthwhile investment for your home because of the lasting protection it offers. There’s a reason it’s the leading siding manufacturer. With James Hardie siding, you get impressive returns on your investment: You improve the value of your home, you get beautiful results, you perform maintenance less, and your siding is designed to last, unlike less expensive products that easily crack and warp.
And with American Way Exteriors, you get expert installation that’s done right. We even have financing options available so you don’t have to delay when you realize it’s time to replace your siding.
Warranty and Maintenance
Your James Hardie Siding Warranty
Hardie siding materials are all covered by transferable, limited warranties. If you notice a defect, you need to contact James Hardie within 30 days to alert them to the problem and include photos and a detailed description of the defect.
- HardiePlank: 30 years
- HardieShingle: 30 years
- HardiePanel: 30 years
- Hardie Soffit: 30 years
- ColorPlus technology coatings: 15 years
- HardieTrim boards: 15 years
For your Hardie siding warranty to be valid, it must be stored and installed properly, which is why it’s so important to have an experienced contractor install your siding.
You can find out more about James Hardie’s manufacturer’s warranty here, but our team at American Way Exteriors also can help you understand the terms of your James Hardie warranty.
Simple James Hardie Siding Maintenance
How do you care for your Jame Hardie siding? It doesn’t require much maintenance at all! You should be careful when caring for your Hardie siding not to void the warranty. Here are the best practices for caring for your siding:
You can wash your exterior trim by using a soft brush or wet cloth and a garden hose, working from top to bottom to gently wipe away debris. A low-pressure water stream is the best way to care for your fiber cement siding.
You also want to keep vegetation away from your siding and avoid the use of de-icing salts too close to your siding.
If you have HardiePlank, HardieShingles or HardiePanels with ColorPlus technology, you also can touch up any small chips, nicks, scrapes or nail holes in the paint that arise over time with a ColorPlus Touch-Up Kit. Any touch-up areas larger than a dime should be repaired by a professional with a new section of siding, not repainted.
American Way Exteriors: An Elite Preferred Contractor
James Hardie takes great pride in its products and wants to see its customers enjoy their new siding for many years. This is why it has created its Contractor Alliance Program to allow homeowners to work with contractors who are trained and available to ensure you have the best looking home on the block.
At American Way Exteriors, we are a James Hardie Elite Preferred contractor. We are committed to excellence, and as such, we have fulfilled the requirements to be chosen by James Hardie for high distinction:
- Compliance with installation best practices
- Professional sales approach
- Satisfactory credit report
- State-licensed
- Liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence
- Workman’s compensation insurance
- Intensive background checks
Our training through James Hardie eliminates the risk of improper installation. We use the right cutting, clearance, caulking and attachment techniques to ensure outstanding results and to protect your warranty.
As an Elite Preferred contractor, we not only demonstrate high-quality standards and unbeatable customer satisfaction; we also specialize in the installation of a wide array of James Hardie products and designs. This means when you work with us, you can trust you’ll get a high-caliber home exterior renovation with exactly the design elements you want and need.
Your house siding is an investment in the future of your home. James Hardie siding has the lasting power, durability and eye-catching products to ensure that your home looks gorgeous following your siding replacement. There’s no better choice than James Hardie.
At American Way Exteriors, our commitment to well-installed, beautiful home transformations means that you’ll love coming home again. We know that you don’t want to let untrustworthy contractors, subpar building products or exterior issues get in the way of the home you love.
We’ve helped thousands of Ohio home and property owners install durable siding and roofing materials they can depend on for years to come. We’ll never pressure you to make a hasty decision, and we’ll even offer a lifetime labor warranty on all of our James Hardie products to put your mind at ease.
Throughout the process, we listen to you to deliver exactly what you want. We want to enhance the value of your home, and we’ll never skimp on products to make a little more profit. Your home siding replacement matters to us, and we’ll work carefully to ensure your home looks its very best. Want to learn more? Contact us today!
Recent James Hardie Siding Articles:
- How James Hardie Siding Complements Colonial Style Homes
- Stunning James Hardie Siding Colors for Your Cape Cod Home
- Protect Your Home’s Siding from Woodpecker Damage
- Common Pests Known to Damage Multi-Family Properties
- Trendy Siding Styles for Your Contemporary or Modern Home
- Is James Hardie Siding Environmentally Friendly?
- Which Siding Has the Best ROI — James Hardie Fiber Cement or Vinyl?
- What Is the Best Siding for Dayton’s Harsh Weather?
- Does James Hardie Siding Expand and Contract with Ohio’s Weather?
- What Is a James Hardie Elite Preferred Contractor?
