Best house siding??

[schmalts]

Well, It has come to the point that the cedar siding and windows are rotted and peeling. Needless to say I will have less hunting trips this fall because of it
Now the big question. I do not want to ever, ever paint again. Who has some real feedback from both high grade vinyl and LP smart side with the pre installed finish? The LP smart board looks better than anything else on the market and I know they had trouble in the pre-2000 era products but it sure is nice looking stuff and the reports are good so far. The other product I like is the foam backed vinyl like Crane siding because it comes in triple 6" and 16' long sections and the foam now keeps the panels from bowing in like the cheap stuff.
Anyone have any real feedback on the Smart side and how the finish is holding up??
The Hardy plank is not going on my house, I have heard way too many complains of failures and the finish not holding long enough for my liking.

 

[shoots-straight]

Well, It has come to the point that the cedar siding and windows are rotted and peeling. Needless to say I will have less hunting trips this fall because of it
Now the big question. I do not want to ever, ever paint again. Who has some real feedback from both high grade vinyl and LP smart side with the pre installed finish? The LP smart board looks better than anything else on the market and I know they had trouble in the pre-2000 era products but it sure is nice looking stuff and the reports are good so far. The other product I like is the foam backed vinyl like Crane siding because it comes in triple 6" and 16' long sections and the foam now keeps the panels from bowing in like the cheap stuff.
Anyone have any real feedback on the Smart side and how the finish is holding up??
The Hardy plank is not going on my house, I have heard way too many complains of failures and the finish not holding long enough for my liking.

I'm on my 10th year with Hardy siding.

The first one is my house,

The second one is hardy at 6 years

The third is hardy at 12 years, and is looking like it needs new paint. No peeling, or blistering, just fading.

I have used the LP smart side, and it is a harder product than the hardy. I use pneumatic fasteners on my siding and was having problems with the harder stuff cracking out around the fastener. No problems with hand nailing though.

 

[brymoore]

I live in a subdivision that required either wood or hardy siding. I choose cedar, most of my neighbors choose hardy. We're on the same painting/staining schedul, to my surprise.

 

[dustinf]

I'd go vinyl.

20 years+ with little or no maintenance, and the modern brands hold their look extremely well. Definitely with properly installed Tyvek behind it.

 

[jvanderlinde]

Siding

I would put steel on. Yea its a little spendy but you will never have to paint it.

 

[Dinkshooter]

Stucco.

 

[mtmuley]

schmalts, the Smartside product I'm familiar with is a wood product, requiring painting. Hardi-plank, a fiber-cement, that can be had pre-finished, or, at least in my area, there are other companies that offer durable finishes on it. Even finishes resembling wood. I've installed truckloads of both, I have Smartside on my house. It is painted. Look for a product called conexel. (sp?) It is a prefinished lap siding product that locks together. There are other manufacturers of similar products. Steel and vinyl, seem "cheap" to me. Especially vinyl, and it will fade. Lots of options. mtmuley

 

[schmalts]

schmalts, the Smartside product I'm familiar with is a wood product, requiring painting. Hardi-plank, a fiber-cement, that can be had pre-finished, or, at least in my area, there are other companies that offer durable finishes on it. Even finishes resembling wood. I've installed truckloads of both, I have Smartside on my house. It is painted. Look for a product called conexel. (sp?) It is a prefinished lap siding product that locks together. There are other manufacturers of similar products. Steel and vinyl, seem "cheap" to me. Especially vinyl, and it will fade. Lots of options. mtmuley

The smartside can be ordered pre finished with a baked on material. LP makes it and then sends it out to a painting company to do some kind of baked on finish. That is the only stuff I would use and hope to hear of anyone who has had the stuff on for a while. What brymoore posted is what I hear about hardy plank, no thanks, if I wanted to paint I would put cedar back on.
The more I look at stuff the more I lean to vinyl. The wife likes the idea of a little of that ceader shake up in the peaks on the front of the house.
Good grief, one estimate for windows and siding was $32K That guy is on crack if he thinks Vinyl windows and siding on a 1800 foot ranch and garage is a good price.

 

[mtmuley]

Any warranty on pre-finished Smartside? Too bad you weren't in Montana. Could throw ya a OYOA member price. mtmuley

 

[schmalts]

Any warranty on pre-finished Smartside? Too bad you weren't in Montana. Could throw ya a OYOA member price. mtmuley

That is where the worry comes in. The painted surface is a different warranty than the board itself. I do not remember what the guy told me, but it was not long enough to make me a little concerned that I will still be in this house long enough to have to pick up a brush....
What is your recommendations in Vinyl siding?

As far as windows, I am a data and numbers guy and I have looked at so many windows my eyes are starting to bleed. Although I have learned that I will not go with the "big store" name brands like Anderson, Pella, and Marvin and Jeld-wen. There are far too many windows with the same or better U-factor and Air Infiltration numbers for a LOT LESS money.
Simonton, Plygem, Sunrise and Okna (Himark) are a few of my final choices.

 

[tarheel]

I had my house done in Reynolds vinyl and windows 13 years ago. The vinyl still looks like new, has survived three hail storms, and doesn't sag. The center panel of the bay window sprung a leak between glazings and it was replaced FOC under warranty just a couple of years ago. I couldn't be happier with the product, but I don't know how it compares price wise.

 

[mtmuley]

Personally, you couldn't give me vinyl siding. Don't like the looks, it gets full of bugs, and I believe other products are superior. If you hate painting that bad, it's great for that. Also, don't skimp on windows. mtmuley

 

[putm2sleep]

A tornado ripped up Windsor and the rental there. Vinyl is what I put back on. It is still like new. No issues.

 

[Lawnboy]

I've built 4 houses and have used all the products mentioned but vinyl. Vinyl sounds good in theory and a few homes around here had it up until 2 years when we had a rare but massive hail storm. Wish I would of taken picts It looked like someone threw baseballs at the sides of houses. Huge holes everywhere. Even though hail storms are rare here it's to risky after seeing that.
So on to what I have used. I've used the product Mtmuley mentioned called Canexel. It is very similar to LP Smartside products. They quit carrying it around here but there are 1000's of houses with them installed. It's a very good product.
My current home has Hardy lap siding on it and I have those cedar gables your wife likes. I also have hardy panels in the gables for a board and batten look.

The research I've seen is that no matter what product you choose I would go with a factory color. The houses around here that have painted there hardy or Lp products look like crap in 5 years, especially the south sides. They fade real bad. It might be cheap exterior paint but I doubt they all used cheap stuff.
The factory paint like you said is almost baked on and hardy has like some titanium in there paint.. So if you're thinking of saving some money and only buying pre primed hardy or Lp and painting it yourself, I would say Don't.

I build and sell every 2 years so I can't give you longevity of the products but I do run my mowers around 100's of houses and notice how things are holding up. Kind of nerdy I know.

I think if I had to pick I would go with the Lp smartside product in a prefinished color. The reason is that even though hardy has their own finishes I have seen them deteriorate with moisture. You really can notice it around the High Efficiency furnace pipes coming our the sides of the house. The air is hot and moist and that combo has the hardy peeling.
All in all if you can keep your sprinklers from hitting the house and you use any of the above mentioned products (pre finished) you'll be happy.

 

[sluggo6850]

I've had two houses with seamless steel and both have held up well.

 

[WyOpitz]

If no hail go with steel or vinyl. Vinyl is cheap (Certainteed is quality stuff), been on our house for 5 years with no fading and survived slightly larger than golf ball sized hail multiple times. We bought the thickest (non-insulated) vinyl siding in production though. We are going to build in the next year and it will be either steel or pre-finished cement board siding. I like the looks a lot better.

If you go with vinyl, you could probably save a lot of money in labor, or even more and do it yourself. If you really wanted maintenance free, you could always brick your whole house! lol!

 

[1_pointer]

I build and sell every 2 years...

Regardless of the amount of money I could make doing that I'm pretty sure one or both of the following would happen:
1. I'd be divorced (wifey and I see things much differently when it comes to house)
2. I'd be nuttier than pet coon.

Lawnboy, you are definitely a better man than I and probably have a much lower house payment to boot!

 

[RobG]

I've built 4 houses and have used all the products mentioned but vinyl. Vinyl sounds good in theory and a few homes around here had it up until 2 years when we had a rare but massive hail storm. Wish I would of taken picts It looked like someone threw baseballs at the sides of houses. Huge holes everywhere. Even though hail storms are rare here it's to risky after seeing that.

Here ya go:

My new hardy plank made it through the storm untouched even though we had a window broken.

 

[passinthru]

Two contractors we've been working with this winter, have used the LP quite a bit in the last ten years. Both have had great luck. We're leaning towards using it, it's not a ton more than the premium color vinyl. I do wish there was a primer or something on the back.

I've put the project out to four contractors to bid and three have had problems with the fiber cement cracking when using the darker colors. So we've decided against that.

Good luck.

 

[schmalts]

Wow, when it rains...... So I was taking a leak last night and happened to look up at the wall and what the hell? That looks like a wet area! Yep, I have a roof leak now. I just got done swimming through a sea of blow in fiberglass to find out the area around the chimney box is leaking. Not sure if it is a flashing (probably) or something else but the wood is shot in about a 2X4 foot area. Well, the siding had to come off that box, so now the whole box will come off, and some shingles peeled back and some new wood and flashing put in. The damn roof is only 6 years old..... the jerk that did it did not replace the flashing. I would take him to court but he put a shotgun in his mouth a couple years ago.