Restoring wood siding or replacing with Hardie Planks archived
Sep 5, 2014 at 5:33am
I live on a newly built house sided with Hardiplank and it is incredibly energy efficient but I do not know if that would relate at all to retrofitting exterior with Hardiplank. House is well insulated in any case within the walls. The appearance of Hardiplank is very wood like but the factory applied finish does chip readily and fade a bit over time. to sure it is a great choice despite supposed durability.
We have Hardiplank on our back enclosed porch and cedar on our house. The Hardiplank holds paint beautifully (even better than the cedar) however one of the most important things is to find someone who knows how to install it properly. The boards are very very heavy and it takes at least two people just to hold the board. They can chip and I believe that you can't really repair them easily so that might mean replacement instead. The ones on our porch have weathered very well however. Installed by the previous owner around 2000 I believe and no chips so far!
If the cedar underneath is in good shape, I'd seriously consider keeping it. In the short term, it should be less expensive to paint it than to replace everything with the hardiboard, even if you repaint it a second time in about 10 years.
krnl said:
If the cedar underneath is in good shape, I'd seriously consider keeping it. In the short term, it should be less expensive to paint it than to replace everything with the hardiboard, even if you repaint it a second time in about 10 years.
Actually from the estimates I have heard about, getting the wood restored is about the same as doing the new siding. I would prefer this option but there the true state of the planks is unknown until we remove the aluminum. If there are planks that are very damaged they will up the cost. Also we don't know if the little enclosed porch has the same siding (wide plank) as the rest of the house. There is a chance that it has some thin planks which means that the entire thing would need to be redone and once again up the cost. Also I hear that the mouldings around the windows were usually damaged during the installation of the aluminum and that also increases the cost. So sadly it is not as simple as removing the aluminum and sanding the existing boards. I wish it were!
We are undergoing the same internal discussions at our home right now. Estimates for hardiboard are about $10k more than strip and paint with carpentry work to replace window sills, soffits and holes from the insulation we blew in two years ago. Not sure which way we will end up. Energy efficiency is supposed to be higher with the tyvec (sp?) wrap and hardi combination, but who knows what that means in real dollars saved, or heat lost. Our original is clapboard over paper.
Sep 5, 2014 at 10:15am Edited
That is what we have; Tyvec wrap under the Hardiplank I referred to earlier. Also quite a lot of batting along floor of unfinished of attic, and foam around various seams. I think probably low-E windows as well. I have been pleasantly surprised by utility bills in both summer and winter (central AC used most of the time in summer, house kept at 68 degrees in winter. I pay about as much to cool 2,500 square feet as my children do to cool their little NYC apartments. But again, this is all new construction so there may be some underlying factors that make the home as energy efficient as I believe it to be. And the siding was slightly chipped in several places when the house was being built and I see new little chips all the time. I don't think I would side an existing older home with this stuff and would focus on other means of increasing energy efficiency after dealing with the re-siding needs. Overall I would think a classic Maplewood house would be devalued by having other than clapboard if that was what it had started with.
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There are pros and cons to each option. Cost of restoring or replacing with Hardie Planks is very similar. Love the look of wood but hate the maintenance cost, so overtime restoring the wood will be most expensive option since we will have to paint every 10yr +/-. I love the way Hardie looks but adding Hardie Planks raises some concerns about reducing efficiency on the outside of the house. Hardie is installed against the plywood with just the water proofing layer. This means that the cedar planks as well as the insulation layer under the aluminum and the aluminum will be removed. I am a bit concern that this will remove some of the insulation and make the house less efficient.
Has anyone done this or something similar? What was the outcome?