Hardie Vs. Smart Siding?

[alwaysonthemove]

I just wanted to start a thread to see what everybody thought about these two products.

James Hardie is a Cement Board product that either comes primed or painted.

Smart Siding is a Osb product that comes either primed or painted also.

I wanna here the postives and negatives out there on both products.

[Esox_Magnum]

I prefer the Hardie with Smart trim...

[cavalierowner]

For me, no question: Hardie. I've seen all the rotting problems with the osb-type and similar products in the past. The manufacturers say the problems are now fixed, but I'll let the other guy and time determine if that's the case or not.

About 13 years ago when I was looking at buying a different house, literally every single house that had the old composite wood siding (not the fiber cement) had significant rot on the lowest course of siding.

Me opinionated? Nawwwwwwww! LOL

[alwaysonthemove]

Thanks Guys, I work with both products and All I want to see is what everyone's opinion is. I do Favor Hardie 99 to 1, but this always helps me figure out what everyone else is thinking out there.

[bigsmallie]

If you hire someone to paint...use a 30 year paint....duration sher williams or comparable. If you have the manufacturer do it...insist on that also. It will be worth your time as an average size house is 3-5000 to paint if you contract it out.

[PurpleFloyd]

I would say the Hardie is a much superior product. I have never used the smart siding but 15-20 years ago I was turned off to composite type products after too many housed using the Masonite ColorLok siding and seeing how badly it held up.

[dougger222]

I have hardi board siding on my house and at 7 years it needs paint. I know a lot of poeple who have painted their hardi sided house up to 3 times in 10 years with high grade paint. Never met someone to get more than ten years with high grade paint on hardi.

Seen Hardi rot within 4 years. Put it in a bucket once and see what it does.

I know 3 people who sided their house with LP Smartside. One was a home builder, the other a general contractor/remodeler, and the third was the state farm siding and roofing expert. They all had factory painted smartside and none had to paint again.

Everybody I know that had factory painted hardi had to paint again right away due to small cracks all over the paint.

My installers all dread having to put hardi on but don't mind every other siding except steel.

The bid to paint my house from a good friend of mine was $7,000. Other poeple I know with houses around the size of mine have paid $8-10,000.

Thinking about painting the end of the house and the front and let my friend tackle the 32ft sides!

[alwaysonthemove]

That is a intresting story. We have installed Hardi and Sold Hardi for the last 10 Years. Never yet with one complaint. Sold one job with Lp Smart and had the first complaint sold another one and Whoa! We threw that stuff in the bin. Lp came out and inspected the job and there conclusion was ........ Yes it was installed right, Yes the proper barrier's behind it were used, yes to everything but guess what we won't cover the warranty. That is it.

Alot of our customers come and say they would like Lp on there house. I wonder what the heck are they smokin. we show them the difference and immediatly they switch. There is reasons why so many companies are trying there dangest to copy James Hardi and no one wants to copy LP.

I will agree that other companies have gave James Hardi a bad rap but I have yet to hear of and see a Bad product by James Hardi.

[cavalierowner]

I'm a bit surprised to hear of any problems with Hardie. It's a lack of problems that prompted me to put it on my house vs. the other fiber cement products. It's been about 6 years now and no issues.

Interesting story about fiber cement siding. Three years ago we were writing the specs for a comercial project that had fiber cement specified. We like to spec 3 manufacturers so there is competition. In writing the paint spec, I called Sherwin Williams tech support (we always used Sherwin Williams as our standard of quality)to find out what their best paint system was for fiber cement. I don't remember the specific paint product name, but this is what really stuck in my head: If a factory primed Hardie product is used they recommended just 2 finish coats. If any other fiber cement product was used, they recomended another prime coat over the factory prime coat followed by 2 finish coats. They didn't think much of the other manufacturer's prime coat.

[echotrail]

I used Hardi to skirt around the bottom of my porch to keep the critters from getting underneath it. It's constantly exposed to rain and buried in snow in the winter. After 5 years it looks as good as the day I put it on.

[Pat K]

Seen Hardi rot within 4 years. Put it in a bucket once and see what it does.

I've never had either type of siding on a building. I worked at a big box home improvement store for 15 years. We had the same piece of Hardi board siding in a container with water for at least 10 years without any rotting or absorption of water. The only time things got funky were when the water wasn't changed often enough.

[reddog]

That is a intresting story. We have installed Hardi and Sold Hardi for the last 10 Years. Never yet with one complaint. Sold one job with Lp Smart and had the first complaint sold another one and Whoa! We threw that stuff in the bin. Lp came out and inspected the job and there conclusion was ........ Yes it was installed right, Yes the proper barrier's behind it were used, yes to everything but guess what we won't cover the warranty. That is it.

Alot of our customers come and say they would like Lp on there house. I wonder what the heck are they smokin. we show them the difference and immediatly they switch. There is reasons why so many companies are trying there dangest to copy James Hardi and no one wants to copy LP.

I will agree that other companies have gave James Hardi a bad rap but I have yet to hear of and see a Bad product by James Hardi.

Can you elaborate what the complaint was against the LP SS?

You cannot compare LP SS to Masonite color lock. Different products.

No dog in the fight..

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I had some clients build a high end home last year and I did extensive comparison between the two products. Their builder was 100% against Hardie. In fact, their builder was so against Hardie, that they nearly chose to not build in this particular neighborhood as "cement board siding" was a architectural committee requirement.

In the majority of the claims I could find against Hardie, there was improper installation (improper flashing, unsealed cuts, un caulked seams, over driving nails-a huge one, poor quality paint, etc). There are a *few* (in comparison) cases where everything was done properly, and there was a problem.

LP Smart Side appears to be a good product, as well. The installation appears (I'm no siding installer) to be easier, leading to less installation issues. Visually, it appears the LP Smart Side holds paint better than Hardie. This could be more of a paint quality issue than any difference between the two, but I have seen it somewhat consistently on 3-5 year old homes.

In the end they chose Hardie. Not only because the architectural committee in their neighborhood required them to use a "cement board product", but they also felt it was a slightly better product.

Price was just shy of $1800 more for Hardie.

[crothmeier]

Both have had issues, you can't compare the old Masonite and LP Smartside. they're two completely different products.

With any product if you install it correctly it should last. With that said I've seen Hardi crack and the paint blister off more and more in the past year or so.

I sold a customer a custom home, and he put a 1' piece of Hardi and Smart-side in a pail of water for a week, out for a week, in for a week, into the freezer, into the water, ect.

The Smart-side looked incredibly better after the 1 year science experiment.

I still sell equal amounts of both, and stress installation.