Hardie Plank Siding. HELP

[Ultradog MN]

A friend of mine bumped his neighbor's garage with the tractor.
We need to fix it.
I can get the same color through Home Depot but have never worked with the product.
There are no exposed nails at the bottom of the lap like you'd see with wood or masonite and no snap fitting at the bottom of the lap like you'd see with vinyl.
Anyone here have experience with this stuff? It is a modest but very nicely kept suburban home so we have to do it right.
Thanks for any help.

 

[BillK]

https://downloads.ctfassets.net/dzi2asncd44t/4eRwZL6mpcvaP2eor4aB7L/48de279b2ae5b37fab43432d4801c080/hardieplank-hz5-us-en.pdf

https://downloads.ctfassets.net/dzi2asncd44t/46fZ90ng4q1WWnkT7V3poP/bdb51d47c1759f1629ea1b57ac2c2cd5/1648-dae7e41bc6195fa.pdf

 

[cgrutt]

Ugh. Your biggest issue will be nailing top course the hard plank is ultra stiff and will snap if you try to pull up the course above it for nailing. You're either going to have to pull the siding all the way up wall or face nail the top course of your repair through the bottom of the course above it. Believe they call for nail 1" from top or 3/8 from bottom if face nailing. You need to flash behind **** joints. There should have been a starter strip on bottom course but doesn't look like one was used. Is that bottom course flat against sheathing? Use a siding nailer if you can. You may need to predrill if hand nailing. It's very brittle and fairly heavy. Want to nail into studs if possible, esp at **** joints.

 

[Stevee]

I'd be more concerned about the crack in the foundation....
As for the Hardy...definitely pre-drill and try to nail at studs, flash behind the **** joints, if you have to cut it use a fiber cement blade, if you have to cut it you will need matching paint for the cut edges so maybe replace the full pieces, maybe use a multi-tool to cut nails to remove the damaged pieces, you should only have to face nail the row above where you stop and will need paint for nails.

 

[billconner]

I sided a whole building with it. I think you'll need to remove most of bottom 4 courses. I cut a lot with a carbide tool that scored it and then snap. The face nailing is not pretty. I believe you can prop out that 5th course sever so slightly and drill a pilot hole and then use a finish nail or trim head screw so when you pull shims they are covered. Pick up a tube of color matched caulk to cover **** joints.

 

[Tundra1]

For what it's worth, the installer we used had this type of cutter:

Malco Fiber Cement Siding Guillotine Shear

This Guillotine Shear from Malco is designed to cut 5/16-inch fiber cement. The durable, lightweight frame and high-leverage design offer long service life, easy handling, and smooth cutting operations. A large, stable plate with a board stop supports fiber cement siding to ensure a square...

www3.menards.com

Seemed to do a decent job in a very controlled way.

 

[Hank11]

Hardie now recommends sawing instead of shearing. Shearing used to be the way to go, but not now. You can also cut the stuff with a Fein tool, but you’ll use up some blades. I recently added an awning over an entrance and managed to cut out a few slots in the siding to mount the support timbers. Circular saw with Hardie blade set to just the right depth will let you make a neat straight cut with a little finishing work with the oscillating tool.

You can shim the siding away from the sheathing with door shims while you work. Its a brittle material but you can bend it a little - barely just enough to get it cut. If you can space the cuts a bit, you can cut one board higher and then slip flashing behind the cut. If the job was end caulked, do that. If not you can just leave the kerf, but paint the cut ends.

The links posted up thread should give you all the details of how to do the face nailing you’ve got coming. I used small stainless siding nails by hand. Once its painted you have to look for the repairs. Note also that there are end clips to help joining the ends. That might look better, even if it does not match the whole job.

The foundation crack is troubling.

 

[nadogail]

I nailed the bottom course first and used Gecko Clamps to position each of the following courses.

 

[Skooterj]

While patching that area is certainly doable, it will require some face nailing. And depending on how old it is, the factory pre-paint may not match due to color variation at the factory and fading from the sun. How big is that side of the garage? If not too big, you might want to look at residing the entire side. Any color difference then would be broken up by the corner trim and you wouldn't have to deal with face nailing anything except the top piece below the soffit.
Does that piece in the 6th row also have a crack running through it? And if so, is that from the tractor hitting it, or the building settling unevenly over the crack? I'm guessing the tractor didn't cause the crack.

Buy or rent a siding nail gun. Hardie is a ***** to nail by hand.

 

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

They don't recommend caulking field joints any longer. Flash with a piece of aluminum, with that color which is close to ours, I used a black flashing. Pick up a 4 toothed concrete blade for your circular saw, then paint the ends to seal them up and match the color.

Agreed that you will need to remove likely the 4 courses & face nail the top replacement course. If not residing the whole wall is needed.

I used SS siding nails with a siding nailer. Replaced some at my brothers and face nailed the top course and it looks OK. But then again his repair was above the garage doors, so not right at eye level.

 

[aShop]

Mine is 10 years old. The paint has faded a ton. There is no way a new one would match.

 

[Viper98912]

Yea, that's tough. That's not an easy fix, and everything that has been said in this thread is right (from what I know). On some pieces that I did a semi-repair on, I did some face nailing and tried to "hide it" as best as possible. It looks fine, and it was on a back side that nobody looks at. The only way to get it "perfect" is to re-side the entire thing, which is a huge cost of course.

In my opinion, don't try to color match the factory color, you're just going to have to paint the entire side of the house. But what I'd be worried about is what was said above - there's a big crack in the foundation now. Is there a crawl space or basement? How is the wall that is sitting on that part of the foundation?

 

[Doubled33]

I have worked with a fair amount of Hardie.

I would tooth it so the ends of the repair are not straight up.

In times like these I would use a diamond blade on a small angle grinder to cut.

Start at the bottom and nail your planks from the top to make the nails concealed. If you have plywood hit the studs but at the end of the stagger piece put a nail into the plywood and not the stud. It will save you from making large staggers at the spacing of the studs.

I flash on top of the joint before I put the next piece on. A little grace ice and water can help here.

Your last (top) piece should be face nailed but you can paint the nail heads and they won’t be that noticeable.

As mentioned small stainless nails and if hand nailing pre drill. I prefer a normal drill bit over the hammer drill bits.

Never done it but if looks are of upmost importance and don’t want to face nail the last piece maybe think about some adhesive.

 

[KansasArt]

Was the crack there before the incident? I wouldn’t think a riding mower/small tractor could cause a crack like that. How far down does it go? But as others mentioned that would be most concerning if it was caused by the tractor. I think that should be addressed first.

 

[Ultradog MN]

Thanks for the suggestions fellas?
We stripped all the siding off that wall yesterday and will reuse most of it. Ordered the special paint - it should be in today - and will start reinstalling it all tomorrow. When we get higher up and can estimate how much new siding we need we will buy it then.
I don't know or much care about the crack. A simple bump against the siding did not do that and the owner understands that.

 

[Skooterj]

You got it off without cracking it? I'm impressed. Re-doing the whole wall is for sure the best choice. Gecko gauge makes installation really easy, but just check your measurements to the soffit every 3 courses or so and adjust accordingly. Even with the gauges, it was easy to get off an 1/8 of an inch in a row or two.

 

[TakenUsername]

@Ultradog MN could you post an update on how the repair went?

 

[Ultradog MN]

@Ultradog MN could you post an update on how the repair went?

The job was pretty straightforward.
We removed all the siding on that side. Broke or damaged about 20% of it as we took it off but reused what we could.
When we got it reinstalled up toward the top we estimated how much new stuff we needed and bought it through Home Depot.
Color match was pretty good.
There was a stick or two left over so we stashed that up in the rafters of the garage.
We shot it on with a finish nailer. That's how it had been nailed on before.
I do not like the stuff and would never use it on my own home. It is heavy and rather fragile so not a one man job to install it. I made a jig so I could use a skill saw to quickly cut the ends square. Used up 3 or 4 Piranha brand carbide blades on the job.
Dusty/unpleasant to cut it.
I rather disliked doing the job but my friend is 88 yo and really needed some help. Who could refuse?
I resided our 1700 sq ft two story home to match the new 1000 sq ft detatched garage I built a few years ago.
Went with vinyl.
Vinyl is very easy to install and would be a piece of cake to patch.
I doubt TWO men could install Hardy Plank as fast as I did the vinyl entirely alone.

 

[joe_pinehill1]

We built one house with Hardie, and one with Certainteed cement fibre board. It looks nice when installed. But I'm skeptical about the life of the products. Vinyl is accepted, it doesn't hurt resale value for a house to be vinyl sided and vinyl is reasonably priced.

 

[Firebrick43]

We built one house with Hardie, and one with Certainteed cement fibre board. It looks nice when installed. But I'm skeptical about the life of the products. Vinyl is accepted, it doesn't hurt resale value for a house to be vinyl sided and vinyl is reasonably priced.

I have a 25 year old vinyl house and 21 or 22 ish year old hardie plank piddle shed. The Hardie plank other than some lichen growth on the east side that needs rectified looks new.

The vinyl is getting very brittle and needs to be replaced in the next few years.

 

[KenC]

I have a 25 year old vinyl house and 21 or 22 ish year old hardie plank piddle shed. The Hardie plank other than some lichen growth on the east side that needs rectified looks new.

The vinyl is getting very brittle and needs to be replaced in the next few years.

Daughters house is about 20YO, vinyl over OSB and housewrap. Same issue. Very brittle on the South and West sides. Slightest impact breaks it. Wind storm over the memorial day weekend caused a lot of small damage areas from tree debris and who knows what else was flying around. Impossible to color match the sun faded original. Lawnmower-thrown objects had done some damage over the years.

Not a vinyl fan.

 

[fwillison]

Cement board siding is a great product. It holds paint forever. I used in on my shop built in 2013 and have never had to repaint, still looks new.
Follow the manufacturers detailed instructions.
You need to allow space between ****-ends for expansion/contraction, and flash behind as previously stated.
I agree that I'd be more concerned about the crack in the foundation, but it's probably ok as long as the owner doesn't demand an engineered fix.

 

[Ultradog MN]

You can buy a couple - few? different grades or thicknesses of vinyl siding.
If you are parsimonious on your own home - or a developer... you can buy the flipper grade.
If you have an eye to posterity you can buy a better product.
Different grades are all easily cut with a 4 1/2" angle grinder with metal cutting wheel and go on fast.
I hand nailed it - had a blue thumbnail to prove it when I did this place.