Hardieplank width comparison?

[crguy]

My 40 year old shop has 12" lap siding that was made by Masonite, etc. Moisture has worked it's way in and the siding is deteriorating. I'm planning on replacing all the shop siding this year. The house has similar siding and I've replaced some of it with 12" Hardieplank.

It seems like a lot of people use the narrower planks for some reason? Is it just personal preference, or is there something else to consider?

 

[ssdave]

Mostly looks, but also some durability considerations. The wider planks weigh more, and so the fasteners are loaded more, and the planks themselves are stressed more. Larger planks are more likely to warp or delaminate or crack, and it becomes much more visible when anything happens to them. It's the same with wood, the wider the planks, the more warpage and shrinkage and cupping and other defects show up.

Wider planks are lower cost, as there's a set 1 1/4" of waste for the overlap regardless of planks size. So, a 4" reveal has twice the waste per square foot that an 8" reveal has. Wider planks are also less labor to install, as they go up twice as fast for the same cutting, fastening, and placement labor. They're just heavier. They also take twice the number of nails, twice the number of flashing sheets. Nails and flashing sheets probably added $250 to the cost going from 4" to 8".

I just put 4" reveal on my house and garage, I wanted the classic look of the narrow, and the extra cost was worth it to me. I paid about $1.50 per square foot for the siding itself, and close to the same for labor. It would have been a bit cheaper if I'd gone with wider reveal. I'd guess overall, I paid about $3000 premium for the narrower siding, on a $20,000 job.

 

[69gp]

Hi,

I think back in the day 12" siding was the way to go. A lot of houses in the area where I grew up had the Masonite. I did some repairs on my fathers garage using 12" LPSmart siding matched up really good and was cheaper than Hardie Board.

the link below has some before and after pictures on the last page.


https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=375641

 

[polizei1]

Hardie is available in 5 1/4, 6 1/4, 7 1/4, 7 1/2, and 8 and 8 1/4 widths, which vary from 5 1/4 to 12".

The more common or standard is 7-8" range. I'm personally using 7 1/4" on my house.

 

[crguy]

Hi,

I think back in the day 12" siding was the way to go. A lot of houses in the area


https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=375641

Agree. My house is 60s, with the 12" siding, so when we built the shop beside it I wanted it to match. A lot of the 60s era siding has held up better than the stuff we put on the garage in the late 70s. I have kept after it over the years to make sure it had good paint & caulking, but it's slowly deteriorating.

I expect the Hardieplank to outlive me.

 

[Norcal]

My moms house is being renovated to rent out, she died in Oct 2017 & the front hardboard siding mfg by Georgia Pacific is shot, while it's off going to also replace the windows since they are early 1970's aluminum made by a defunct company in Hayward, CA, Likit great windows, with welded, not screwed together frames, & a secure lock, but the days of single glazed windows are gone, but the permit was $235, & there was no way was going to get away without getting one, because a number of cheap houses in the $400-500K and plus range are being built down the street inspectors are driving by all the time.

BTW, the plan is Hardiplank to the bottom of the windows, then 8" groove OC, Hardipanel, the product does takes paint very well.

 

[dw1]

Getting ready to build a house myself and I have been looking at the Hardie products for some of my trim, local lumber supply also recommended Celect Products, has a 25 year warranty, comes in different colors ect
http://celect.royalbuildingproducts.com/celect/

 

[Trey T]

I've used 8.25" on several projects but the reveal (~7.25") is too wide, IMO. I'm planning to redo my exterior with 7.25" instead. I think the wider reveal (7.25"+ exposure) looks kinda cheap.

 

[yeldogt]

A proper Craftsman house has 10-12 inch siding -- why? Because they could ... it was typically redwood and was available in wide boards. Wide boards are less busy and allow the other details -- windows and trim to show. They were often simple flat boards .. and not very thick.

Eastern traditional style was a bit narrower 8"ish as cedar was not quite as wide especially when paired with shingles. These would have a tapered face.

German shiplap was typically 6" and painted pine.

The 4" came with vinyl -- it needs the line for panel rigidity ... even at the beach where greater lap is needed they went wider.

Hardi is not tapered and if you buy wider and keep a higher lap -- its stronger . The Boral is tapered.

 

[ssdave]

A proper Craftsman house has 10-12 inch siding -- why? Because they could ... it was typically redwood and was available in wide boards. Wide boards are less busy and allow the other details -- windows and trim to show. They were often simple flat boards .. and not very thick.

Eastern traditional style was a bit narrower 8"ish as cedar was not quite as wide especially when paired with shingles. These would have a tapered face.

German shiplap was typically 6" and painted pine.

The 4" came with vinyl -- it needs the line for panel rigidity ... even at the beach where greater lap is needed they went wider.

Hardi is not tapered and if you buy wider and keep a higher lap -- its stronger . The Boral is tapered.

Although some Craftsman houses had wide siding, I respectfully disagree that a proper Craftsman house has wide siding and that narrow siding came in with vinyl. I've seen a wide range of Craftsman houses, and remodeled some, and very few Craftsman houses I've seen or worked on had original wide siding. Most of the classic look Craftsman's in the Northwest, where I have mostly lived have 4 to 5 inch siding; in fact I typically see 1950's and 60's siding that is wider, and older stuff is almost inevitably narrow. Wider siding came in post WWII, when returning GI's created a demand for lower cost housing, and wider siding was one of the means to lower the cost and decrease the time involved in construction.

Although wide boards were available for use at the turn of the century, it was generally known and accepted that narrower boards, although more labor intensive and expensive to install, would warp less and work better. So, most higher end construction used narrower boards, not wider, even though they were available. There are exceptions of course, the installations show the full range of sizes available, but the majority of installations are less than 6 inches in width. The narrower widths have also stood the test of time better, so more of them survive to this day, where wider boards have failed and been replaced more.

I don't know how it is on the East coast, as I haven't worked there. These observations are from the northwest.

 

[tcianci]

East coaster here...
The most traditional lap siding here is red cedar clapboard. It's tapered and installed with 4" to the weather. Other traditional sidings are red and white cedar shingles. The reds are 18" tall and typically installed 7-1/2" to the weather and the whites are 16" tall and installed 5-1/2" to the weather. Unless the Pilgrims have successfully hidden all their vinyl siding from the 1600's, I would say that the 4" profile of the vinyl siding is to mimic the original cedar clapboards.

 

[James-W]

We don't see very many new homes around here being built with cedar siding these days. We see a lot of vinyl siding and we are starting to see some LP SmartSide siding on new homes. I am not familiar with the product, but they say it is very durable.