Siding, what to choose?

[Vintage Veloce]

I'm in San Diego. Seems everyone around here is using Hardie board siding.
But I'm thinking that might be too hot. I know stucco gets really warm in the sun and holds the heat, and I'm worrying a "fiber cement" siding will also hold a lot of heat. Perhaps vinyl would be better? I know my parents house that was vinyl sided in the 70s still looks great...
Suggestions for good energy efficient siding in the Southwest?
Carl

 

[MushCreek]

The best/cheapest option would probably be insulated vinyl siding. It has foam insulation built right into it. If I were doing it, and could afford it, I'd put a layer of rigid foam over the sheathing, then vertical furring strips, then Hardi plank. The furring strips create a drainage plane, and a thermal break. Wetter areas should always use a drainage plane, but your area is probably pretty dry. The exterior foam is key; it makes a thermal break. With siding directly on a wooden structure, the heat is transferred right through the studs. A stud wall without a thermal break loses about 25% of it's claimed R-value. In your mild climate, an inch of rigid foam would suffice.

Vinyl is fine, but your color choices are limited, and it looks like... vinyl. Some of the high-end vinyls are quite nice, but they can get expensive. Hardi is labor-intensive to install correctly. It took me forever to side our home (working alone) but I am happy with the results.

 

[strutaeng]

Is this for a house or garage? New construction or remodeling?

If you are worried about thermal resistance/capacitance, then I would go with ship lap siding. Not kidding. Wood is a great insulator. The stuff is very durable, looks great and requires a fresh coat of paint every 7-10 years for good quality paint (Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams or equal.)

Next option would be stucco, considering your location. Lastly, I would use Hardie. I'm not a fan of that stuff. I know everyone loves it. I think that in a decade or two it will be extinct, replaced by some glass polymer product.

In any of these, the rigid insulation is a good idea, provided it is detailed correctly at the corners, around doors and windows.

Good luck

 

[Cyberbear]

There are many options available, and it will depend on your budget and what you want from the siding.
I live in the high desert near Bakersfield, Calif. where 5/8" T-1-11 wood ply exterior siding is often the choice. Being made of wood, this siding will benefit from a quality exterior coating of some type. But it won't act as a heat sink and make the walls too warm during the summers in Dan Diego, probably just the opposite. Wood cell fibers have traditionally always been noted for their natural insulating qualities, and light weight as compared to cement based sidings. Up here vinyl is not happy in the hot sun long term, and we have strong winds. The T-1-11 is very suitable for DIY work and is not too expensive. I have some I installed in 1994 that is still holding up well in our dry and sunny climate. The siding is available in both 4" and 8" groove spacing and is made into ship lap on the long edges. Perhaps it is available for inspection at your local lumber yard or home improvement supplier.

 

[VintageVeloce]

This is for a new garage. My real concern is the heat sink and radiation of the heat from the siding. Obviously, there is going to be a big door on the garage so it will be easy ventilated. But I've seen stucco that was in the sun all day stay too hot to touch for a long time after sundown. And so I'm concerned about any cement Siding. Ship lap won't meet our cosmetic requirements, so if we are going wood I'd use clapboard.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Jackfre]

I used 22 ga corrugated core ten metal. Yes, it gets hot in the sun, but there is not a lot of mass to hold the heat. Looks good as well

 

[vintovka]

Unless something better comes along I wouldn't use ANYTHING but a steel or tile roof and Hardie Siding. Just finished a 24x30 garage with Hardie and Steel and it will last longer (and require less maintenance) than i will. I used a new fabric underpayment (NOT TYVEK!!!!!!!!!!!!) over OSB and bear skin under hardie seams. Insurance companies may give you a discount for these fire resistant materials. Under layment has little beads that provide a drain gap back of hardie.

 

[Falcon67]

I painted my HardiPanel barn red to start. The west end of the building was running 180F surface temp. Inside 120~130 before insulation. It also sweats if there is a quick temp change and the building is uninsulated and closed up. The east/west ends are now gray, which cut surface temps to around 130F. Inside behind R13 and one layer of OSB inside wall, 90~95F in full sun. My recommendation would be to cover your west and any other side with a lot of sun exposure with reflective decking before siding the building. And/or plant a **** load of trees.

The ground for 2' from the west end still gets hot enough to burn grass if not healthy and watered regularly.

Hardi is nice stuff, holds paint very well. Fire proof, etc. Downside - a ***** to cut, eats saw blades, cutting produces giant clouds of dust you best not inhale, it's heavy as hell in panel sizes and fragile like you can't imagine. When you nail it, follow the recommendations on nail set EXPLICITLY. Break the surface with a nail head and that fastener has about zero holding power.

 

[Vintage Veloce]

I painted my HardiPanel barn red to start. The west end of the building was running 180F surface temp. Inside 120~130 before insulation. It also sweats if there is a quick temp change and the building is uninsulated and closed up. The east/west ends are now gray, which cut surface temps to around 130F. Inside behind R13 and one layer of OSB inside wall, 90~95F in full sun. .

This is exactly what I am afraid of. I'm in the city and the building will be right on the property line, so shade trees are impossible. (unless the neighbor decides to plant them ;-)
I've noticed the wood clapboard on the house just doesn't get that hot and doesn't hold the heat long. So perhaps thats the way to go. The only advantage I'm hearing for fiber cement siding is that that the factory paint holds up for a long while and that it is fire resistant...

 

[nadogail]

If the house on the property has wood clapboard siding, and you like it, then a matching siding on the garage would be both logically and visually good choice.

Maybe HardiPlank would be an option. Looks like clapboards and is fire resistant.

 

[DMaxRocks]

I've got hardi-plank on my 18 year old house. It still has the original paint on it and after a 25% chlorox solution and a easy pressure wash, it looks like new. I love the stuff and will be putting it on my shop in the next few months.

-Mark

 

[Falcon67]

I would have done the HardiPlank had it not been a cost overrun for us. I also picked panel so that it would work with 24" OC studs. As I mentioned, I would put reflective OSB under it, then paint it white if allowed. I'm pretty sure for plank that you'll have to have underlayment anyway to keep the planks from being wavy. With good insulation, you'll cut the heat gain significantly.

EDIT - Hardi says plank can install over OSB or on as much as 24" OC stud wall.
http://www.jameshardie.com/d2w/installation/hardieplank-hz5-us-en.pdf

If done over OSB, I would for sure use a moisture barrier under. I did not above 3', but I'm not living in that space either. If my shop was to have been constant climate controlled, I would have wrapped it.

An alternative you may consider would be LP SmartSide. It's a wood type product.

 

[Voi]

I'm in San Diego. Seems everyone around here is using Hardie board siding.
But I'm thinking that might be too hot. I know stucco gets really warm in the sun and holds the heat.

Is most stucco in San Diego the real stuff or is it all EIFS now? Friend of mine just had a small stucco job done in Vegas, maybe a thousand square feet of wall, and it was EIFS.

I don't know how DIY friendly it is.

 

[Pluribus]

Paint color makes a HUGE difference with Hardie siding. After I installed mine on a house with lots of sun exposure, I did a bunch of test patches of paint before deciding on a color. I ended up going with a light greenish/grayish color not too far off from the primer color the planks had from the factory. I didn't test actual surface temperatures, but the darker colors were painfully hot to the touch while the lighter colors were simply warm to the hand. Wish I'd had an infrared thermometer to get actual numbers; the difference was amazing.

 

[pmiranda]

I'm thinking about either hardie sheet or metal siding for our planned garage. Good tip on the light colors and the foam to cut heat transmission through framing... but I'm also thinking about a Mueller building... would I end up having to put up extra framing between the steel structural parts to carry the weight of hardie siding or are lightweight sheet metal "firring" strips part of the standard kit sturdy enough to take the load?

 

[kabinenroller]

I used Cement fiber siding on my shop and highly recommend it. It cost more but it remains straight and does not buckle from heat. It is also very low maintainance, the factory finish has a 20 year warrenty. Now I understand that there is a climate difference between our locations (I am in Wisconsin) but cold winters are just as brutal as hot summers are in California. My building is with 2x6 studs with 5/8" plywood sheathing, building wrap, and 1" rigid insulation under the cement board. With the wall cavities having Fiberglas batting the building does not radiate heat or cold to the inside drywall. I have used my laser thermometer to check the wall temp when it is cold outside and it is within a degree or so of the inside air temp. I would use the same products if I were to build another building.
Just my personal opinion from experiiance.

 

[clulow30]

Hi here is what we did for siding, we used vinyl for the whole garage but at the top of the gable we used vinyl shakes to give it some appeal we also wrapped the base where there would usually be 8 " of concrete showing with white aluminum

-Derek

 

[ddawg16]

San Diego? Heat? Really?

I'm just up the road from you (couple of hours).

I did vinyl on part of my garage (link to it is in my signature)

Wish I had done something else. Good chance I'll do HardiBoard in the distant future.

 

[vintovka]

Nice building but i think its not wise to put more money in ANY building in CA. Just got my insurance bill and I'm outta here for good.

 

[Norcal]

Any structure with vinyl siding is a great candidate for the fire dept to have a practice burn, What siding does the house have? Stucco w/ foam insulation, or Hardi plank would be my choice, as vinyl is the cheesiest siding one could ever chose.