siding

[jeepman1]

hey guys im looking for some input. i added onto my garage and am ready to side it. the wife and i were looking at vinyl siding tonight and i got to wondering about steel siding. the regular 4" lap style.
in my area about 20 yrs ago several contractors were installing steel siding because it was cheaper than vinyl. i know several people with steel siding and it still looks new, it is not faded, or chalky. they do wash it yearly, and it is more expensive, but if it lasts and looks better longer, wouldnt it be worth it?

if it matters, i plan to install it myself

any thoughts and opinions would be appreciated!

 

[CNGsaves]

Childhood home from decades ago had steel siding (wider like 6") and those panels have withstood lots of abuse and held up. Steel doesn't fall apart like vinyl and get holes with the slightest hail storm.

Biggest drawback is spiders seem to love building webs in the gaps. Back in the day, my dad never seemed to keep house sprayed to prevent all those webs. Now house is rental and still holding up fine (maintenance free).

If you like the looks, I'd say go for it. Steel siding will be tough and durable.

 

[RVDan]

Steel is better than vinyl, you wouldn't think twice about a metal roof, but would you put a vinyl roof on?

 

[p_mori7]

Steel is the best, but my city permit office does not allow it...they say it looks to 'industrial'.

 

[58Yeoman]

All the steel siding that I remember being installed when I was young, would fade, chalk, and the paint would eventually just disappear. Bump into it or have a hail storm, and it would dent. Of course, vinyl can crack or break, so it's what do you want.

 

[Gary S]

I have 12 year old steel on my house and 9 year old vinyl on my garage. The vinyl breaks anytime I get hail, and it fades and looks like **** already. The steel still looks like new. I will be replacing the vinyl with steel when I can afford it. Steel is definitely the best. Vinyl is just short life plastic.

 

[djjsr]

I hate vinyl siding. I have it on my house and I hate it. I prefer something solid like the newer composite materials. I hate vinyl siding. The stuff on my house is the "better" quality vinyl and I still hate it. I want to tear it off because I hate it but I have too many other projects to do first. But one of these days I'm going to replace it because I hate it. People spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new home and it's clad in vinyl siding. I hate it.

Look at the composite sidings that are available. They're solid and very durable. Much better than vinyl siding. I hate that stuff.

jmo

 

[jeepman1]

All the steel siding that I remember being installed when I was young, would fade, chalk, and the paint would eventually just disappear. Bump into it or have a hail storm, and it would dent. Of course, vinyl can crack or break, so it's what do you want.

im wondering if you are thinking of alluminum? every house ive seen that has aluminum on it is this way.

thanks for the responses guys!!

 

[STANIMAL]

Hardi board as an option ?

 

[where2]

Hardi board as an option ?

I've mastered a system for installing Hardie lap siding solo. I'll never install anything else. My house came with aluminum siding, now gone. Only thing good about the aluminum siding was the scrap value. Listening to the aluminum siding tearing off in Hurricane Frances = unforgettable.

 

[58Yeoman]

im wondering if you are thinking of alluminum? every house ive seen that has aluminum on it is this way.

thanks for the responses guys!!

You're right! Thanks for the clarification.

 

[jeepman1]

hardi board IS an option..... though ive never done and am a little intimidated by it....

 

[Norcal]

hardi board IS an option..... though ive never done and am a little intimidated by it....

It's bit of a pain to start the nails but no worse then hardboard/Masonite® siding, they also take paint quite well, Hardi Plank, or Hardi Panels are a great choice.

Best thing for any building with vinyl siding is call the fire dept. for a practice burn & BURN IT DOWN. The only thing worse then vinyl, is cladwood siding, not sure it is made anymore, I made the mistake of using it on the gable ends of my shop, & it has since gone to the landfill, as it was a case of spending a dollar to save a dime.

Cladwood if you looked at the edge, looked like particle board pressed between two sheets of paper, w/ fake wood grain & grooves embossed on the face, sort of a fake T-1-11.

 

[where2]

hardi board IS an option..... though ive never done it and am a little intimidated by it....

Don't be intimidated by it. You'd be intimidated by how I have to install it, in a High Velocity Wind Zone. Doing anything outsize of a High Velocity Wind Zone (i.e. hurricane prone location) is cake with icing. Presuming you don't have an air nailer, here's how to do it.

Get the following a set of tools: Malco FCG2 (hanging tools), Dewalt Fiber Cement Shear, Hitachi Hardi-Blade, your 4' level, your stud finder, a 5/32" masonry drill bit, a 1/2" masonry bit, a sharpie marker, a #2 square drive, two cordless drills and several boxes of these http://www.mcfeelys.com/fiber-cement-screws.

Either: Cut strips of tyvek house wrap, or peel-n-stick to make flashing for the **** joints in your planking. (I liked the Peel-n-stick for simplicity).

Prep and weatherize your sheathing per your local AHJ requirements. Use the stud finder and mark your studs about 6" up from the bottom of the wall, and along the top of the wall. Start by installing your corner trim boards. (These make the frame to work between and measure between.) Pilot hole the screw holes through the corner trim boards and planks (if necessary), if you find it is not necessary, skip that step. Use the 1/2" bit to countersink the screws in the corner trim boards, (if necessary). Once the trim boards are hung, Mark the first plank with a straight edge, and cut the entire plank into several starter strips 2" wide using the Dewalt shear. Install starter strips using your level and the screws (aim for the studs, that's why you marked them). Once the starter course is in place, use the Malco tools ~1/3 in from each plank end to stack planks, using flashing at all the ****-end seams, and staggering the end seams. Check the first couple planks with a level from time to time, until you get a feel for whether you need to check every plank. Word on the street is that the 4" reveal planks tend to sag more in the middle than the wider planks.


If this sounds complicated, it's not. By the third plank, you start to get a rhythm going, and stop having to worry about what you need to do next. I was hanging 6" reveal (7-1/4" planks). In a High Velocity Wind Zone (HVWZ) I have to screw through both planks, so I estimate my time to hang was doubled by having to drill and countersink all 12 screws in every plank I hung. (my studs are 12" O.C. and the AHJ said hit every stud!)

To hide the screws in the trim boards, get a piece of plastic soda bottle (to use as a putty knife), cut it about 2"x1-1/4". Fill the screw head with caulking, and run the plastic knife along parallel to the wood grain. This will transfer the wood grain effect to the caulking to make the screw nearly disappear. If you find your caulk shrinks excessively, do it again.

 

[All]

where2, we need a video!

Good stuff!

Get your video camera out before you finish the house you are working on. Film all your wonderful tips as you do them (kind of complicated to follow along in words only), link it here, and throw it up on you tube. You'll probably get so many hits, Hardi Plank will want to advertise on it.

 

[FlyBy]

Cladwood if you looked at the edge, looked like particle board pressed between two sheets of paper, w/ fake wood grain & grooves embossed on the face, sort of a fake T-1-11.

The garage at the new house I just bought has this stuff. It's not in bad shape since it was installed in 1995, but no one ever painted it, and the backside has a couple boards breaking down. I'm tempted to paint it as a temp solution and fix the busted boards, but don't know what to replace them with.

 

[Earlsfat]

Metal siding bends / dents, etc. My old house had it, my new house has it. I'll have to redo the whole house eventually (and hopefully a shop by then) and will strongly consider composite siding. After 15-20 years vinyl siding looks just as bad as dented up, aluminum / steel siding.... imho.

 

[CNGsaves]

Another thing on the steel siding is purchase some SPARES on purpose just in case you have damage later, decide to add door or window, etc. This protects you in future if that style isn't manufactured any more. Thus, extra spares is a good thing.

If you're looking for no maintenance, then steel siding will be fine.

Last house also did some Hardi-plank (ie cement siding "boards"), and in my area only needed to nail through top of each plank (thus nails covered by the next row). Another good idea is prime and pre-paint all the boards before they get installed. After weatherproofing step (ie housewrap or tar paper) and corner cedar trim boards installed, then put spacer run at bottom row. Then proceed up with each row and we used pneumatiic nail gun and ring-shank nails (have spiral pattern and don't pull back out). DeWalt shear is all we used to cut Hardi planks (easy once you get hang of it - - just a powered scissors). Only had nails showing on top row with this method. Also didn't nail the small pointed ends as they might break up at peak, so instead used Liquid Nails. We caulked ****-joints between boards but I like idea of stick-on flashing by Where2 described above. I'd snap chalk lines every couple rows so you stay level all the way up to top. Also, I'd pre-caulk the ends that meet corner trim boards as that is most likely spot to leak/rot.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

 

[Norcal]

The garage at the new house I just bought has this stuff. It's not in bad shape since it was installed in 1995, but no one ever painted it, and the backside has a couple boards breaking down. I'm tempted to paint it as a temp solution and fix the busted boards, but don't know what to replace them with.

The problem is paint has got real expensive, and cheap paint is even more so, was going through some OLD paperwork to get rid of & found the tag from the cladwood siding, paid $10 a 4X8 sheet in 1993, been better off spending $5 or so more per sheet & used hardboard, but now it's plain doug fir siding w/ 1X3 batts to match the board & batt siding on the rest of the building.

To really go off topic, only paid $8 a bundle for 3-tab shingles or $24 a square + felt & fasteners in '93. (1 bundle of 3-tabs is around $24 ea today).

 

[Rigpig]

I decided on Hardie plank/board for my shop. I'm in the process of painting it before the install. I'll let you know how it goes, might even throw a couple pics of it on my garage build thread for ya'.
Cheers!

 

[JimVonBaden]

I decided on Hardie plank/board for my shop. I'm in the process of painting it before the install. I'll let you know how it goes, might even throw a couple pics of it on my garage build thread for ya'.
Cheers!

Please do! My house and detached garage are Hardi siding, and I plan on adding a workshop with Hardi siding and want to do it myself.

Jim

 

[where2]

where2, we need a video!

Good stuff!

Get your video camera out before you finish the house you are working on. Film all your wonderful tips as you do them (kind of complicated to follow along in words only), link it here, and throw it up on you tube.

I finished the garage siding in the photo in ~2008. I finished replacing the siding on my second floor in 2010. You will have to wait until I get a property in Maine...

 

[tonycastec]

I used Hardie plank on a recent big project - excellent. The install is a bit unusual -see details in an excellent post earlier.
The best part is that you paint BOTH sides and all edges before you cut/hang it.It is so much easier to paint it all on the floor of the garage with a roller than when it is installed. This stuff 'drinks' the paint and the finish lasts way longer than on wood trim.
It is very difficult to handle the longest boards alone!

 

[tcianci]

We use tons of Hardie Plank product up here. Although there is good info posted here, do yourself a favor and got to the James Hardie website. They give detailed and approved application instructions. One thing they do not recommend is caulking the but joints along a course. According to their rep, this is because the caulking makes a mess of their pre-finished product in that it leaves a residue when you try to clean the joint. If you do need to caulk a but joint, put a piece of blue tape down both sides of the joint, caulk, clean and then strip the tape off. You get a perfectly clean caulked joint every time. BTW, no one here seems to have mentioned their pre-finished product. Go for it, it's so much cheaper than painting the project afterward and the finish has a very long warranty too. Do flash all but joints and please do yourself a favor and skip the Tyvek for felt paper instead. The flamers can start now but I have been in this business for nearly 40 years and have taken apart many buildings and seen the damage caused by the Tyvek product to the underlying sheathing. Again, follow the application instructions on their web site.