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Fiber Cement Siding

| Posted in General Discussion on October 14, 2002 11:46am

Can any of you with fiber cement siding experience with Certain Teed Co. please advise their experience and recommendations. As a homeowner, I have to replace the Omni Wood siding on the home now due to its failure. I have one contractor advising that Certain Teed siding is inferior and that the company is about to go out of business. He is recommending siding mfdg my James Hardie which I belive is a good product as well.
I would certainly appreciate any advice on this subject!
Thank You!

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  1. xMikeSmith | Oct 15, 2002 12:46am | #1

    what a crock of doo.doo...

     i wouldn't do business with that contractor because he's either a lier or he doesn't know his own products...

    James Hardie make a good FC siding... but i like Certainteeds even more.. and Certainteed is going out of business about the same time as GM...

    Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

    1. tmiltier | Oct 15, 2002 02:07am | #2

      Mike,

      My lumberyard told me that hardie was buying out certainteed. Didn't believe it so I asked a friend at georgia-pacific yard and he said he heard the same thing. However that was 3 months ago.

      I have hardie on my house and prefer working with it over certainteed. I find it has cleaner edges and you can nail closer to the corners without breaking it.

      Todd

      1. xMikeSmith | Oct 15, 2002 03:14am | #3

        James Hardie is an excellent Australian conmpany .. with several plants in the US.. last year they bought CemPlank..

        they recently sold their gypsum manufacturing  in the US so they could concentrate on the Fiber Cement...mostly by increasing the size of their Waxahatchie Texas plant..

        Certainteed is a wholly owned subsidiary of St.Gobain... Certainteed's sales last year were $2.2 billion... Certainteed wanted to get into the fibercement business a coulple of years ago.. so they bought Ashland-Davis... (DuraPress)..

        St. Gobain is one of the top 100 companies in the world.... I think someone is confusing CemPlank with Certainteed...

        as to detail... most will concede that Certainteed has a better looking Cedar Plank than Hardie... much more detail.. and as to edge breaking... BS.. never happens with us.. if we're that close to edge we drill it anyways..and i'm not knocking Hardie.. just calling you because it doesn't sound like you've ever used  either Ashland -Davis or Certainteed..

        but hey, whadda i no ?

        Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

        1. tmiltier | Oct 15, 2002 04:46am | #4

          Mike,

          You are correct. I was thinking CemPlank. Long day, don't know why Certainteed triggered Cem Plank. But, still think Hardie is superior to CemPlank. Have not worked with Certainteed, but will check for its availability in my area.

          Todd

  2. vasalesman | Oct 15, 2002 04:34pm | #5

    I've sold a fair amount of both Cemplank and Hardi in recent years but I no longer offer Cemplank.  In our area, smooth beaded is popular and just about everyone felt Cemplank's bead was nicer.  But I got far too many complaints about paint failure that I wasn't getting with Hardi.  True, the paint wasn't Cemplank's but the problems were limited to that brand.  Some could be traced to paint misapplication but not all.  One was a primer failure.  Others defied explanation.  One non-paint issue was delaminating pieces.  People got gun shy and lead times got extremely long.  Eventually, all my customers that had bought Cemplank switched to Hardi.  This fall, when I reside my own place, I'll be using Hardi as well.  Fact of the matter is that we just don't get trouble of any sort from their products.

    Al  

  3. dabonds | Oct 15, 2002 05:21pm | #6

    Don't have any experience with Certain Teed but I resided my house with Hardie about 4 years ago. Great product. You will need to keep it very dry before it goes up. It will absorb lots of water before it is painted and so will be heavier and want to bend more when wet. Also, it will expand anlong its length as the humidity increases so it is best to leave an 1/8" gap on end to end joints and use a good quality very flexible caulk to fill the gap. The movement is noticable. Good luck.

    1. FWJ99015 | Oct 17, 2002 12:15am | #7

      Just wanted to thank everyone for responding to my questions about fiber cement siding.

      Thank You!

      Frank

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