Hello all,
I’m looking at a window and siding job, the siding is to be fiber cement. I’ve no experience with this material, so any input on cutting and fastening would be appreciated. I see Makita makes a fiber cement skill saw with dust collection and sealed bearings but its shown with a carbide blade, manufacturer recommends a dry cut diamond blade.
Bill
Replies
If you look back through recent dicussions (past couple of months) you'll get your questions answered and then some about FC siding, how to cut it, how to nail it, etc.
Have fun. It's a good product and worth learning to do a nice job installing it.
thanks for the tip, I did a search for fc siding and found some discussion but I didn't see anything on cutting and fastening. the posts went back to May, is there somewhere else I should look?
OK, you might try April. In any event, there is mild disagreement about cutting it. Others and myself swear by the electric shears (mine are Porter Cable, cost about $200 plus, but worth it). Still others swear by the Makita plank saw with its dust removal capability. I won't pretend to be the expert or have the final word.
Either way is good. You can use a diamond saw in an ordinary sidewinder or wormdrive and it works well but the dust is horrific.
On nailing, I'm still struggling along hand nailing which isn't too much of a problem if your blind nailing, but a real booger to face nail because you're trying to drive a nail through 2 planks and you'll bend a lot of nails. From the posts I read, I recall most folks were using 6d nails in a framing gun with a flush head attachment or roofing guns. For small pieces (narrow) you'll need to pre-drill. In any event, try to catch studs for your nail line.
I always use a story pole to ensure my layout is true. That way I can also compensate for a wall height that doesn't come out exactly right, and make sure I come up even on the soffits, which, on an older house, may wander up and down a bit.. If you're doing the windows, too, take extra effort to get them nice and plumb and level so your siding lines and the windows aren't askew from each other. (this applies to any kind of horizontal siding).
we do the Makita with an automatic Fein vacumn....and we blind nail....so we use a roofing nail..
when we face nail we use an SS in an N64...
the Makita can use the carbide or a diamond...either way.. no dust.. the auto on/off vacumn setup is a must have tooMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
we just finished fc siding job on a garage. first time i have seen and used the aluminum clips that hang onthe just installed piece to give a perfect reveal for the next one to go up. they go much quicker than a story pole -if the water table is right on all the way around the siding will be too.
I will add that it looks like "the" siding that will be used for the next umteen years . Tools will be an investment. It should replace masonite completely , and maybe vinyl. It is truly a great product for the future. I would buy shares in this if it was offered.
Tim Mooney
Edited 7/14/2002 4:20:54 PM ET by Tim Mooney