I’m a homeowner with some construction experience (my dad was a contractor and I worked for him for a few years). So I know enough to know when something isn’t right. 

Two years ago we had our house (built in the 1890s) re-sided with Hardie plank. We paid a massive amount of money for this, and I’m very unhappy with the job done by the contractor – first, they cut a ton of corners (which we have photographic evidence of: like not flashing around windows), but they were also very sloppy about a lot of stuff, in particular the caulk that they say is integral to the Hardie system – between the ends of the clapboards and vertical trim boards.

In several cases, they clearly didn’t prepare the surface under the siding correctly, because the face of the siding sits *behind* the back of the vertical corner trim. There’s a gap not between the claps and the trim, but behind the trim (see photos) – sometimes 3/8″ or more. They simply caulked these gaps, but that caulk failed.

In other cases, they appear to have run the siding up against the vertical trim, then caulked the surface of the clapboards and some of the side of the trim boards – that is, they caulked the corner, not a gap between clap and trim. With expansion and contraction, this caulk separated from either the clapboard or the trim, leaving gaps everywhere. 

They’ve also addressed a water infiltration issue with a lot of silicone, which I was always taught was a sign you’re not flashing correctly. They confirmed that they didn’t install step flashing at the roof/wall union you see in the pictures, just the white aluminum flashing, and we think water was getting under that and into the wall in a driving rain. It’s only happened twice, and both times in really intense storms. 

Obviously the gaps are wrong. But on the first image, can anyone here with experience with Hardie siding tell me if this is the way it’s supposed to be? I think it looks terrible, but it also does’t feel like it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. 

BTW, I’ve called Hardie and they were beyond useless, basically telling me they’re not responsible for bad installations (the contractor we chose was one they had listed on their site as “Elite Premiere” or something like that), and they just sent me a PDF with instructions that didn’t really explain anything. 

Thanks!