We did the south wall of the house two years ago with the NuCedar Channel Rustic vertical siding and just finished the front of the house with the same. Temperatures here in the Hudson Valley can go from below 0 in winter 10 over 95 in summer. So far there has only been one piece of siding that has cracked due to it’s being cut to fit around a window and nailed too tightly on the south side wall. It’s a very minor defect considering that wall has over 500 sq ft of siding on it. Homeslicker plus was used as housewrap and the siding on the front of the house was screwed on instead of being nailed due to a design change of the siding. Including all the trim and siding the cost was 9.67 per sq ft for the NuCedar. The south wall done two years ago looks brand new and the front finished just days ago looks incredible. All the insects are gone and the south side has had no insect damage at all. The cedar which is still on the north side and back of the house will be replaced next year is full of pests including carpenter bees. It is also rotted in many places ,even though it was maintained, and was installed in 1987 making it 25 years old. We had the house appraised for a refinace and the appraiser was completely fooled by the NuCedar as she thought it was real cedar. That’s how good this siding looks and feels. As for the expansion and contraction factor yes it does along the length of the siding but not the width. However the trim hides it and with vertical siding it is only noticable if there is an unglued joint. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this product to anyone it is miles beyond regular vinyl siding. No maintennace and a good look is worth a lot of money to me!
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We resided with Masonite Woodsman hardboard about 25 years ago. Been painted twice. No sign of deterioration, no cracking, no problem with expansion/contraction. And about as airtight and raintight as siding can get.
I had hardboard siding on my house and after a short while, it started to fail in the usual ways hardboard does. And I painted it more often than once every 12 years, more like every 5 or 6 years, and spot painted after replacing planks that rotted or just bloated.
It got so bad looking that the city cited me, and I resided with hardi plank. I would never touch hardboard ever again. Hardi is OK, but it's just a little too unnatural looking. Hopefully it lasts as long as the hype. Hardi seems to really hold paint well, unlike hardboard.
Your experience with hardboard is very unusual.
My experience is not at all unusual for TEMPERED hardboard. Unfortunately, hardboard got a bad name because a bunch of companies tried to make the stuff cheap, without proper tempering, and then even Masonite started doing that, in an attempt to undercut the others. Drove themselves out of business trying to be low-price vs distinguishing themselves for quality.
But good tempered hardboard is far superior to fiber-cement. Stronger, lighter, easier to install, looks better.