Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Because It Is A Long Lasting Home Siding Solution

In one of the previous posts we talked about the huge popularity of this type of home siding. Now I wanted to go more in depth about this subject, to explain why is hardie siding so popular and why people choose it among other solutions. Sure, there will be some well known facts written here and you may not find many of these things interesting, but they have to be mentioned. It's a small history of home siding development and improvement.

Since the first man built his first house, he has been trying to improve the efficiency and the looks of his home. In the same way the homeowners are trying their best to maintain the good looks of their siding at the exterior of their home, but quite often their efforts fail to bring the desired results, but Hardie Plank siding got developed and helped a lot.

The T-111 and vinyl siding problems

A lot many homes constructed during the late 70’s till the late 90’s used what we know as T-111 siding on the exteriors. This plywood siding could retain its good looks for the initial year or two but couldn’t last beyond a couple of years.




The typical problem of using T-111 had been that despite being maintained and painted it would begin to disintegrate after the initial few years, being made of plywood. And, once plywood begins to disintegrate, fungus and bugs are not far away.

With the coming of vinyl siding, the said problems were supposed to have been taken care of. Unfortunately, vinyl siding over continuous use was prone to gathering moisture between the layers of sub-siding and vinyl sheets and eventually would become a breeding place for bugs and rot would set in. Another limitation with vinyl siding had been that it would begin to sag or become brittle on being exposed to extreme temperatures.

Regardless of the homeowners’ efforts to extend the life of exterior siding at home, they definitely needed a better-designed siding that could withstand weather elements.

Now, there’s a better choice in the form of Hardie Plank siding.

Hardie Board siding is intended to survive the test of time and offer resistance to fire impact, and all kinds of bugs and wear and tear. These properties are achieved using materials that discourage deterioration.

A combination of different materials is used for making Hardie Plank siding. All the especially created materials work collectively to provide protection to house and it continues to look attractive for many years. Moreover, it’s available in many colors and styles and varieties to choose from.

The siding maintains its looks all thru the year, and year after year without your having to ever paint it. If at all it begins to look dirty, you just need to power wash it to make it look as fresh as new, the way you always wanted it to look.

What kind of Hardie Plank siding is best for your home?

Requirements of each home are different. If you intend replacing your existing siding with Hardie Plank, you should consult the right man in your area to know what would best suit your kind of requirements. You could talk to an experienced contractor in your area that is familiar with the installation of Hardie plank and other sidings.

You may be living in New York, Los Angeles or Houston, just spend a few minutes on the Internet and you are sure to locate the right contractor in your area. Even if you check in your neighborhood, you won’t take long to learn that Hardie Plank siding is the number one choice of homeowners.

Hardiplank Siding derives its name from its inventor, James Hardie, who developed it almost a hundred years ago. Today, it’s undoubtedly among the best sidings available in the market. Basically, it’s a fiber cement board. Hardiplank Siding is among the most preferred siding mainly because of its sturdy nature that makes it highly durable. It is proven to have better properties and thus more useful than other comparable materials like Vinyl, wood, Lp, Wayehauser and Maisonite outdoor construction materials.

Fighting With Extreme weather

The Hardiplank siding has a dense composition. It’s a complex mixture of items like cement, sand and cellulose fiber etc. Use of such materials gives it the required degree of hardness that shields the building from varying and detrimental climatic conditions. The material is especially found suitable for buildings in the US. Hardiplank siding when used in coastal regions can surely protect you from any hurricane that may strike the said regions. Hardiplank siding proves to be equally useful when used in areas with heavy rainfalls, like Pacific Northwest as it doesn’t soak up water. If you happen to be living in a region that faces heavy snowfall or severe sleet, you’ll find Hardiplank siding to stand tall even under such conditions too. In short, you can certainly rely upon Hardiplank siding to shield you from any kind of climatic conditions.

Economic Viability

On comparing the economics of using different siding materials you’ll realize that Hardiplank siding certainly comes to the top. As far as buying price is concerned, Hardiplank siding surely costs a bit more than vinyl. But if you take into account long term advantages like ease of maintenance, durability and fewer number of repainting and its overall quality, Hardiplank siding proves to be the most economical. Wooden siding is definitely more expensive than Hardiplank siding. If you are in the category of people who prefer to have wood mainly because of its looks, you should be pleased to know that Hardiplank siding has very convincing wood like looks. However, unlike wood, this material is not sensitive to fire and doesn’t rot like wood. Moreover, Hardiplank siding is highly resistant to cracks, damages and breakages, making it so different from many other materials.

Easy Maintenance

Let’s take the maintenance part now. It’s very easy and quick to clean this cement siding. All that you need for its cleaning is a power cleaner and in a matter of minutes you get a siding that shines like a new one. As you can appreciate it’s not at all difficult or tiring to clean this siding. Apart from safeguarding you from external environmental conditions, Hardiplank siding keeps you safe from harmful indoor elements like fungus, insects, pests and termites etc. Because of its characteristically dense construction, it remains unaffected by these harmful elements that could weaken the siding. As it remains unaffected by moisture, fungus and insects, it won’t rot. For the same reasons it remains rust proof. So, now you can understand that this siding provides a firm shield against fire, hurricane and insects.