There is a battle between purists and realists regarding the choice of using fiber cement siding or cedar siding. The purists want to preserve the natural beauty of wood and use the natural product on homes all over New England. The realists are looking for long term low maintenance.
Done properly, you should be able to attain the look and beauty of a western red cedar clapboards, by using a product such as Weather boards by Certainteed. They use 30 different pieces of actual western red cedar when making the molds for the clapboards. this means that if you were thinking of the repeat pattern you get with Hardie Plank, you are wrong. The other secret is choosing not to have the fiber cment siding installed pre painted, but pre primied. That way you can acheive the natural look of a freshly painted clapboard without the factory looking finish of the pre-painted products.
Now the question is what do you get with cedar that you don’t get with fiber cement siding? Cost for one. The price of cedar is throguht the roof and only going up. You get to repaint every 5 years or so up here in New England, (Massachusetts specifically).
Cedar gives you beauty, done right, so does fiber cement siding. cedar gives you high maintenance, fiber cement gives you low maintenance, cedar gives you any color choice in the; same with fiber cement sding. Cear gives you future rot, termite damage, pealling, blistering cracking, splitting; fiber cement gives you new looking cedar in 15 years. Cedar you repaint every 5 years, fiber cement you can repaint every 20-25 years. In the end their is no logical reason to choose cedar over fiber cemnt sidng, unless you are very stubborn. then by all means, go with the headaches of cedar siding. Check out this post from a collegue in weschester.
Cement Vs Cedar Breakdown
Roy Melnick can be reached at RAMelnick@UnitedHomeExperts.com in Massachusetts. United Home Experts is a local family owned and operated home improvement contractor located in Ashland MA. We serve North Shore, South Shore, Blackstone Valley, Nashoba Valley, Worcester County, Rhode Island, South County RI, Southern NH.
Filed under: Fiber Cement Siding, Fiber Cement Siding Andover MA, Fiber Cement Siding Natick MA | Tagged: Andover Fiber Cement Contractor, Andover MA, cedar siding, Certainteed, failing wood siding, fibe cement siding, Fiber Cement, Fiber Cement Siding, Fiber Cement Siding Andover MA, fibercement, Fibercement Siding, Green Products, green siding, hardieplank, Hardieplank installer, home improvement, home improvement company, James Hardie, local massachusetts contractor, Low Maintenance Products, Natick MA hardie installer, Painting, Siding, Stow Hardie Installer
Roy: Thanks for the tip on Certainteed and for the thanks for the link to Living Well in Westchester.
Mark