products galore: siding purchased part dos

you know how every blogger always has "such and such part deux" well since we are here in southwest colorado i think "part dos" is much more appropriate.  we have a large population of americans who speak spanish as well as english.  new mexico is just a hop and a skip away and we are so lucky to have probably THE BEST traditional mexican food (outside of mexico) as well as influences from the Navajo and other native american tribes.  but i digress , this post is supposed to be about siding!

you saw our purchase of antique barn wood here, which we are soooo excited to show you.  but what about the rest of the house.  originally we had envisioned a vertical wood siding in a reverse board and batten application on the left side of the house, and a horizontal lap siding under the front porch.  again, we did a bunch of research into the available products.  we seriously considered using cedar siding for its weather resistant properties, however, i wasn't diggin' the idea that this product would still rot over time.  björn and i both wanted something that would be a lot less maintenance in the future.  after reading a few great articles on Fine Home Building we decided to check out fiber cement board.

hardie plank siding 5/16" thick

Hardie Board is a brand which has become synonymous with fiber cement board.  But what is it?  Fiber cement is a composite material made of sand, cement and cellulose fibers. This is formed into traditional sized siding boards, trim and panels and even to mimic the look of cedar shingles.  But unlike a wood product, Hardie board is rot resistant, is non-combustible, resists warping, cracking, hail and can withstand winds up to 150 mile per hour!  hardie board is available in some areas pre-painted however, in our area it is really only available in a primed finish, ready to paint any color you want.

what we really liked about Hardie board is its ease of installation, every piece is super straight and dimensional, unlike "real" wood and also we loved the low maintenance aspect of the product.  Because it is rot resistant we won't have to worry so much about water damage, snow or ice sitting against the house and it also does not become a host for wood eating insects! plus our favorite architect, hnj, uses it a lot on his house without eaves, and since we don't have eaves, we thought we should probably take a lesson or two from the master.  but that meant changing the look of the left side of the house from a vertical siding to a horizontal lap siding, we decided that we were okay with that, as long as the result was something classic with beautiful lines.

but....björn and i could not be satisfied with normal hardie plank, no.  we had to delve into the unknown. (that seems to be our thing).  instead of the traditional hardie plank which has been a staple for James Hardie we decided to purchase their Artisan line of fiber cement board, which of course was not readily available here in colorado.  we were told this was a product designed for the east coast market, that just made us want it more!  so after a little bit of hassle we were able to place our order for beautiful Artisan plank Hardie board.

alpine lumber delivering our artisan hardie board

you can really see how thick this product is

this product is 5/8" thick compared to 5/16" thickness of normal hardie plank, creating the look of traditional wood siding, with deep shadow lines.  kind of hard to explain, but the pictures tell the story!  and it sounds like we are going to be one of the only houses in all of colorado to have this product on the exterior of their house which is pretty interesting.  we are still planning on white painted under the front porch area and a colored paint on the left side of the house, something to balance the beautiful grey of the north side of the house.  can't wait to show you the progress!

artisan hardie board with beautiful deep shadow lines

all of the details using the artisan product are
reminiscent of traditional wood siding

for more on hardie board and artisan check out the site!

photos via james hardie & moi