[GBlist] hardiplank

["Alan Abrams, A.I.B.D." <awabrams@starpower.net>]

I work in the Washington, DC area.  I've been using Cemplank, a fiber cement
siding similar to Hardi, for four years now.  It's a little softer and more
fibrous, but the carpenters like it because it nails easier than Hardi.
(Hardi is more dense and brittle--if you use it, i recommend drilling pilot
holes before nailing.  I've done some unscientific testing on both products,
immersing unfinished samples in water for 30 days.  Hardi comes out
absolutely immuted--it seems to have the absorbtion capacity of a sheet of
glass.  Cemplank's surface seems to absorb a little, but not enough to
measurably swell the width or thickness of the panel.  Cemplank holds paint
tenaciously.

My working assumption that the limit of its service life will be the
substrate or the nail, not the product itself.

By the same token, red cedar shingles on houses built in the Teens and
Twenties are still going strong here.

Alan Abrams, AIBD


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