Hardie Plank doing a site visit mid Sept (2010). Will relay their thoughts along to you..

The supplier of the James Hardie siding that we installed sent the boards to Weiss to be stained (which we had no knowledge of). The boards are peeling now in many places, and Weiss is gone. Any help? Is supplier liable? Hardie?

Arrived at our one year old ski home yesterday. Started shovelling out the entryway at our lower level and discovered that the Hardie Plank is peeling and bubbling. Since the snow is 4 feet deep I assume we have the problem all around the exterior. Will have to wait until the June thaw to find out how bad the problem is.

I live on the Western Bay in Trenton, Maine and specified Hardi Board siding when we bought and remodeled our "Money Pit" in 2007. The shingled siding seems to be holding up prety well but the yellow plank siding is experiencing peeling in most areas. I might understand the sides directly facing the water and winds but the other sides not directly in the line of fire are also peeling.

Since I rent the home during the summers I am not here to fight with a sales/factory rep (from all that I am reading, this would be an exercise in futility) and need to address this situation when I return in the Fall.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to the best option on repainting? Should I scrape the peeling paint off, repaint with KILZ and then paint on a top coat of color? Would one of the Behr products with the primer incorporated in the color do the job?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

From what I know about these kinds of problems, the cause of the peeling paint is likely to be the fact that it is absorbing moisture from somewhere. The boards absorb water, then the freeze/thaw cycle breaks the bond between the material and the paint. It's made of cement, but it still absorbs water. The moisture could be coming from the inside of the building or it could be getting wicked up from water that splashes up, ice dams or piles of snow. I would think that the solution would be to solve that absorbtion problem. I dont think that the solution will involve finding the right paint product. I dont think paint is going to solve this problem. Ours will be 3 years old this summer, and knock on wood, no peeling.

My home in Northern Illinois was professionally sided with factory primed and Cabot-stained Hardie Plank in 2001. Clearly, I made a big mistake. Anywhere the siding comes in contact with ice or snow the finish blisters and peels eventually. It looks awful. Every year I have to reseal and paint over spots. James Hardie cannot possibly be financially responsible for the mess they have caused among so many homeowners and still stay solvent. I was practically enraged to see their postcard ads showing up in mailboxes in our community the past few weeks. Hardie Plank should not be used routinely on homes in Northern Illinois.

I am looking at a house to buy. It had hardie board installed in 09. It is peeling where snow collects above windows. Not only is the paint peeled there, but the board looks like it has taken on water and expanded. This house is in the mountains outside of Bozeman Montana. After reading these posting, I'm going to keep looking.

I am currently in the early stages of contracting with a builder in central Ohio who uses only Hardiplank for siding. I am very concerned about the issues that you folks have raised but I also went to the Hardiplank website and found out that Hardi is now saying that they have developed the siding to take into account for the different climates. Has anyone used the HZ5 siding and is it holding up or is this new product too new to know at this point? Thanks.

Mine went up 4 years ago. No problem yet.

The City of Sydney, NS, Canada, promoted many downtown buildings to use cement board siding.
Many business had it put on their buildings.
I heard that it was mostly "Hardie" siding that was used.
After about 3 years, you could walk past these buildings and see pealing paint on the majority of these buildings.
They mostly used the prepainted board.
Every colour seamed to be affected.
I now hear that that siding is no longer sold in this area.

I just did a short walk and survey of the plank composite siding, in Sydney, NS, Canada.
It was not as bad as I had pictured.
7 buildings seamed good at this point.
11 buildings had various degrees of peeling, and obvious patch painting.
One building in yellow color had some serious delaminating. The remaining yellow paint looked like shreds.

I think the sidings ages, varied between 2 and 5 years.

I'm reading these posts and getting sick to my stomach.

We're in the final stages of building in southern Indiana. And, as you may have guessed, we're having hardie trim and siding put on the house. We wanted brick, but too expensive. Can't stand vinyl (warps, sags, discolors, looks cheap) so we figured Hardie was the way to go. Now after reading these posts, I am in shock.

The installer did it wrong on a portion of the house, so I complained to the builder (I knew something was off) and had him read the installation instructions. They were simply screwing it to the house which is a big no-no according to Hardie. (You're supposed to use plastic clips on the back of the trim and then nail them into the house instead, the whole concept of Hardie is to not have any of the surfaces showing a nail or screw at all.) As well, they were mitre cutting the corners of the windows instead of a butt joint which is clearly shown on the instructions. The builder said "They said they're doing it right, so..." and I told him No, they're not at all, it has to be re-done, look at the PDF and make them study it! So, off it comes on one side of the house. Thank God it was the only side done so far and only three boards up, or there would have been a ton of waste.

My confidence in their installation prowess is extremely low and after reading this thread, even lower. These are typical billy-bob construction workers, not a lot of concern or care shown so far and this is just scratching the surface of how badly they've messed up so far. The builder has already eaten a lot of mistakes and will probably lose money on this job. I wonder what this is going to look like in a few years? I dare not tell my spouse about this thread, I'm afraid to even face that music after all we've been through.

I wonder what a world which has good products and careful carpenters looks like? Is that somewhere in heaven after we all die? :-)

My Hardie siding has been up for about 4 years with no signs of problems. Actually my cedar trim is in need of re-staining but the hardie is fine. I think an important detail is for the installer tokeep a space between teh bottom course of trim and any roofline or other surface that is likely to hold water. I think that some of teh earlier problems were a result of that bottom course staying wet and peeling.

I live in Southwest WI and had a professional contractor install prefinished (upgraded two coat warranty) Hardie siding in the spring of '08 on our new home. After the first full season I noticed paint pealing and cracking in several areas and brought it to the suppliers attention. I have had a Hardie rep as well as a PPG rep visit in '10 and '11. They simply push the blame on each other or the contractor. It is now 2012 and what started out as a beautiful Cedar colored country home now looks touched up, faded and 25 years old. I should have used real wood as then I would have expected the maintanance that I have now. Better yet, after all the extra labor the plank installation calls for, I could have bricked it! Don't use Hardie......do your research.....not too difficult to find a lot of problems online.

I am in Massachusetts and having similar problems. When we built this house in 2005/2006 we chose Hardie because we didn't want the maintenance. Between the product, installation, and painting, we paid over $20,000 (it's a 12 room house with a 5 car garage). The installer was recommended to us by the lumber company where we bought the materials. It was pre-primed and we had it painted a custom color. Within a year it started bubbling and peeling along our deck and a few random spots higher up. We called the painter, who sent the mfr rep out and they said it was happening because the snow was building up against the siding. I then asked why it was happening 15 feet in the air where no other boards were peeling around it and no snow could reach. I finally contacted Hardie under the warranty as it began to delaminate and after every rain storm we would find pieces of our siding peels in the yard. The house looks like it has mange and it's disgusting. They sent a rep from OH out to look at it and the report I got said improper installation, incorrect flashing, no gaps near the deck, and also lack of gutters. Hardie has offered to have 1800 sf of the house re-sided by their people and 'preventative' measures taken such as flashing. However they said they won't' cover painting to match because it wasn't their error. They said they are fixing it to help me out. My uncle (a retired contractor) said there will likely be a class action at some point because this is a common story in cold climates I see. After they do the work, I will be pursuing the installer in small claims court for the cost to repaint the house ($6k) as I don't' feel I should have to. Have more pics if anyone is interested.

How awful. These warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on. We had problems with our Certainteed fiber cement siding cracking in places. The company replaced the siding but not the labor. We ended up caulking and painting the cracks because the labor was going to be so intensive. Still have the siding in storage. So disappointing.

This is why my husband is insisting that the next house will be brick or stone.

I started this thread almost five years ago and (knock on wood) no problems yet. Having said that, my previous houses all had vinyl siding and I never had to think about it. Looked fine. It was cheap. No maintenance. If there was ever a problem, it was easy to fix. Sometimes I think we make things too complicated for ourselves. If I ever build a house again, it will have vinyl siding.

sometimes it is not is easy as we hope. The neighborhood I built in does not allow vinyl siding...only wood or masonary so I thought this was the best solution too low maintenance exterior.

sometimes it is not is easy as we hope. The neighborhood I built in does not allow vinyl siding...only wood or masonary so I thought this was the best solution too low maintenance exterior.

I started this thread almost five years ago and (knock on wood) no problems yet. Having said that, my previous houses all had vinyl siding and I never had to think about it. Looked fine. It was cheap. No maintenance. If there was ever a problem, it was easy to fix. Sometimes I think we make things too complicated for ourselves. If I ever build a house again, it will have vinyl siding.

My development would have allowed either vinyl or hardie. I know that one neighbor has vinyl because I watched them put it up. The others ... I cant tell. I assume it's hardie but from the street, I would be guessing.

TTCLauren - I'm so sorry, that is just awful. Warranties clearly don't mean much of anything any more.

After reading this thread and a few others I was certainly concerned with Hardie Plank. I'm in the planning process for a small cottage build. I mentioned Hardie Plank to my architect saying "I hear HP isn't that great with snow". He snorted a bit and laughed saying it isn't good with precipitation of any kind. Maybe in the desert. He also said he would absolutely never use it in one of his projects.

My development would have allowed either vinyl or hardie. I know that one neighbor has vinyl because I watched them put it up. The others ... I cant tell. I assume it's hardie but from the street, I would be guessing.

I appreciate all of the comments on this board and am a little frightened now. Getting ready to break ground in the next couple of weeks and we chose Hardie for the siding. I cannot use vinyl or aluminum and brick and stone wouldn't look too good with our design. Our builder has used Hardie on most of his homes over the past 5 years and hasn't mentioned problems. Have they rectified the problem? I'm building in PA. Thanks!

actually the contractors that Hardie sent just finished the job last week. Funny, I am in Massachusetts, the Hardy rep flew out from Ohio and the contractors they hired came from New Hampshire. The contractors were awesome. They said they have done this type of warranty repair work for them for about 10 years and that they were great to work with from therir standpoint. My house is now re-sided on a large portion and we will have to paint it next. So, so far I can't complain about them standing behind the warranty other than not covering the cost to repaint. They sent a survey with the contractor for me to fill out about their claims process and the workmen.

I'm sorry to hear about the Hardie problems. We've used the pre-primed planks in very wet climates and very cold climates with severe temperature extremes (-35C to +30C). Absolutely never had a problem and will use it again in the future.

We live in zone 3, and our builder cautioned us about Hardie. Said he had had numerous problems with Hardie and the company did not stand behind their product. He strongly suggested we use SmartSide, but I didn't like the colors they had at the time, thought it was too shiny, the seams showed too much, and I wasn't sure about painting it. We ended up using Certainteed Impressions polymer siding. I had vowed I would never have vinyl siding, but really like this stuff. Any product will have positive and negative reports, and of course the negatives always get more publicity.

Attached is a 2009 Consumer Reports article on this product as compared to Hardie.

Here is a link that might be useful: Why Polymer Shakes siding - Consumer Reports Liked It

I too have issues with Hardie board siding. I live in RI on the water with the back of my house facing east. In spring 2007, I had factory pre-painted HB siding installed by a roofing and siding contractor then painted a darker custom BM color by a professional house painter. After 3 years the paint has faded terribly in streaks and blotches on all sides but primarily on the back of the house (water side). I have had the BM regional rep out to look at the paint and he claims heâÂÂs never seen anything like it but if he were to guess it appeared to be an issue with the HB possibly absorbing moisture. I donâÂÂt understand why that would affect the paint fading on the boards.
He suggested I contact the regional HB Rep to come out and look at the issue. I am in the process of doing that. After reading this blog, however, I now know what to expect (he will most likely blame it on the installer/contractor!).
I am posting some pictures of the fading which is more of an issue than pealing at this point. Any thoughts on why the paint should have faded so badly? Also, I would be very interested in joining a class action suit.

Additional Image from MMBRI

Are those two vertical faded areas aligned with your studs (probably 18" apart) or are they aligned with the vertical parts of your window? If the faded area is appearing every 18" where you have a stud underneath that would seem to indicate a problem from within. If it is fading in places where water is running down the boards, that would seem to indicate a problem from the outside. I am no expert, just my thought.

My Hardy is almost 5 yrs old and no problem yet.

The worst of the fading is under the vertical white framing of the windows, however, the fading is also in areas where there are no windows.

Does it look like it's peeling in areas where water frequently runs down the siding? If so, that would make me think that it's more likely to be a paint problem.

It is not really pealing just terrible fading and some separation of the boards at the seams which appear to be shrinkage. Under the windows it almost looks like the white paint on the trim has run down the painted HB under windows, however, it is definitely faded not stained by white paint. Would water behind the HB cause the paint to fade? Thanks for your thoughts.

" Under the windows it almost looks like the white paint on the trim has run down the painted HB under windows"

You used chalking paint on the trim.

Wile ti keeps the trim looking 'newer' it also leaves stains below.

'Non chalking' paint greatly limits the problem.

You should see the mess chalking paint makes when used on the siding above a brick surface.

I live in Minnesota and my factory painted HardiePlank has peeled and molded in a corner of the deck. I went through all of the hoops that Hardie mandates for warranty claims and never heard a word back from them. Even so, if you read the warranty, they are only on the hook to replace the defective boards. A lot of good that will do me as the boards are in the lower corner of the deck and the 2 sides where they come together would basically all need to be removed and replaced. Attempts to repaint with Hardie recommended paint have similarly failed.

Yes, some of you haven't had problems. Good for you! That doesn't mean that Hardie is making a consistently good product, nor that they stand be their product. It only means you were lucky.

Every time I see a sign toting Hardie's warranty I want to scream "WORSE THAN WORTHLESS".

Hi
I installed the refinished Hardie plank in Ireland in 07, It has started to peel away at the bottom of some planks.
A build up algae has also started, should I put in a claim or am I wasting my time?

Many thanks in advance.

Hi
I installed the refinished Hardie plank in Ireland in 07, It has started to peel away at the bottom of some planks.
A build up algae has also started, should I put in a claim or am I wasting my time?

Many thanks in advance.

I dont have any experience with claims but I would be curious to see pictures of your problem. I would think that algae would mean that the boards are getting wet and staying wet. That might explain the peeling.

Hi
I installed the refinished Hardie plank in Ireland in 07, It has started to peel away at the bottom of some planks.
A build up algae has also started, should I put in a claim or am I wasting my time?

Many thanks in advance.

Hi
I installed the refinished Hardie plank in Ireland in 07, It has started to peel away at the bottom of some planks.
A build up algae has also started, should I put in a claim or am I wasting my time?

Many thanks in advance.

Know nothing about your siding issues without more info from you as previously asked but you are wasting our by posting the exact same question repeatedly!

This post was edited by millworkman on Sat, Mar 15, 14 at 19:30

To answer your question PotNoodle ... "Yes" and "probably yes."

I have Hardiplank on SEVEN homes which I own. Speaking from experience the James Hardy product is pure junk. It is highly hydroscopic, meaning iT absorbs water readily. Once the siding has absorbed water, paint peeling is the likely result.

We observe that on the south, west and eastern sides of our homes paint peeling is generally less of a problem as the sun exposure warms the siding and drives out most of the moisture absorbed in a heavy rain. The northern exposures are a different situation and that's where paint peeling is the biggest problem.

In coastal locations Hardiplank is at its worst. Wind driven rain will force its way behind the siding and will often find its way behind the laps and will literally get between the siding and the paint forming large balloons under the paint filled with water! These balloons can be as large as a foot or two wide and unbelievably can hold 4-6 ounces of water for months until the peeling sets in. You pop the balloon and water runs down the side of the home!

Additional areas where paint peeling and Hardiplank delamination often occur are any location where there is a high 'slash' effect off of gable roofs or splash from decks or porches back onto this siding. iF YOU READ THE MANUFACTURER'S INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS, THEY WANT YOU TO KEEP THE PRODUCT 'X' INCHES AWAY FROM DECKS AND ROOF SURFACES, HOWEVER THIS ISJUST NOT PRACTICAL IN MANY CASES. In a real sense this is Hardy's own admission that the product is not suited for geographic areas of the US which receive a fair amount of rain due to water absorption.

I've read lots of painters saying the problem is the paint. Over the years, we've tried all the major brands including Behr and Sherwin Williams and numerous others, and in our experience the paint makes little to no difference. In our view the product is not suitable as an exterior siding unless the structure is located in an arid environment like the southwest.

Many homeowners have been told it's an installation problem. Except in the rarest cases, I do not believe it. I have seen rampant delamination of the product 2" from a patio surface and 20' above as well. I have experienced the butt joints open up as much as 3/4 of an inch on hot southern exposures. All this means that the product is swelling and shrinking constantly and inherently causes paint to peel as a result.

In short, the product does not appear to be suited for the purpose for which it is intended: SIDING. I would not put it on a dog house!

I started this thread back in 2008 when we were deciding on what siding to use on what was then our new house. Fast forward to 2016 and we have the house for sale (downsizing with 2 kids in college) and the house we are looking to build next will have vinyl. It looks 80% as nice at half (?) the cost, zero maintenance and no concerns about how it will hold up. Hardy worked well for our dream house but now we have been there and done that and ready for something cheaper, tougher and no maintenance. My only problem with the hardy is that it chips if you hit it with a wheelbarrow, baseball or shovel. Mine is red so those spots are very visible.

We built our home in 2006/2007. We live in Nebraska. Hardiplank is peeling on the north side. It started around the windows right away. I'm getting no where with warranty. If anyone has had success with their warranty please let me know how you did it!

Thank you!

Warranty, ha

In my opinion the benefits of hardy are not enough to justify its cost, maintenance needs or the concerns about its durability. And thats from someone who had it for 8 years without a problem.

We are renting in a high end development of town homes and houses. They sell for 7 figures. They are now 12 years old and sided with vinyl siding. Frankly seams are splitting, or the siding is dented or starting to pull away. Vinyl would be my last choice

re: mawilson424,

I dealt with Hardie back in 2011 & it wasn't pleasant, but in the end I persevered & got what I wanted.

You have to get beyond their Warranty Claims office as fast as you can after submitting your claim and deal with the local Hardie Rep, or you are screwed. They will keep asking you submit form after form after form via snail mail and dragging things out forever, or until you throw your hands in the air and decide it is just not worth it.

Huge deciding factor in my case was having on hand a copy of both the 2004 http://www.structuretech1.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/James-Hardie-2004-Instructions.pdf  & 2005 http://www.structuretech1.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/James-Hardie-2005-Instructions.pdfHardiePlank Installation Manual [2004 was still in effect until Dec.2005] when dealing with them. Nowhere in the 2004 manual does it specify a gap of any type between the bottom plank & the flashing. But all of a sudden in the 2005 Manual a 1/4 inch gap spec shows up, which is now, I believe, 1-2 inches. Up until I pointed this out, the Hardie Rep kept saying there would be no warranty because of faulty installation, after showing him copies of the 2 manuals he asked, "O.K. What do you want".

This HardiePlank paint peeling was/is a huge manufacturing screwup, but they managed to stomp out the fires one at a time, & dealt with everyone differently with very little cost, and no recalls that I am aware of. So beware, & make sure you do some research & have your info on hand.

Jgee in B.C. Canada

Lots of horror stories about HardiePlank and Certainteed on Houzz. What I don't see is any alternative suggestions. How about Everlast, NuCedar (Cellular PVC) or Celect (Cellualar PVC) siding products? Everlast is a Cellular PVC composite that incorporates granular stone and polymeric resin with an acrylic layer that is chemically bonded to the substrate. I've read some complaints about buckling and warping of the Celect product but no complaints about Everlast and NuCedar. Anyone have experience with these products?