LP has many lawsuits concening their "smart siding". It's a fiberboard backed product that hasn't held up well in most areas of the country with the exception of dry climate areas such as the deserts. I wouldn't even use it there.

If your community has nothing but vinyl sidings on their homes, you gave yourself your own words of wisdom on another thread by sticking to that for budget, less maintenance, and re-sale concerns.

We did our usual open house tour today and two of the homes are using smart siding. One of the homes has just qualified for the title "healthy house" through the American Lung society and other groups. This is a home that has been throughly researched for each detail and sold for a large sum of money. I guess I assumed that meant that smart siding would be held to high standards. That's what makes this forum so great....thanks for your comments! Wow, the detials of a new home is unreal! And too many people trying to sell you products and not always with the builders best interest in mind. Once again, thanks!

Endorsements are no longer meaningful unless you know that the endorsing entity does not prostitute its name. Sadly, that can't be said about the Amercian Lung Association.

However, you wrote Amercian Lung Society. If that is really what you meant, you might see if that is a "real" non profit. Sometimes these things are set up just to sell endorsements. A web search for American Lung Society doesn't bring much up

Here is a link that might be useful: Charity Article

"SmartSide" Lap and Panel Siding is zinc-borate treated aspen wood oriented-strand-board with a resin saturated MDO paper face and three coats of edge sealer. Louisiana Pacific says it has to be painted every 3 to 5 years.

The well-known class action lawsuit against LP in the early 90's was for another OSB siding product called "Inner-Seal" that didn't have the zinc-borate treatment and failed due to moisture retention and rot especially in the Pacific Northwest. Production of Inner-Seal began in '85 and to LP's credit they initiated a settlement that was completed in '95.

Production of SmartSide siding began in '97 and so far LP says, believe it or not, there haven't been any warranty claims for fungal decay.

I would recommend giving it another 5 years before using it but only if you have a really tight budget and like to paint your house a lot. It appears that developers love it.

Thanks for the correction, M.A.! Smart siding still sounds like an inferior product.