I had been thinking for a long time we were going with a fiber cement clapboard look (like Hardie Plank). Lately, I've been thinking about stucco as well. I'll be interested in the answers.

One question I have is this: can the stucco products be pre-tinted thru and thru, so that the colour can't actually peel or wear away? If yes, then the next question is: does this colouring fade over time?

I understand the pre-painted Hardie Planks will hold their paint a lot longer (3 to 5 times?), but they still will begin to show wear and eventually need to be repainted. Can this be avoided entirely with stucco?

Found this link. May be useful to some.
http://www.cement.org/homes/brief15.asp

we have had stucco on our last 2 homes and they were colored thru and thru and they never faded but again were light colors.
and this whole hardie plank issue is scaring me right off however the architecht and 3 builders were swearing it was the answer to all the problems.. HMMMM

Real Portland cement based stucco or the 'synthetic' junk?

The real thing has a good record.

The fake stuff a poor record.

I am not a particular lover of cement based siding like Hardi, but mot of the problems have been paint related, not the base material.

I have seen some of the hardie houses done with a few different applications and thought them lovely but our house is a basic ranch style with 1 dormer on each side and we do not want the horizontal lines to be all you see.

We had similar concerns, so we went with a mix of board and batten and lap. The boards (panel) and lap are Nichiha, and the battens are Hardie. The exposed foundation is getting stucco.

I appologize for the quality of the pic. It was taken with a cell phone on a really dull day, and it looks it.

@crazyone
> this whole hardie plank issue is scaring me right off

What scares you about the Hardie Plank?

I would say it depends somewhat on where you live. We are in central California, with plenty of earthquakes. Stucco does not hold up well when the earth moves.

We used hardiplank and are extremely happy! Ours is a multistory victorian, with dormers. It looks perfect (IMHO) and our friends and neighbors agree. Also, the hardiplank is pretty much impervious to fire - another consideration in my neck of the woods.

I agree, it depends where you live in some instances.

Down here in S. Louisiana Hardie Plank is a dream come true for many reasons, the main ones being it's impervious to termites and moisture.

Stucco is known to crack down here due to sinking ground and then the moisture factor is a killer. One tiny leak and you have huge, expensive problems.

We had stucco on the front of our old house and HardiPlank on the covered rear porch. We had no problems with the stucco, and the HardiPlank was ok, but after 3 years, when we sold the house, it was looking like it would need to be painted in the next year or so. And that was a covered porch! After only 3 years! The stucco was exposed to the weather in the front, and we didn't have any problems.

We've had HardiPlank on our home in upstate NY for almost 4 years. Winters are severe with over 200 inches of snow (actually, it is probably much higher--I am in denial). Wind is fierce, lots of rain, etc. Our hardiplank was factory painted and has held up perfectly. Not a peeling section anywhere. Still looks brand new.

jojoco-
Looks great, and you must have a climate that tests the limit of this stuff. That's not to say that there isn't an occasional batch of siding that is defective, but, in searching online for reports of problems, I haven't found large numbers of people who were dissatisfied with this product. And since it is widely used, I'd expect Google to turn up thousands or tens of thousands of complaints if there was a basic deficiency with this material.

A few people who reported delamination problems were in locales where they had large drifts of snow that were up against the siding for months at a time. I'm curious to know if you allow drifts to sit against your siding or not.

jojoco what a stunning home, very lovely!!

thanks! Here is my home in the winter. No special treatment. Fact is, we tend to steer clear of the shoveling jobs.

jo

A picture really is worth a thousand words!
Beautiful looking house Jo and a great reinforcement for those of of worried about the wear of Hardi in cold weather climates.
It looks brand new and gorgeous!

Jojoco - my husband is in love with your house!! We are looking at the Arbordale/Southerland Donald Gardner plan, but now my husband wants to throw the Fitzgerald in the mix because of your house photo!! Do you have any interior photos of the house plan that you could share?

I love the color of your house, but am not finding any yellows in the Hardie Board selection. What color and brand did you purchase?

Jenni, this thread is over 6 years old so most likely the original poster isn't here anymore. As for hardie, if it's not a pre-made color, it probably was just primed hardie and you paint it yourself.

Jenni, thanks for your nice comments. I've since moved from that house, but I can tell you the color was Woodland cream, and the trim was sail cloth. Hope that helps.

Oh, and I forgot to add, it was factory painted. That gave us a 15 year warranty versus priming it and painting it on our own.

I was in the Watson explosion on 1/24/20. They tore down stucco and put up hardi plank. Looks outstanding