Hardie siding requires a minimum 2” gap from all hard surfaces like decks or rooflines, and at least 8” from any soft surfaces like grass, dirt, or gravel.ĭuring my time working for James Hardie, I very rarely got calls from homeowners that wanted to submit a warranty claim for their Hardie siding. Because we get so much snow and ice in Edmonton, these requirements are very important. Most of the James Hardie installation requirements in Canada are designed to deal with excess moisture. If you can easily fit your hand underneath your Hardie siding, 9 times out of 10 that’s because the installer didn’t nail the boards properly. High nails are very common from inexperienced James Hardie installers, because they think the nails can go anywhere above the nail line. Any lower and you might see a few nail heads poking through the bottom of the next board, any higher and your siding is likely to be loose and could even rattle in the wind. Hardie Plank siding has a nail line across the top of the board that is 1” down from the top, and nails are supposed to fall between ¾” and 1” from the top of the board to give the best hold. The only downside of pneumatic tools is that sometimes the installer will get going a little bit too quickly, and will lose track of where the nails are going. Hardie Plank siding is almost always installed with air nailers, which are the best tool for quick installation. Clusters, steps, and zippers are all common patterns that can ruin the look of larger walls. This means that the butt joints may develop a pattern if the installer is not paying attention.
Joint placement: James Hardie states that all joints must land on a stud, unless you have minimum 7/16” wood structural paneling as sheathing.Colour matched metal slip sheets are a much more durable and better-looking option. This is allowed under James Hardie’s warranty, but because most building paper is white it shows very clearly through the joints in the siding. Most contractors will remember to do this, but some of them try to save a buck by cutting squares of building paper for these slip sheets. This is a 6” wide piece of weather resistive material to make sure that no water gets through. Joint flashing: James Hardie recommends that a slip sheet (joint flashing) is installed behind each butt joint in the siding.There is no need to leave a gap for expansion. This means that the boards should be touching each other when they are installed. Gaps: Hardie boards should be joined in “moderate contact”.Joining Hardie boards together is actually very easy, but there are a number of ways that contractors get it wrong James Hardie siding is 12 feet long, which means that siding on your longer walls will need to join together. Eventually your siding may look like it has “chicken pox”: splotches of faded touch-up paint. If a contractor uses too much paint on your home, the touch-ups will end up fading faster than the factory paint on your Hardie board. This means that contractors need to be careful to apply just the right amount of paint when painting nails or slight imperfections in the siding and trim. Because James Hardie paints and cures its siding in its factories, the sheen of the touch-up that it sends out doesn’t quite match up. Touch-up mistakes are by far the most common error that Edmonton’s James Hardie installers make.
Here are the 10 most common mistakes Edmonton siding contractors make when installing James Hardie fiber cement siding and trim, the problems they can cause, and how to make sure they don’t happen on your home!
We found that most of the common problems with James Hardie siding came down to the same thing: installer error. However, to ensure that the product lasts as long as it should and looks great throughout its lifespan, it’s important that your siding contractor follows the installation instructions.ĭuring our careers at James Hardie Canada, it was frustrating to see contractors make the same mistakes over and over again. James Hardie siding is a beautiful exterior product that can last longer than 30 years in Edmonton’s harsh climate.