HardiePlank finish

[barlyhop]

This siding job looked extremely amateur to me. Hardie Plank Select Cedarmill 7 1/4" lap siding.

Many pieces were cut short at window openings and at eaves. 1/16" gaps between butt joints throughout. Existing caulk was opening up all over due to a 1/2" gap at end cuts, etc. I wonder if the installer had a dull sawblade and didn't want to recut short pieces?

Does this stuff shrink?? Manufacture does not recommend caulking butt joints.

The finish is flaking off at the lower course only on the south side of the house and peculiarly worse behind the gas service?

I wonder if the material wasn't primed before painting or the siding was stained as opposed to painting? Hardie recommends 100% latex.

The siding was not submerged in water but under snow at times.

I now have doubts about using cement fiber siding.

Thanks guys!

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[barlyhop]

Another siding pic.

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[barlyhop]

Dryer vent area.

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[Bob White]

Painted while wet?

Until I saw the dryer vent, I thought you'd snuck up and taken pics of the siding job we did on the backside of out church building ...

[Chad Fabry]

Painted while wet with cheap paint; what Bob says.

The area below the window is a really, really stupid place to have a joint. The water runs down the window flashing (sic), saturates the unpainted ends of the board and then heat driven vapor moves the paint out of the way as it escapes to atmosphere.

I've installed and painted 10's of thousands of square feet of the stuff and I've never seen finish failures like the ones in your photos except where I failed to install a kickout on a balcony on my own home.

I installed the kickout, scuffed the board w/ a greenie and painted. It's all good now.

[hausdok]

I see an awful lot of Hardie fiber-cement products and have yet to see that kind of paint failure; even when the stuff wasn't installed correctly.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Tom Raymond]

That install is nasty, he must have eaten the instructions rather than read them. At the gas meter the siding is way too close to grade.

Tom

[Brandon Whitmore]

I see an awful lot of Hardie fiber-cement products and have yet to see that kind of paint failure; even when the stuff wasn't installed correctly.

The only time I run into paint failure similar to that is when the dang painter painted right over dirt. Gotta love new construction painters.

[Marc]

That install is nasty, he must have eaten the instructions rather than read them. At the gas meter the siding is way too close to grade.

Tom

I wonder if that is string trimmer damage at the meter. In any case, it's a defective install.

Marc

[Rocon]

I see similar paint failure/damage to painted three coat plaster on a fairly regular basis. The cause is usualy sprinkler heads spraying against the plaster.

[Marc]

This is sort of a drift but it relates to fiber cement siding.

I've been in contact with several venders of E&O insurance in the last few days frantically trying to line up some new coverage for when my existing policy ends this weekend. One such vender mentioned offhand that insurance companies that sell E&O to home inspectors are considering the addition of a new exclusion to the coverage: cultured stone and fiber cement. This vender said that the issue had to do with improper installations and not the products themselves. The exclusion is already in effect in North Carolina.

Marc

[hausdok]

Hi,

Can't say that I blame them; the cultured stone industry published guidelines for how to properly install their product more than a year ago but I've yet to see a single installation where those guidelines have been followed to the letter.

It's a similar situation, although not as severe, with HardiPlank; about half of the installations I see have gross violations of the manufacturer's installation instructions.

When I write this stuff up on new homes, the clients are coming back to me telling me that builders are pretty much declaring that the inspector guy must be smoking crack or something, because in their X number of years building homes and applying the product they've never had a complaint and they don't intend to stop using their subs and don't plan to tell the their subs how to install the product.

Are you still trying to tie your PL policy to the E & O? I've never done that. I pay $336 a year for PL from Safeco and I've been pretty happy with them.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Marc]

I'm not trying to tie it in. Some venders will sell me E&O only as a package that includes GL. The others are turning me down outright because of the recent court judgement in favor of the plaintiffs in a chinese drywall lawsuit here in Louisiana.

I've two prospects for insurance at this minute. Working them as hard as I can.

Marc