Choosing a Composite Siding for Your House

There are many different options for siding to put on your house. There are basically two different categories, one is wood siding and the other is composite siding which includes hardboard or compressed, cement, and oriented strand board (OSB) siding. To me wood is the prettiest way to go but it is really expensive and really hard to keep up. If you have the time and the energy to keep up with wood siding I would suggest that route. If you want something that you don’t have to paint every five years and don’t have to maintain I would suggest a composite siding.

Cement siding is a relatively new product in the siding world and has some really good qualities. It is fire retardant, it holds paint very well and it is essentially maintenance free. It does have some drawbacks which are such that I would not recommend using it, especially if you are putting it up yourself. The main problem is that it’s really hard to work with. It’s extremely heavy and you almost need two people to carry a piece so you don’t break it. Which leads me to my next downfall, it’s extremely brittle and if you don’t handle it right you will break more than you use. You need to have special saw blades to cut it and it makes a huge mess. Once you do get it cut and up on the wall you have to be extremely careful when nailing it that you don’t split it. If you get too close to an edge or corner you will blow a piece right out and you have to replace it. The main benefits that cement siding had at one point in time was that it had a 50 year warranty, it still does but other hardboard and OSB products now have the same warranty. Cement would not be my first choice.

The hardboard siding is a great option and has all the benefits of cement without all the drawbacks. It is sturdy, it holds paint very well, and it is extremely easy to work with. I put hardboard siding on my house and I did it all by myself. It’s extremely easy to cut and the ease of attaching it to your house is exceptional. You still have to be careful at the corners not to blow it out with your nail gun but it’s much more forgiving than the cement siding. If you are siding your house any time soon I would definitely go with the hardboard or OSB backed product. Save yourself a boat load of money and do it yourself.

The OSB backed product is essentially the same thing as hardboard; it carries the same benefits and same drawbacks. Some people say that it will swell due to moisture but I have never seen this happen. The other big benefit with the OSB backed product is that you can use it as a structural product. This is good for sheds and other smaller projects where you can just put the siding right over the studs; you don’t have to put OSB or other types of sheathing down first.

Do some research and find out what you really want to use. The warranty is a big deal and if you’re not getting at least 50 years on either cement or hardboard you need to look at another product. Siding your own home can be quite a challenge if you’ve never done it before so price out the instillation as well to see what the benefit would be of doing it yourself. Good luck.