NUTS AND BOLTS
Taking Sides
Cement-based siding offers a low-maintenance alternative to clapboard, shingles, or vinyl.
By John Budris, 11/9/2003
From the damp of the Pacific Northwest to the scorch of the Arizona desert, architects, builders, and homeowners who love the look of wood as an exterior finish but hate the maintenance have one less compromise to make. The James Hardie company produces a variety of fiber cement composite products -- from siding to trim, even shingles in various styles -- that look like wood but won't rot, crack, or cup in the most demanding of nature's elements. Better still, the cement-based materials are fire-resistant.
Hardie's siding products offer advantages over conventional materials, particularly near the ocean, where the flux of sun, salt, wind, and moisture puts wood and paint to the test.
The architects of the new Mansion House, an inn on Martha's Vineyard, chose several James Hardie products to keep the rebuilt structure looking that way. "This new generation of fiber-cement siding provides the only functional and aesthetic alternative to vinyl," says principal architect David Galler of Prellwitz/Chilinski of Cambridge. "Especially in places with dormers, balconies, and gables up four or five stories, you want to apply the material and forget about it for quite a few years."
After fire destroyed the original building in 2001, innkeeper Susan Goldstein says, "we wanted our new inn to have all the fanciness and feel of a Victorian hotel." What Goldstein did not want again was the maintenance nightmare a wood-sided building would pose.
Conforming to historical appearance was paramount in the design of the new inn. The variety of Hardie products used on the hotel, including one that simulates antique slate shingles on the mansard roof, "makes us a kind of poster boy for the materials," says Goldstein.
The siding comes in a variety of looks and textures, all of which have a painting surface that resists fungus and mildew. Its prefinished version comes with a 15-year paint warranty.
While prices vary from market to market, dealers say, when installation is included, the siding is less expensive than brick, high-grade cedar clapboards, or synthetic stucco.
For more information, call 888-542-7343 or visit www.jameshardie.com.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
