AsktheBuilder.com Issue #1294 (I think)

August 29, 2024

Dear ,

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

(Helen Keller)

Fiber Cement Siding Failure

Jeff, who lives in northwest Ohio, reached out to me a few days ago. He sent two photographs. The photos produced an immediate grimace on my face.

He had a huge problem with his brand new exterior fiber cement siding. Look:

Here's Jeff's message to me:

"Not a question but a comment. Tim as been an advocate of fiber cement siding so here is my experience. I followed Certainteed instructions to leave a tiny gap for expansion between planks. Well a few months after job completion this is what developed all over(see two photos). Nothing was ever mentioned about shrinkage possibility. Now I have a real mess!"

You can see that Jeff tried to install the siding correctly in the following photo. 

The red arrow points to the tiny gap he created. The shrinkage of the siding was so great it ripped off the small corner still held by the nail.

Jeff did make a serious installation error by stacking the butt joints on top of one another. I'm quite certain the installation instructions would mandate a minimum of a 4-foot offset. This error had nothing to do with the giant cracks one could fly a 747 through.

He is inviting lots of trouble by allowing roof water to splash on the soil and coat the siding with mud and water each time it rains. I would hope he would install gutters and pipe the water to the lowest spot on his property. READ HOW TO DO THAT HERE.

Buy the Right Stuff

Jeff's right. I have fiber cement siding on my house and my large shed. It's in perfect condition.

I have many columns on my website about the product including the HISTORY of cement siding. You can see a photo HERE of some amazing fiber cement siding that's at least 100 years old and in perfect condition.

I happen to have the best product on my house - Hardiplank made by James Hardie, not the pieces of crap (POC) that Jeff had the horrible misfortune of purchasing.

Jeff purchased Certainteed fiber cement siding.

Problems with Certainteed fiber cement siding started to be reported almost ten years ago!

A class-action lawsuit was filed and settled years ago. Go here for a summary. NOTE the last update date at the top of the page - June 26, 2017.

Do Due Diligence

Moments after releasing a heavy sigh after reading Jeff's comment and looking at his photos, I went and did a search.

I assumed I was going to buy the same siding Jeff bought, but HAD NOT PLACED THE ORDER.

Here's what I typed into Google:

certainteed fiber cement siding

LOOK AT THE FIRST suggestion in the Google Auto-Suggest Menu! Look farther down the search suggestions and you'll see the class action lawsuit.

It took me about ten seconds of effort to find out trouble might be lurking with the Certainteed product.

From now on, if you're going to purchase a product that's HARD and EXPENSIVE to replace, for the love of God do what I did.

If you want even MORE COMFORT, I suggest you GET ON THE PHONE WITH ME so I can share any information I have or POSSIBLY SUGGEST A BETTER PRODUCT than what you're thinking about.

A golf buddy Rob did this last week. He told me he was about to replace windows and a sliding door. Rob wanted to know what were the BEST ONES.

I told him the ones I would buy.

Did you know  I offer TRANSCRIBED phone calls?

Yes, there's NO NEED for you to try to remember what I say OR to take notes. Within an hour of us talking, I can often send you a transcription of the entire conversation you can print out.

Pretty cool, right?

Do you need me to come to your home? I can do that too.

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"Yeah, right. That's the way it is. It's down there and I'm in here. I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'.

Andy Dufresne just before he escapes from Shawshank prison.

CLICK HERE to see this classic movie scene.

#DoNotComply

Once bitten, twice shy...

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

The BEST Love Story of all time - well, maybe a close second.

That's enough for a Thursday morning.

Peace out.

Tim Carter (PhD, FullyAwakeology)

Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com

Electromagnetic Adventures: www.W3ATB.com

My Pronouns: Told/You/So

Do It Right, Not Over!