How To Install Fiber Cement Shingle Siding

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How to Install Fiber-Cement Siding

Follow these guidelines for laying out, cutting, and nailing fiber-cement siding for an efficient, good-looking job.

I installed cobweb-cement siding on my own house in 1999. It may accept been the kickoff house in Connecticut sided with that fabric. I had to buy information technology two states away. Now, information technology's ubiquitous. Information technology has a lot of advantages, including fire resistance (very important in parts of the state prone to wildfire), price, and an splendid ability to agree paint. Fiber cement is available in a variety of styles—polish lap siding, wood-grain lap siding, shingles, shingle panels, and in 4×8 and larger grooved panels, primed, cease painted, or raw. Additionally, in that location are several manufacturers. Installation methods vary, and y'all should follow the instructions from your manufacturer.

Fiber-Cement Layout

Cobweb cement doesn't lend itself well to varying exposures the style cedar does, considering the siding doesn't taper. Yous can vary the exposures, but you'll end upwardly with gaps at the bottom of some of the panels. In most cases, it'due south best to maintain a consistent exposure. Instead of trying to hit the tops and bottoms of all the windows, I'll usually pick an exposure that puts the bottom of a course of siding at the top of the windows. I still use a story pole for layout, with the pole marked for the bottom of the courses. 1 I as well use a pair of hangers bent from tie-downward strapping to hold the siding while I nail information technology. 2

1) Utilise story poles to mark the bottom of the courses of fiber-cement siding.

ii) Homemade hangers concur the siding until it'southward fastened. After nailing the siding, unscrew the hangers and pull them out from below.

Align the bottoms of the hangers with the course mark made with the story pole. Don't nail right next to the hangers right away. Blast the residue of the class of siding, leaving information technology loose next to the hangers and so they tin can be removed without scratching the courses below. You tin can also use commercially bachelor siding gauges that hang on the previous course and support the next grade at a set exposure.

Conveying and Cutting

Carry fiber cement lap siding with an edge up or it will suspension. 3 There are several methods of cutting it, and siding manufacturers provide blades that can be used in a circular saw. However, they produce a ton of grit that non merely gets everywhere you don't want it but tin can also cause silicosis, a degenerative and incurable lung disease. If y'all use a saw, use a dedicated fiber-cement saw with dust drove.

3) Fiber-cement siding can be brittle. Carry information technology with an edge upright or information technology tin can break.

iv) Drill-powered shears are a low-dust way to cut fiber cement. Use them with a square for clean cuts.

I prefer fiber-cement shears that attach to a drill. 4 They make little dust, are like shooting fish in a barrel to take upward on a scaffold, and don't price an arm and a leg. Employ them with a layout square for right-angle cuts. Work on a bench (some framing lumber thrown on meridian of sawhorses is fine). Identify the siding on a couple of pieces of five/four or 2× to support the stock while providing room for the shears to work. No matter what tool is used to cut fiber cement, it's important to support both sides of the cut, or the siding volition break most the cease of the cutting and leave a ragged edge. Cutting fiber cement to exit 1⁄eight-in. joints and seal the joints with polyurethane or butyl caulk. Caulk every joint equally you go up, so succeeding courses lap the caulked joints.

Nailing Fiber Cement

Blind-smash fiber-cement siding with a roofing gun and ane 1⁄2-in. corrosion-resistant nails, or with a siding gun and 2-in. corrosion-resistant nails. 5 Because fiber cement is blind-nailed (the nails are hidden past the side by side course of siding in a higher place), I'm comfortable using galvanized fasteners. Pay attention to the manufacturer's nailing schedule (usually no closer than 3⁄8 in. to the ends and inside 1 in. of the top of lap siding). Concur the siding firmly against the wall while nailing or the impact of the gun tin scissure the siding. Smash into studs and keep the edges of fiber-cement siding 2 in. above roofs. Offset lap siding with a ane one⁄4-in.-broad starter strip, equally is done with cedar lap siding. Dorsum upwards the joint with a piece of metal or plastic flashing. 6

5) Because of its hardness, cobweb-cement siding must be installed with a pneumatic nailer.

6) Butt field joints, and support the articulation with a piece of flashing. Tack it to the wall above and lap it on the grade below.

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Excerpted from Carpentry Complete: Practiced Advice from Commencement to Cease, by Andy Engel

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Source: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2021/07/27/how-to-install-fiber-cement-siding

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