Fort Collins Siding Contractors puts fiber cement siding on homes in Fort Collins and repairs fiber cement that’s already on the house. Wondering if it’s the right material for your home or building?
Fiber cement is a heavy board made with cement and wood fiber. It comes in lap, panel and shingle styles. You can get it factory-finished or paint it after it goes up.
Here’s how it all works, so you know what to ask for on your estimate.
Hardie Board, Hardie Plank and James Hardie Siding
Lots of people search for fiber cement as James Hardie siding, or call it Hardie board or Hardie plank. That’s one maker’s name for fiber cement. When you ask us about Hardie board, we’re talking about the same material: fiber cement siding.
Fiber Cement Styles
Fiber cement can give a house very different looks depending on the profile:
- Lap siding. Long horizontal boards, the classic look on most houses. Smooth or with a wood-grain texture.
- Panel siding. Large sheets, often with vertical grooves or paired with battens for a board and batten look.
- Shingle siding. Individual shingle shapes or shingle strips, often used on gables and accent walls.
Many houses mix them: lap siding on the main walls with shingles or board and batten in the gables.
A quick note on lap boards: they come in more than one width, so a narrower board gives you more lines on the wall and a wider board gives you fewer.
For board and batten, panels go up first. Narrow battens then cover the seams, which gives you that modern farmhouse look.
Factory-Finished or Primed for Paint
Fiber cement comes two ways. Factory-finished boards arrive with the color already on them, so the wall is done once the boards are up and the cut edges and nail heads are touched up. Boards primed for paint go up first and get their finish coats on the wall, which lets you choose any color you like.
Here’s how the two compare:
| Factory-finished | Primed for paint | |
|---|---|---|
| Color choice | Manufacturer’s palette | Any color you like |
| Finish applied | In the factory | On the wall, after install |
| Touch-ups | Cut edges and nail heads touched up to match | The finish coats cover everything at once |
| Repainting later | Repainted like any painted wall | Repainted like any painted wall |
Sun exposure matters for any finish, and Fort Collins gets plenty of it.
Whichever way you go, check the caulk around windows and doors every few years. Cracked or shrinking caulk lets water in, and that’s where most fiber cement problems start.
Matching Trim and Corners
Fiber cement trim and corner boards finish the windows, doors and outside corners in the same material as the siding. On a re-side, the trim goes on with the siding so everything is new at once.
That matters for how the house ages. Mixing old wood trim with new fiber cement means one part rots or needs paint sooner than the other.
On permits: in Fort Collins, replacing ordinary siding often needs no building permit, as long as the old siding comes off under the state’s asbestos and lead paint rules. Three exceptions go with that: new vinyl siding needs a permit and has to go over a fire-rated wall; a house 50 or more years old goes through the city’s historic review first; and in the parts of Fort Collins the state maps as wildfire interface, re-siding a quarter or more of the walls brings in the wildfire code.
Repairs to Existing Fiber Cement
If you already have fiber cement and a few boards are cracked or chipped, we replace those boards and paint them to match the wall. That’s a siding repair, priced as one.
Hail is the usual cause around here. Fiber cement is tough, but repeated hits or large hailstones can chip the surface and expose the board underneath. A small chip is easy to fix now, and it’s harder to fix once water gets in.
Comparing fiber cement with a lighter board that gives a similar painted look? See engineered wood siding. For everything that comes with a full re-side, see siding replacement.
On cost, a whole house in fiber cement runs $15,000 to $30,000, with tear-off and new trim included.
Send the estimate form and we’ll look at your walls, tell you what needs fixing, and give you a straight price.
