Month: December 2014

Installation of Exterior Cladding

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I need every component of the finished siding on the site prior to starting installation. I processed the 15/32 CAT plywood sheathign into 2″ and 3″ strips and practiced ripping the HardiePanels. With the appropriate tools and blade, cement board cuts without dust or ColorPlus damage. The Ridgid R3400 fiber cement circular saw with a MK Diamond Plank Kutter easily cuts fiber cement expelling the dust into a 5 gallon bucket. The minor dust generated gets ejected under the workpiece away form the operator.

Since the majority of building does not have regularly spaces studs I’m using an alternative attachment protocol. I am using 1-1/4″ Paslode finish nails to temporarily attach the rain gap plywood battens prior to the stainless steel fasteners going either through the HardiPanel or just the aluminum reveals. The fiber cement panels get a 1-3/4″ SFS TW-S fastener while the bulk of EasyTrim Reveals get a 1-1/4″ Simpson Strong-Tie Wire-Lath Screw with a large 10.7 mm head diameter.

If I get the spacing layout of battens correctly, the panels and reveals should go up smoothly. Using a rotary laser level and detector, I can set a reference line around the entire building horizontally followed by a brass plumb bob for the vertical level. At the water table and over windows and door goes the window flashing trim attached under the battens, followed by the rest of the vertical reveals. I have a jig to speed up the pre-drilling of fiber cement panels to get the fasteners in just the right orientation and spacing. Z-flashing terminates each course of panels up the the soffit.

A Hitachi Miter Saw with non-ferrous blade make EasyTrim Reveals cutting a snap. Instead of a vent flashing at the start and stop of a panel run, I’m going to use a three dimensional mat that will keep out the bugs and other vermin who might want to take up refuge under the panels. It will take a little more time to get some all the fasteners and supplies, but I’m confident that the installation will go smoothly and effortlessly.

Sourcing Products from Around the USA

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Often your local lumberyard does not stock or have the capability to order all the products for a particular project. Sometimes a single vendor has all the materials, but will not distribute to residential customers or you geography. My journey to select the cladding material for my addition took me from various trade shows to vendor discussion via email and phone.

Tradeshows
The best residential construction show occurs during Design & Construction Week in Las Vegas. The world converges to the NAHB International Builders’ Show in the early part of the year for 3 days of exhibits, education, and the ability to see products in context of an actual building, not just a small sample. Regional shows like Dwell on Design expand on modern materials.

Vendors
The best relationship you can have are with local representatives of suppliers. They will help you walk through project objectives, give you tips, and answer any questions you have. I have saved in installation getting a better handle on products before I’ve purchased, making virtual models and installing the products on computer simulations before a single drill or saw starts.

Instructions
I search the internet for videos and downloadable manuals of competitive products. One instruction set may help in the installation of another similar product. Obviously, the vendor manual is sacrosanct when it come to warranty, but other manufactures often have more information or unique local perspectives not available.

Home Improvement Retailer
In my area, there are the big box home improvement retailers, the indepenent specialty distributors, and building material dealers. Each one has their advantages. After shopping at each variety of distributor, I get the majority of materials from the big box stores. They have fantastic return policies and delivery prices, and with patience can source most anything you need.

For my current cladding phase of my project, I actually got buiding materials and supplies from no less than 10 stores. I ordered stainless steel cladding fasteners from PMP Building Products, fiber cement panels and reveals from Lowe’s, aluminum window flashing from Tamlyn, torx insert bits and holders from amazon.com, sealants and nippers from Essential Hardware, bi-cellular backer rod from DK Hardware, carbide blades on eBay, and a water-resistive barrier from The Home Depot.

Fiber Cement Siding

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As global leader in fiber cement siding, James Hardie manufactures products unique to it’s market in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. My structure seeks a modern aesthetic. If I had a choice I would have selected a Scyon system of exterior cladding or a EPDM tape option for a genuine rainscreen siding, but in the USA, we have fiber cement vertical panel and aluminum reveal to adapt to the limited products available.

Fry Reglet, Tamlyn, and Easy Trim Reveals offer fiber cement reveals. Each manufacture similar profiles to encapsulate the 5/16″ fiber cement panel on all edges to shed water away from the building, but only Easy Trim Reveals allows an easier installation of aluminum trim and a water management strategy, not just decorative trim. I worked with a handful of lumberyards for pricing and availability of products, and expect a delivery of panels, fasteners, trim, and tools soon.

Many firms manufacture fiber cement panels from the Japanese Nichiha and KMEW, to domestic Allura and GAF. Many of these cladding systems offer amazing textures and installation systems, but my walls are structural insulated panels, and few vendors are willing to warrant installations on this building system. James Hardie has an installation on sheathing exclusively with the correct fastener length in their Evaluation Report.

My final exterior cladding selection includes a Henry Blueskin VP100 Water Resistive Barrier, plywood battens for a 11 mm rain gap, HardiePanel in Colorplus Monterey Taupe JH40-20, SFS TW-S fasteners, and Easy Trim Reveals in clear anodized color. I had some primed Soffit panel that I needed to color match to the Monterey Taupe, and Valspar Paint customer service shared the recipe with my local paint store. For some reason Easy Trim Reveals do not offer a window flashing profile, so I had to order a Tamlyn XtremeTrim just for that part of the project.