Square Channel Fiber Cement Siding: Vertical and Horizontal (Building Resilience 2024)
Installing a new siding product that sits flat on the wall, locks together, and sports crisp square channels: Square Channel from James Hardie's Artisan collection.
TRANSCRIPT:
Today, we're in Minneapolis during the coldest month of the year—
"Staying warm in Minnesota..."
Michael Anschel, OA Design + Buiuld + Architecture
—to prove our commitment to delivering extreme climate construction information.
Welcome back to Building Resilience, a show about whole-house solutions for extreme climate, healthy homes, and sustainability.
Installing fiber cement siding from James Hardie
This week, we're installing siding and trim products from James Hardie.
This is HardiePlank. It's a fiber cement product from James Hardie, and it's been used widely across the country for many years. In fact, all of their fiber cement claddings are widely popular for a number of reasons. They're rot-resistant for those areas that are moisture-rich; bugs don't like to eat it, and what you might not know is that there are two versions of the product—one for the South and one for the North.
In the North, there are a couple of things that are different. First, the top has this 15-degree bevel, which helps kick water out onto the face of the cladding. At the bottom, this eased edge helps break the surface tension, allowing water to continue on its path away from the structure.
The other significant change is the chemistry of the material itself. This has an additive that makes it less moisture absorbent, which means that it does a better job of resisting taking on any moisture. And in a climate like this, where there's a lot of freeze and thaw that could damage the product, allowing it to crack, this is a perfectly resilient material
—and that's why we're installing it on the Building Resilience show.
Paint performance and trim system advantages
Another thing that we love about James Hardie’s fiber cement products is their ability to hold paint incredibly well.
They also have many colors in their Dream Collection and Statement Collection, from which we can order prefinished material. That means we don't have to wait until spring to finish this whole thing.
The other thing—with the Hardie trims and their concealed fastening system—is that we have no fasteners anywhere on our trim products. And then, on our HardiePanel and our board-and-batten, we only have these nail heads to touch up in the spring.
Artisan square channel siding
But there's something else that's super cool that I want to show you.
This is James Hardie’s Artisan Square Channel fiber cement siding. It features an extra-wide board and this beautifully milled 1-inch channel, which comes together for a gorgeous shadow line. It's installed flat on the wall instead of lapping, which means when we get to the corner, we could do a mitered corner if we choose to.
It's installed both horizontally and vertically, and you'll notice there's no fasteners. That’s because it's a tongue-and-groove type product. So when we're installing this, we blind nail through here, and then this lock joint system allows for the two pieces to come together very smoothly—but very precisely—so we get a perfect reveal.
There's no chance of it buckling because there's a small gap at the end for any expansion and contraction that might occur.
Installation details for the accessory unit
Square Channel is simple to install, but the system on this little accessory unit is anything but.
It begins by bending custom trim channels from coil stock. The channels are installed along the top corners and beside some windows and doors. Exterior Styrofoam insulation slips between the channels, and Square Channel cladding slips over the foam.
But let's take a closer look at the system on this backyard accessory office unit.
The foundation is covered with 2 inches of rigid Styrofoam per local codes, and the foam is protected by PVC panels per builder preference. That's covered with a base flashing tucked behind the building paper.
A corner trim piece, which consists of a couple of J-channels, is added and slipped into a receiver. Trim strips go alongside some of the windows and doors, too, for siding transitions; these trims are J-channels that are deep enough to accommodate the 1 inch of Styrofoam insulation and the siding.
The Square Channel cladding is a modified tongue-and-groove shape that stacks flat against the wall.
Planning siding layout for visual consistency
But give a little thought, though, on how you're putting it on the wall.
This configuration creates skinny lines at the bottom and top, which doesn't really look planned. In this case, it's better to shift the cladding down a few inches to get more substantial starter and finisher pieces.
The same thing happens when installing the cladding vertically. In this configuration, the piece running along the window has a skinny section that is probably going to break, and it's going to look goofy next to the window. It's certainly better to shift the pieces over a few inches to even up the edges.
Real-world installation begins
Back here in the real world, installation begins with a laser and setting corner trims plumb.
Joseph says to nail the bottom and top of the metal and to allow the middle part to float. This makes it easier to slide the foam pieces in place.
The nailing flange for this double channel will need to be notched around the window, and that's easiest to do in this case by taking the trim assembly apart. He cuts the flange with a razor knife, peels the excess off, and slips it into place. The mating channel slides in, and we're ready to put up some siding.
Real-world installation
Joseph spaces the cladding a quarter inch above the base flashing and tucks it into the metal corner trim.
Because he's done the math about where the window lands in relation to the siding courses, he begins the run with a slightly ripped-down piece. When it's plumb and an equal distance from the door, he nails it.
By the time they get to the window, they're glad the piece doesn't have a skinny midsection—because wiggling complicated cuts into tight-fitting places like this can cause breakage.
The top slides into the upper trim piece for a tight fit, along the bottom of the window, a smooth cut along the side, and gaps above the head flashing and the base flashing below.
Avoiding layout mistakes with vertical lines
Now comes the hard part—not screwing up the rest of the wall.
With prominent vertical lines in the cladding, it's important for them to align with those of the door and window. Parallel spacing is important, so Joseph keeps track of the numbers with each course.
The other side of the window is similarly substantial and slides into place.
Wrapping up the last section
With the wall finished and every other section is done, Joseph sets up to do the last horizontal section—and that too begins with a laser. The level reference line assures that the courses will match up on either side of the corner. There's nothing more embarrassing for a carpenter than a mismatched corner.
The first course is spaced off the base, flashing about a quarter inch to allow water to escape. It's leveled into position, again aligning that corner. Subsequent pieces slip in behind the metal trims, and he nails through the upper flange.
Because the trims were installed plumb, each piece is the same size. So he batch cuts the bunch and goes to town. This way, he can speed up or slow down depending on David’s progress, putting tools away—and the proximity to quitting time.
This last piece is a little tricky and requires some minor modification because it must tuck up into a trim piece. Butting the soffit, the tongue-and-groove action won't work as well as a shiplap. After trimming off the back edge of the groove, Joseph slides that last piece into place, face-nailing the top and bottom.
We do a lot of interesting cladding patterns on Building Resilience, but this one is pretty special. And we haven’t even put any paint on it yet.
If you liked this episode, you’re going to love the one we did recently about continuous exterior insulation on an addition to the main house.
We can see very quickly what a difference we’ve already made. You can see at the bottom, at the foundation where there's no insulation—we’re leaking energy. When we go up where all those penetrations are, there’s some insulation in there, but it's still losing some energy.
And when we move up one more layer to where we have our 1 inch of exterior foam, you can see that that surface has gotten very cold. That’s exactly what we want. We don't want to see all of that energy from the inside of the house leaking out into the world.
But we're okay leaking Building Resilience information into your world—because this stuff is important.