Differences Between LP, Hardie & Vinyl Siding
It’s finally time.
You’ve been looking at that old siding for years, and as it gets older every year, you have more repairs to do every year. Watching as more and more of your neighbors change from their old original siding to a new and modern look and waiting for the day that you could join them. But then you realize, you never even thought about what you want to put on your house! There are so many different kinds of siding, fiber cement, engineered wood, vinyl, how are you supposed to know what’s best, especially when all your friends tell you something different?
That’s where we come in and (hopefully) by the end of this, you’ll be able to make an informed decision that you can be happy with for many years to come! Quick disclaimer, we are a member of the LP Remodelers program, and VSI certified, so we do have a *slight* bias, but we will keep our opinion out of the discussion!
Common Types of Siding
Judging by the title of this, I’m sure you can conclude that we’re going to talk about vinyl siding, as well as James Hardie standing in for fiber cement siding and LP SmartSide for engineered wood siding. The reason we chose these brands and not one for vinyl is because there really aren’t many (if any) mainstream competitors in these two categories, LP and Hardie really have their categories locked down. Vinyl on the other hand is an entirely different situation, with at least a dozen mainstream brands and multiple product lines underneath these brands, however, if you choose two similar product lines from two manufacturers, they are generally pretty closely comparable. Now, let's get into the products!
James Hardie is a fiber cement manufacturer and offers interior and exterior products, but we’ll just be covering the exterior. For exterior products, they offer lap (horizontal) siding with an 8” lap panel being the most common, vertical siding, shingle siding, trim boards and soffit panels, and all of these option can come primed or prefinished (painted in the factory to remove the need for painting after installation) in a variety of colors.
LP is an engineered wood product manufacturer, and offers structural products as well as siding, but again we’ll just cover siding. They offer lap siding, which again is most common in an 8” lap panel, vertical siding, shake siding, trim boards and soffit panels, which can also come either primed or prefinished in a host of colors.
Last up is vinyl siding, which is a durable plastic generally formed to imitate the look of a wood siding. Vinyl siding can come in numerous sizes of lap siding, although a double 4” panel is the most common. Some other vinyl products include soffit, shake siding, vertical siding, miscellaneous decorative trim pieces, and standard trim for installs (corner posts, J channel, etc.). Unlike LP SmartSide and James Hardie, vinyl only comes in a colored option, with the color added to the resin before the forming of the panel, which means that the entire panel is colored, so it can’t be scratched or scuffed off. Vinyl siding should never be painted at any time, even if it begins to fade or weather.
With each product, there is a tremendous amount of detail to go into, so for right now we’ll just hit the main points so you can begin to make a choice for your situation. From there, we’ll have heavily detailed articles for each independent product so you can really learn everything there is to know before making an investment in your home. Up first is James Hardie!
James Hardie
James Hardie is a fiber cement siding that is made exactly as it sounds - cement reinforced with fibers(at a basic level), although it may vary depending on the manufacturer. This means that it is fireproof, termite proof and rot proof, if installed properly. Generally speaking, it is a fairly low maintenance product, and just needs a gentle cleaning every year.
As mentioned before, James Hardie offers a collection of exterior products for your home. Hardie Plank is their lap siding with three different texture options and panel sizing ranging from 5.25” up to 12”. Each line of planks stays common to a .312” thickness and a 144” (12’) length. The Cedarmill and Beaded Cedarmill lines are meant to imitate natural cedar, and the Smooth line comes, well, smooth.
Next, they do offer an Architectural Collection, however it isn’t very common (if used at all) here in Central Iowa, so we’ll skip it for now and move into the Hardie Shingle.
The Hardie Shingle comes in two styles, a staggered shingle and a straight shingle, both coming in at .25” thick, 15.25” wide and 48” long. Hardie Shingles are made to imitate cedar shingles, but carry the benefit of being a fiber cement product which means no rotting, splitting or curling.
The last siding product is the Vertical Hardie Panel, which comes in four different styles. The first is Cedarmill, which again is made to imitate natural cedar and is generally used when going for a “board and batten” look. The second is the Smooth panel, which goes for more of a modern look. Third is a Stucco panel which gives the look of stucco with a better strength factor over traditional stucco. Lastly, Sierra 8, which gives off a T1-11 vibe, with slightly less depth. All of the vertical panels come in at .312” thick, 48” wide, and 120” long with the exception of the Cedarmill, which offers 96” and 108” lengths as well.
Outside of our siding options, we have Hardie Trim and Hardie Soffit (which is close enough to trim). Hardie offers a 4/4 (four quarter) and 5/4 (five quarter) thickness trim in both a Smooth and Roughsawn texture. These trim boards come in widths ranging from 3.5” to 11.25”, all of which are 144” long. Outside of that, they also offer Rustic Grain and Smooth Batten boards at a 2.5” width for that “board and batten” finish. For soffit, they again offer both a vented and non-vented Cedarmill and Smooth soffit panel at .25” thick and at common overhang widths - 12”, 16” and 24”.
LP Smartside
LP Smartside is an engineered wood product, which means that it is composed of thin wood strips pressed together and bonded using a resin, similar to how OSB is manufactured. This means that the end product is stronger than natural wood, more resistant to decay and insects, and overall requires less maintenance. It can also be cheaper than using real wood products, while imitating a similar look.
Starting off the LP SmartSide product line is their lap siding. The first thing that you’ll notice about LP is that all of their products come with only a cedar texture aside from the trim, which can also come in smooth, although it is more of a sandpaper finish than a true “smooth” finish. So, that means that their siding comes with a cedar texture, available from a 5” product up to a 12” product and a 16’ board length. Just like the James Hardie products, LP has both a staggered and straight profile textured shake siding coming in at .354” thick, 11” wide and 48” long. True dimensions vary slightly, but for general discussion purposes, it’s close enough.
Next they have panel siding, with a few different design options ranging from a “no groove” panel to either a 4” or an 8” groove pattern. Thicknesses vary depending on the product, coming in at .354” for the 38 series panels (8” pattern and no groove), .418” for the 76 series panels (4” or 8” pattern and no groove), and the 190 series comes in at .578” (8” pattern and no groove).
Getting into trim, there are quite a few more options than James Hardie. For starters, they offer numerous series of cedar textured trim coming in at varying thicknesses, .578” for the 190 series, .675” for the 440 (4/4) Series, and .970” for the 540 (5/4) Series, however only offer the 440 and 540 series in a smooth finish. They also offer a facia specific board, unlike James Hardie where facia would have to be a general trim board (which isn’t a major advantage by any means, just a minimally cleaner install). Last up, we have solid and vented soffit, which can both come precut for 12”, 16” and 24” overhangs and 16’ long, or solid sheets are available in standard 4’x8’ size.
Lastly, they have a vertical siding option, which is a single option coming in at 16” wide and 16’ long and .354” thick. Outside of that, there are two trim boxes for accessories, a J-Block which is 7.21” x 7.21” and .970” thick and a Mini Split which is 7.21” x 6.75” and .970” thick.
All of these products are also available prefinished or primed, although depending on the color your product choices might be limited.
Vinyl Siding
For vinyl siding, we won’t go fully in depth as to the entire offering of products, because different suppliers offer different options. A fairly popular brand is CertainTeed, so we’ll use their product line, but keep in mind that this isn’t fully representative of all the products available (we’ll save that for our vinyl specific discussion).
So, touching briefly on what Certainteed offers before diving in, we have shake siding, insulated siding, multiple lines of lap siding, beaded siding, board and batten siding, reverse board and batten siding, soffit, and decorative trim options. To not overload you with information, we’ll stick with the most common products, Northwoods Shake siding and Mainstreet Lap siding
Northwoods is a single 7” panel coming in at .060” thick and up to 10’ long. It is a straight edge panel available in 20 different colors and designed to imitate a cedar shingle texture.
Mainstreet is a bit more in-depth than the Northwoods line, with 24 different color options and seven different styles. Like mentioned above, the most common is the double 4” woodgrain, but it is also available in a double 5” woodgrain, double 4” woodgrain dutchlap, double 5” woodgrain dutchlap, a triple 3” brushed, a single 6.5” brushed, and single 8” woodgrain panels. They are all a .042” panel and 12’ 6” long.
The reason that we won’t hit on the vinyl soffit from CertainTeed to pair up with the LP and James Hardie lines is that it isn’t very commonly used (in our experience). Most homeowners that choose to go with vinyl siding opt for aluminum soffit and facia, which isn’t a necessary topic to get into for the purpose of comparison.
Lots of Products, What are the Differences that Actually Matter?
Differences in products and the benefits to them vary by each situation. Right off the bat when comparing standard lap products, vinyl is going to be the cheapest option, with LP coming in at roughly double, and Hardie throwing a bit more on top of the LP price. However, when it comes to siding what costs the most doesn’t always necessarily mean a better product.
For instance, LP offers a 50 year limited warranty on lap siding while Hardie offers a 30 year limited warranty on their lap siding. In turn to that, Certainteed offers a lifetime warranty on their Mainstreet line with 100% coverage as long as you own the home, and a 50 year transferable pro-rated warranty from the date of install should you sell your house. Compared to vinyl and Hardie, LP is going to be the most impact resistant and least likely to crack, but Hardie is going to be the only non-combustible option, although Mainstreet carries a Class 1A fire rating. While Hardie is the only non-combustible option, it also has a lower wind rating than LP and Mainstreet, Hardie coming in around the 160mph mark while Mainstreet and LP are both around the 200mph area.
Starting to see why the benefits to each product only benefit certain situations? And we will be honest, there are a fair amount of benefits to LP and vinyl when it comes to install. LP is, well, wood. It can be cut with standard woodworking tools, while Hardie requires specialized blades and ideally dust collection systems, and vinyl is easiest of all, being able to be cut with snips/shears. HardiePlank only comes in 12’ lengths, vinyl is only a few inches better at 12’6”, while LP comes up to 16’, meaning less material to install pushing labor costs down (and less seams on your home). The biggest benefit? Handling. LP and vinyl can be carried and installed by a single person due to the lighter weight, and while it can be done with Hardie, it is much more difficult and far more likely to break when trying to install alone.
Ultimately, this is just a mile high overview of the main types of siding installed today. We’ll have future articles that go much more in depth into each product line, so make sure to check back for those!
