Best looking fiber cement shingle?
drpepper
| Posted in Green Products and Materials on
Would love recommendations on the best looking fiber cement SHINGLE siding.. so far have researched James Hardie, Nichiha, Certainteed.. and now found out about a rustic line shingle that Certainteed sells direct to BuildDirect.com. Cerber makes the treatment on the top of this shingle.
Thanks for your advice!
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Replies
Beauty, as we all know, is in the eye of the beholder.
Innate beauty, however, is a quality of the material, and only natural materials are innately beautiful.
I agree natural is more beautiful.. but over time it does not hold up.. and prefer to not do all the upkeep (repaint, clean, etc). Is there a fiber cement shingle that looks close to real?
Even fiber cement products need to be cleaned and repainted and probably more often than a real cedar shake. If you really want zero upkeep - use a cedar or pressure treated shake without a finish and let it gray out.
I've tried all of the fiber cement products and do not really like any of them. The individual Hardie product probably looked the best out of all of them but it is more expensive than the real thing, so I only use real wood shakes. Downside to Hardie and Certainteed products are they are too thin and there is not a shadowline between courses. Even an untrained eye can tell the difference between an individual Hardie shake and Hardie shake panels - panels do not look very real. I do like the thickness of the Nichiha - gives a nice shadowline but the "grooves" to simulate the individual shakes do not go all the way through the product so again does not look very real. Depending on the angle and sunlight, they sometimes just look like lap siding.