# Nichiha Fiber Cement Siding



## Thurman (Feb 9, 2009)

Lowe's carries it here. I asked one of the contractor sales reps, whom I know well, about it and he just sort of rolled his eyes when he looked at me. Protecting his job maybe. I was pricing Hardie board for a job soon and noticed that all of it is now primed with a yellow colored primer. When I asked the sales rep about that he told me to keep using Kilz from what he had heard about paint sticking to it. I'll know starting Wednesday. Does that help? David


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## BrentD (May 11, 2010)

*BrentD*



stubits said:


> Has anyone worked with this stuff before? It looks amazing on the web, although I cannot figure out who carries it around me. I was planning on going with hardie plank siding, pre painted, but this stuff seems to have a lot more to it.
> 
> So, any experiences? Does it really look this good? How is it to install?
> 
> Any thoughts are great!


 
It is Fiber cement, but not good fiber cement. James Hardie is the best in the industry. Nichiha is made out of some questionable materials. Check out James Hardie.


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## cellophane (Sep 29, 2009)

I have a request in to a local distributor we have worked with on other projects here at the office. I'll let you know what I get from him. We have used fiber-cement on a number of projects, though I don't know which brand off-hand. From what I have gathered previous installation experience or training is pretty important to get everything done correctly.


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## rmsst48 (May 13, 2010)

stay with the Hardie pre-painted stuff.
better quality, better to work with and dont have to paint it so the whole job should end up cheaper.


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## rock16 (May 14, 2010)

Thurman said:


> Lowe's carries it here. I asked one of the contractor sales reps, whom I know well, about it and he just sort of rolled his eyes when he looked at me. Protecting his job maybe. I was pricing Hardie board for a job soon and noticed that all of it is now primed with a yellow colored primer. When I asked the sales rep about that he told me to keep using Kilz from what he had heard about paint sticking to it. I'll know starting Wednesday. Does that help? David


The yellow is just to identify what hardiezone the siding is for. I dont know what the lowes rep has heard about paint sticking to it but our company has put up lots of it and had no problems at all.
I think the Hardie products are the best. I would stay with them over the other brands.:thumbup:


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## stubits (Dec 30, 2008)

Rock- Have you had the chance to actually work with Nichiha? I know Hardie is far and away the most popular, but that doesn't make it the best automatically.

We had planned on Hardie all along until I stumbled on the Nichiha. It is much more the look we wanted and it is much thicker.

I trust Hardie is a quality product, but I'd really like to hear about Nichiha, good or bad, not just that Hardie must be better. If that is the case, what make Nichiha an inferior product?

Thanks!


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## rock16 (May 14, 2010)

stubits said:


> Rock- Have you had the chance to actually work with Nichiha? I know Hardie is far and away the most popular, but that doesn't make it the best automatically.
> 
> We had planned on Hardie all along until I stumbled on the Nichiha. It is much more the look we wanted and it is much thicker.
> 
> ...


I have used the Nichiha Brick panels on a good sized project and had no issues with the product at all. I really like the clips I am a big fan of rainscreen systems.
I have not used the lap products. They may be the best thing since sliced bread but I have had a couple of problems with other products that use fly ash vs Silica. So at this point I am staying with the Hardie for lap siding and using the Artisan product where a thicker product or deeper shadow lines are needed.


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## cellophane (Sep 29, 2009)

I FINALLY got the information in from the distributor. What were you looking for specifically stubits? 

Nichia also makes a pre-finished siding product now called Spectrum Siding. It comes with a 25 year warranty on the coating and a lifetime warranty on the product itself.


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## Benc (Apr 11, 2012)

So it has been a couple years, are there any updates on Nichiha products or fiber cement in general? 

I would much rather have a natural wood or stained look as opposed to painted. Nichiha seems to have some prefinished options for this. Looks like Hardie would be a painted look with their prefinished colors or have to be stained - which from what I have been reading, people have had problems with the finish chipping. I'd prefer not apply stain and try to minimize any hassles/finger pointing it might cause as far as warranties.

Any help?


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## woodworkbykirk (Sep 25, 2011)

ive never heard of this nichiha , but have done many installs with hardie along with siding 60 patios of a 86 unit building... i can tell you that certainteed is junk in comparison to hartie. hartie is thicker, doesnt shatter when you go to gun nail it, wont shatter when you look at it.. 

im pretty up to date on most of the higher end products between doing installs and several trade magazines that i get this is the first of the product.. stick to brands you know


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## southern_boy (Apr 15, 2012)

Certainteed had a bad shrinkage problem years back, I never seen 1/8": to 1/4" gaps form at the butt joints unless the siding guys were hacks, brittle as well, I will never touch it again!


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