Building Product Showcase: James Hardie Building Products

This week we are highlighting James Hardie Building Products.  About two weeks ago, Chris and Sam got to travel to Dallas as guests of James Hardie to tour their manufacturing plant in Cleburne, TX.  Included in this update are some shots from outside the plant and from and installation demo that further explained the best practices for using their products.  "Hardie Board" or "Hardie Siding" as it is known by many consumers, is the industry leader in Fiber-Cement building products.  They produce a variety of lap-siding, panel siding, exterior trim and soffit and cornice material.  Different from their competitiors, Hardie uses Sillica instead of Fly Ash in the composition of its products which enables the products to have a greater consistency of strength throughout each piece of material.  The big push of the trip was a product called Color Plus. James Hardie is the sole producer of Factory Painted siding and trim materials and it carries a 15 year warranty on the life of its colors.  We have not had the chance to use this product yet, though we are pricing it for a couple of homes we have coming online soon.  A special thanks to Chris Cazzolli, our local James Hardie rep, and the rest of the gang that hosted us.  The trip was first class and an excellent learning opportunity for us to help deliver the very best homes we can to you, the customer.  If you buy a Dostie Home with an exterior siding elevation, you can bet it will be built with James Hardie Building Products.

Chris and Sam at the Plant... (We were not permitted to photograph anything inside the Plant)

 It's not exactly the Ford Rouge Plant, but they do bring the raw materials in these containers...

And the finished product comes out the other side

James Hardie Color Plus

Installation Demo

The Hardie Test House in front of the plant serves as a product display as well as a Science Lab so the company can chart and track the performance of their different products over time.

Hardie recommends a variety of different tools and components to offer the best installation possible.  This Diablo saw blade is the preferred blade for cutting the fiber cement products.