Exteriors

LP SmartSide Wood Siding

Highmark Exteriors was having challenges with fiber-cement siding, so Highmark’s owner tried LP SmartSide http://www.lpcorp.com/smartside/ on his own home, with good results. Now the company frequently uses SmartSide because it requires fewer tools than fiber cement and doesn’t contain silica, sales manager Kelly Myers says. “It also comes in longer pieces and is lighter weight for easier transport on the jobsite, and we have less waste. ... It’s a quicker, cleaner installation, so jobs get done faster and our costs have gone down.”

Beyond aesthetics, Myers cites a solid warranty, competitive price, and thorough installation training from LP as benefits. The product line, which includes lap siding, cedar shakes, trim, and soffit, is the result of LP’s SmartGuard manufacturing process, which imparts additional strength and performance characteristics to the wood substrate, including protection against fungal decay and termites. The substrate is warranted for 50 years, with a five-year warranty on the finish.

Kelly Myers, sales manager
Highmark Exteriors
Burnsville, Minn.

Boral TruExterior Trim

Many of the homes in Patty McDaniel’s Eastern Shore market have vertical siding. “We don’t want to change that, and the clients want something lower maintenance,” she says. So she’s been using Boral’s bead board product for vertical siding instead of 1x4 cedar.

“It can’t rot, is dimensionally stable, and looks convincingly like tongue and groove,” she says of the product, which is made largely from fly ash rather than wood. Her carpenters like that it “cuts like butter,” isn’t as heavy as fiber cement, is easy to nail with stainless nails in a siding gun, and there’s no need to pre-drill. It’s also less expensive than PVC and plays well with paint. “Paint sticks to things that are kept warm and dry all the time,” McDaniel says, “but at the beach you never get to keep things warm and dry.” And because TruExterior doesn’t take on moisture, McDaniel has found that paint sticks to it well.

McDaniel discovered the product through her lumberyard several years ago when selecting siding for a tall house project. “We had concerns about using PVC,” she says, “because of expansion and contraction. That’s how we turned to [TruExterior].”

Patty McDaniel, president
Boardwalk Builders
Rehoboth Beach, Del.


Eldorado Stone

As his company has started using more stone veneer during the last year, Abe Degnan says Eldorado is one of the brands he prefers: “We like the veneer stones in general, and Eldorado is one brand that does such a nice job of it. When we started using it, we were particularly excited about the stones’ colors, textures, and sizes, all of which make it look very realistic.”

Degnan cites the versatility of engineered stone as another of its benefits. The company uses stone veneer to create both exterior and interior wall accents. Eldorado offers more than two dozen stone profiles, each available regionally in several colorways. Four brick profiles are also available.

Degnan Design Builders’ mason installs the stone veneer to ensure proper drainage and detailing to finish the look. Though priced higher than other brands the company uses, Degnan says, “if the client is willing to pay more to get the look they want, Eldorado is worth it.”

Abe Degnan, president
Degnan Design Builders
DeForest, Wis.