Charlie:
Joseph in West U, Tom, is contemplating some new siding. He says he loves your show and finally has a question worth asking.
Tom:
Oh, well, I love the question already.
Charlie:
Let’s see, “My wife and I are building a house and are planning to use cedar siding.”
Tom:
Okay.
Charlie:
“My builder and I do not think it is a good idea because of maintenance, but my wife and the designer are in love with the siding, so what do you say?”
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Tom:
Before Hardie ever came around, there was all those press board sidings that people remember as Masonite. They like to use that word.
Charlie:
Right.
Tom:
There was a lot of different ones.
Charlie:
With no offense intended to masons, go ahead.
Tom:
That’s true. Because I will take that personally. As far as that goes, though, everything I used before Hardie was available was actually cedar siding. If you’re going to use a natural product, it would be a very good siding. So would cypress. That’s also a great siding too, if you want the natural wood.
Tom:
It’s going to be a lot more maintenance, you know, you’re going to have. Or it will gray out like a fence.
Charlie:
Mm-hmm
Tom:
You have to put a lot of sealers on there to keep it pretty, but it’s not a bad siding. Is Hardie more maintenance free and never have to do anything and all that good stuff and you can actually stain Hardie to make it look like cedar? Absolutely. It’s a husband and wife battle I’m not getting any farther into.