You'll save initially buying pre-finished siding, but it will cost in the long run. Proper installs require caulking that will need touched up with pre-finished along with the bumps and bruises that happen with shipping/delivery, installers, and other various trades. Touching up areas and trying to match it all up are difficult at best. Imo, it's cleaner and more reliable to have an on site finish applied by reputable painters.

The size of HardiPlank lap siding is given in "widths" of the individual pieces and the "exposure" (the visible part) is 1 1/4" smaller. In the northeast, a maximum width 8 1/4" HardiPlank has an exposure of 7" and there are three smaller sizes each an inch less in width and exposure. The choice would be between 4", 5", 6", and 7" exposures. In the rest of the country there are two larger exposures: 8" and 10 1/4" In New England traditional wood clapboard siding has a 4" exposure and the larger exposures are more commonly used in less traditional houses or in milder climates to the south and west. Not knowing where you live or the style of your house makes it difficult to advise you. A "reveal" is a much smaller setback usually at trim board corners.

I will be putting Hardi plank siding up in less than a month. I live in the middle of a woods. I want to blend two different shades of paint. Gray primer(dry) than (light green first...(dry) than a gray over it,(dry) and possible another charco gray lightly to give depth to the cedar mill. Pain staking but I got time and I want my house to blend with the woods surroundings. Could someone please guide me on how to do it right. Thanks!

Sorry to report we are experiencing similar problems with peeling and scaling of the pre-finished Khaki Brown hardiplank. We noticed the problem shortly before the one-year anniversary of the installation. To say the company has been unresponsive is quite an understatement. After almost two months and no response to submitting our claim, a telephone call to them revealed they could not find our claim. All information was then emailed. Another follow-up call to them revealed they were not going to do anything and cited "improper installation" which is definitely not the case. They suggested there was not enough tapering for the water runoff. Yet our neighbor just installed the product and the very strip that is sold by hardiplank itself contains no tapering at all. They refused to have their sales consultant located in the area to come by and do a proper assessment. About a week later, my husband received a telephone call from the company indicating they will pay for the affected boards only. The company is supposedly sending us a letter that will outline their reasons for not fully covering their product and a cheque for the dozen or so affected boards. I am anxiously awaiting this letter before I determine what I do next. I think the company is experiencing some complaints and decided to rethink their decision when my husband pointed out discrepancies in their reasoning with their own installation instructions and the building materials they supply. HardiPlank should not be selling their product in northern climates if it can't withstand snow and rain conditions. The sad part of this is that we did not choose Hardiplank without researching and comparing it to other products. It was very much a well-thought out and planned decision. I guess you really find out what 'warranty' means when you have problems.