I'm a retired finish carpenter, US Northwest coast. I put primed 8" Smartside on my own two-story house three summers ago. I chose to vent the wall behind the siding. That took a bit of time. I then pre-painted each piece with one coat of SW Superpaint, rolled and back-brushed, and then did a second coat once the siding was on the wall, also rolled and back-brushing. I primed all nail heads before the final coat. I flashed behind every joint and caulked every seam with OSI. I faced nailed every board by hand to eliminate overdriving the nails; no air nailer was used on the siding. It took 400 hours by myself, working evenings and weekends, but that also included tearing off layers of old siding, fixing the sheathing, replacing the soffits, replacing all the windows, and building a new front porch, so it wasn't a normal siding job. This summer, for the first time, I checked all caulked seams for shrinkage and cut out and re-caulked and painted small sections around four windows and three joints on the west and south walls. The siding and joints everywhere else looked as pristine as the day it was installed. I have absolutely no complaints or concerns with my decision to go with this brand of siding. One final thing, I left a unpainted 1-inch triangle-shaped piece out on the patio exposed to the weather the summer I did the job. It's still sitting there. The edges have swelled only slightly and cracked slightly, but I still can't chip even a small piece from the edge with my fingernail. I'm beginning to think it's indestructible.

CMU = concrete masonry unit, aka concrete block so it's all the same, split face is just the fact that it has a texture vs. being smooth faced. If they are having water issues it's because it was constructed poorly in which case the only proper solution is to rip it out. Bricks and CMU absorb water so if constructed properly they will have a way for the water to get out. They aren't meant to keep water from getting in the building, that's what vapor barriers aka Tyvek do. They do however protect the barrier. So if the house doesn't have a good barrier, poor flashing and the CMU & brick aren't breathing, you have water issues. ETA: Just noticed your comment to JDS about weep holes and flashing so I'm sure I was being redundant with information you already knew. But either way, if she's having water issues, take it off. Sealing isn't the best route either as you trap in moisture.

I’m In Minnesota and going to replace the siding on the front of my house. Parts of it on the right side window has some water damage (it’s about 25 years old) The other three sides of the house have 12” clap boards. The front siding is probably cedar about 5/8” thick and 7” tall (reveal is 6”). It’s surface nailed. You can also see the builder ran single pieces of trim vertically too. The longest vertical piece is about 20’ tall. I plan to replace that trim with composite wood. I will trim the windows separately and then run the vertical trim above and below again if that makes sense. Trying to keep the same look but also do not want to remove a 20’ piece of trim when it’s time to replace windows. Do you think it’s ok to replace this front siding with LP engineered wood? One difference is that the LP is 3/8” thick which is why I’d need to replace it all and not just fix the damaged areas. I used this LP siding last year to fix an area around a bay window In the front of my house (I “blind nailed” with 2 1/2” exterior screws instead of nails).

The Chelsea Building Products website says Everlast composite siding is a mixture of polymeric resin and granular stone. The Intertek Code Compliance Research Report CCRR-0201 says it's made of cellular (foamed) PVC with a chemically bonded acrylic cap (containing the color) with no mention of the granular stone which is probably some kind of stone dust. The report requires the siding to be installed over structural wood sheathing. The 4.5" and 6.875" reveal horizontal lap siding must be fastened every 16" with 2.5" s.s. screws or 2" roofing nails into the wall studs and the 11" reveal vertical board & batten siding must be fastened with 1 5/8" s.s. screws every 7.5" into the wood sheathing (which is a lot of screws).