There are inherent qualities with that type of siding that gives it limitations. It is made to look like another material, but in fact it is not that material and therefore behaves differently. If you want your siding to look like board & batten siding, have your builder buy appropriate sized dimensional lumber and install the boards and cover the gaps with battens. But that type of siding has its inherent qualities too.

Point out areas in your LP siding that you feel could be improved to your builder and see if they are able and willing to do for you.

I built a chicken coop years ago with that siding and it works great . . . for a chicken coop.

Hi, Pac,

Installing board and batten siding is not rocket science. The installer should, however, be following the manufacturer's installation instructions

https://lpcorp.com/resources/product-literature/technical-notes/tn-028-vertical-siding 

to maintain the warranty on the product.

Please note that the house wrap over which LP smart siding is installed is supposed to be a drainable house wrap. I don't think the Rex Wrap product is a drainable house wrap, but I could be wrong about that.

Thank you for the information. At this point it's he said she said builders said contractor said. Probably have to get my lawyer involved. My husband has been researching this product for over a year before the build and we found a installer who just installs lp but the builder would only use his contractors. But he didn't he found a guy who hires out of state worker's to do the job. Not that out of town worker's do bad job's just the builder lied. Thank you again.

Perhaps you can hire the installer who just installs LP to consult on your project. Be careful not to step on the builder, or his installer's, toes.

Rex Wrap Plus is a "perforated, microporous, woven polyolefin fabric, with an additional polyolefin coating." [ICC ESR-1602]

Its not a drain wrap and its the least effective kind of house wrap. Next time insist on Tyvek non-woven wrap or its drain wrap version.

However, not much water should get behind the panels if they're installed correctly and the window and door openings and other penetrations are well sealed.

Thank you my husband had him come out and look at the work when they had one wall built he told my husband they was using the wrong nails and not putting it up correctly and the windows needed flashing done right and so on. Only one worker could speak English so my husband told the builder his concerns and he said they are doing it currently.

The way the product is manufactured, I think it's really important that the back side be able to "breathe." The manufacturer's technical bulletin actually highlights in yellow the need for the house wrap to be drainable to ensure it gets read or at least that's it's obvious if anyone bothers to pick up the instructions.

I don't think this product is going to perform well in the long term. I strongly urge users of the product to make sure their warranty isn't violated at installation.

Housewrap full of holes smack against the siding makes a poor drainage plane.

On the plus side, by the time any damage shows, the contractor will be fully paid and long gone!

Hello Res2,

Thank you for the video. My husband and I watched that video seems like a 100 times. And called lp and we looked up instructions from lp. I'm so sick to my stomach over this. The next step is the lawyer since he is not addressing the issues and moving forward with this contractor and his out of state worker's to finish the job.

@pac anderson I'm sorry you are going through this. The builder shouldn't of lied about his ability to install LP Smartside. Doesn't look like they left any expansion gaps between the boards, no flashing and all of the ends also have to be painted on the boards. Is the siding prefinished or just primed? It is hard to find skilled workers that aren't backlogged. I'm sure your builder is feeling the pressure to get your home done so he can move on to the next project. Hopefully you can come to some kind of agreement.

Agree with the others. Here’s our B&B (boral product) going on over the drainable house wrap.

Not looking to be labelled as a nit picker, but what you show is not house wrap, but rather, Zip sheathing which has an integral weather resistive barrier (WRB.) I've used the product and I like it. It should perform well in your application. My concern is that LP's technical bulletin on installing LP Smart Side vertical siding specifically requires installation over a non-compressible, drainable house wrap. While sheathing with an integrated WRB should perform equally well, if not better, I wonder if not using a true house wrap would enable the manufacturer to wiggle out of warranty coverage in the event there is a warranty claim.

Looks like Tyvek Drainvent applied over the Zip to me. Look on the first floor...

@ksc36,

Ah yes, I see it now. Thanks for helping the visually impaired.

In my opinion, it's redundant to apply house wrap over the Zip system for most claddings. While it doesn't void the warranty for the Zip system, I'd be concerned about the potential for bulk water to collect between the Zip system and the house wrap. In contrast to LP's installation instructions, Boral's instructions don't specify installation of house wrap, but rather a weather-resistive barrier. That gives a couple of different options for meeting the requirement including installation over house wrap or the Zip system.

@Charles Ross Homes yes, lol. Builder, architect, supply company, and us, all discussed what should be back there. This was what was settled on. there are various rain screen products that were offered. In the end, this is what we ended up with. The builder would agree with you that it is probably overkill, but it satisfied all the requirements.