Paint flaking, and the seams on the old board siding gone soft and swollen after a wet summer.
Siding around here doesn't wear out. It stews. Ninety-five degrees, a thunderstorm at four sharp, and by year eight the masonite on a sixties ranch is swelling at every seam like a king cake left out in the rain.
So most of what we do is pull that soft board off and hang fiber cement composite siding in its place: fiber cement lap siding, panels, and board batten fiber cement siding where the house was drawn for it. Cement board siding cuts dusty, and that dust is silica, so we shear or saw it outside with collection on, tarp the beds, and hood the AC condenser before the first plank comes down.
Keep reading for how we hang it, what moves the price, when this is the wrong call for your house, and what people ask before they sign. Or dial (251) 551-3653 and I'll come stand at the wall with you.
Fiber Cement Siding Installation
Installation is where fiber cement earns its keep or fails early. We blind nail into studs, snug and not crushed, because an overdriven nail dimples the plank and lets Mobile's summer downpours wick in. Butt joints get flashing behind them, not a bead of caulk and a prayer. We hold six inches off grade, an inch off the roofline, and paint every field cut edge.
On a typical Midtown home, our siding installation company is off your walls in about a week, longer if we're pulling old masonite siding and repairing sheathing underneath.
Cement Board Siding
Cement board is just what most folks around here call it, and it's the same material: portland cement, sand and cellulose fiber pressed into planks about 5/16 of an inch thick. It's heavy. A 12 foot run of hardie board siding is a two person lift all day long, which is why our siding installation company doesn't send one guy up a ladder with a nail gun and a prayer.
That weight earns its keep on the Gulf Coast. Termites won't touch it, humidity won't swell it, and it doesn't ripple the way old masonite siding does after ten Augusts.
Cutting is where crews get sloppy. Dry cut with the wrong blade and you get silica dust over the whole yard and chewed edges that wick water. We use a fiber cement blade with dust collection, and every field cut gets primed before it touches the wall.
Board Batten Fiber Cement Siding
Battens are where this one lives or dies. We hang hardie panel siding vertically over the sheathing with the seams landing on framing, then run the trim boards over those joints at 12 or 16 inches on center, snapped to a chalk line so they read straight from the curb instead of wandering like a Mardi Gras parade route.
Two things sink a bad board and batten job. Battens nailed into the panel face only, not the studs behind it, which start popping loose the first time a squall comes off the Bay. And vertical seams sealed with caulk where a joint flashing belongs. Caulk is a maintenance item. Flashing isn't.
Most folks bring our siding installation company in for a gable end, a front elevation or a porch skirt, and that's usually a day or two of work.
Vinyl Shake Siding
Vinyl shake shows up on a lot of gable ends and dormers around Midtown, and I'm not going to pretend it's a crime. Done right, vinyl shake siding gives you that cedar shingle look without the painting, and it's the one vinyl product our siding installation company still hangs without wincing, usually as an accent over a porch gable rather than a whole-house wrap.
Here's the catch. Vinyl expands in our summers, so every nail has to float in its slot with the head standing a hair off the panel. Nail it snug and by August that wall ripples like a washboard. Color also fades on the south and west walls facing the afternoon sun, which is why a hardie plank body with vinyl shake in the gable can look mismatched in about six years.
A gable or two is a day's work. Tear-off of old masonite adds another.
Stucco Siding
Stucco looks right at home on the Spanish Revival houses around the Oakleigh Garden District, and when it's done over a proper drainage plane it holds up. When it's slapped straight onto sheathing with no weep screed and no way to drain, our humidity gets behind it and the sheathing turns to oatmeal. Hairline cracks at the corners of windows are usually the first tell.
Most stucco siding calls our siding installation company takes end one of two ways: patch and recoat, or strip it and go to hardie board, which handles wind-driven rain without the guesswork.
Fiber Cement Siding Panels
Panels are the big sheets, 4 by 8 or 4 by 10, and they give you that vertical board-and-batten look that's been all over new builds from West Mobile to Fairhope. Hardie panel siding has to land on a stud at every vertical joint, with flashing behind it and a gap left open. Caulk that joint shut and our humidity has nowhere to go, so the edges swell by the second summer.
Our siding installation company scores and shears panels outside rather than cutting dry with a blade, because silica dust is not something you want in your yard.
Fiber Cement Lap Siding
Fiber cement lap siding is the horizontal plank look most people here ask for by name, and it goes up one board at a time, blind nailed into the framing so no fastener heads stare back at you. Butt joints land on a stud with flashing tucked behind them, not on a bead of caulk and good intentions. That's the step that gets skipped, and after two hot summers those plank ends swell, cup and grin at the street.
We hold the clearances the maker calls for: a gap above roof lines and step flashing, clearance off grade, and joints at trim and corners left open for sealant instead of driven tight. What moves the price on cement siding for houses is wall area, story height, how much trim and window wrap it takes, and whether there's rot to cut out first.
What the job involves
Tear-off comes first, and that is where we find out what your old masonite siding has been hiding: soft sheathing, a rotted stud bay, a window with no flashing. We dry it in, then hang hardie plank on the correct nailing pattern with the gaps the manufacturer actually asks for. Overdriven nails and caulked butt joints are the two sins that void a warranty and buckle a wall by the second August.
Most single-story homes take our siding installation company about a week, weather permitting. Mobile rain gets a vote.
What it costs
Straight answer: a full siding job in Mobile usually lands somewhere between $5,000 and $6,400, and fiber cement composite siding sits at the top of that, because the board is heavy, slow to cut and nothing like hanging vinyl at $2 to $6 a square foot. What moves your number is square footage, one story versus two, and whether we're stripping soft old masonite siding and patching sheathing behind it.
Give our siding installation company a ring on 251-551-3653 for a real figure on your house. Hardie plank siding hung right outlasts two cheap re-dos.
When fiber cement composite siding is the wrong fix
Fiber cement composite siding is the wrong fix when the water isn't coming through the wall at all. If there's a brown stain over a window and the tar shingles above it are curling, or the metal roofing up there has fasteners backing out, new panels just cover the drip for a season while the sheathing turns to oatmeal. Get the roof repair done first.
Same deal with soft trim. Punky fascia and soffit rot from the top down, and cement siding for houses butted up against rotten trim rots right along with it. If your gutters spill over the front of the house every time it pours, gutter installation solves more than a siding job will.
And on a historic cottage where the review board wants wood, it's cypress or cedar. I'll say so.
Why choose us for this
You want fiber cement composite siding on that wall once, and then you want to stop thinking about the house. Fair enough.
My number is rarely the low one, and here's the reason. I don't butt a fiber cement board tight to a window casing, run a bead of caulk down the seam and call that flashing. I don't drop the bottom course into the dirt where it wicks moisture and swells along the cut edge.
Blind nailing each course into the stud, holding boards clear of grade and the roofline, pan flashing every opening: those are the hours a hurry-up crew trims off the bid, and you meet the result about three years later.
Cutting cement board siding makes silica dust and a pile of offcut ends, and both leave in my truck. Tearing off old stucco siding or vinyl shake first moves the price, as does what the sheathing looks like underneath. An estimate obligates you to nothing.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my siding needs a repair or a full replacement?
Press on the board. If it's soft, or the paint keeps blistering in the same spot, water is already behind it and patching just hides the problem. A few cracked pieces of hardie plank on an otherwise sound wall, we swap. Rotted sheathing or old masonite siding that's gone spongy, that wall comes off.
How long is my house torn up?
On a typical 1,500 square foot single story, figure 5 to 8 working days for fiber cement siding installation, longer with a lot of trim and windows. We don't open more wall than we can dry in the same day, which matters when a Mobile afternoon decides to storm at three o'clock.
How do we get started?
Call our siding installation company at (251) 551-3653 and we'll set a time to walk your house, check the sheathing, and talk through hardie board options.
Contact Mobile Siding Pros now
Contact us now if that fiber cement composite siding you've been putting off has finally moved up the list. The number is (251) 551-3653, and it reaches me rather than a call center. We're here weekdays, nine to five, and if a wall is sitting open to the weather, a Saturday works too.
Tell me what's on the house right now, whether that's vinyl shake siding, stucco siding, or lap boards older than you are, how many stories, and whether any spot under a window goes soft when you push a thumb into it. That last one decides plenty. Cement board siding screwed over damp, punky framing is good work wasted, so I'll pull a board and look before I set a scope.
Square footage, window and door count, and whether we can get a truck down the side all shape the work.