Hello all.
I'm thinking of using concrete-board HardiPlank for siding. My house is a 100-year-old bungalow, with original cedar siding still in place, and at all the outside corners, the cedar siding is joined at a compound bevel. It's a really nice look that you don't see often nowadays, I guess because it's harder to install.

Now all I see (mostly) are the corners done with straight vertical pieces, and the siding just butts up to them on each side.

I am wondering: is it possible to do the compound corner joint with HardiPlank? (let's assume I get a special saw blade from Hardie for my miter saw) My question really is, will the material behave well enough to hold that joint? Is it too brittle to be mitered without the worry of it cracking or something?

Anybody heard of or seen or attempted this type of installation? I couldn't find anything on Hardie's website about it, and I don't even bother asking the home depot employees about stuff like this. :)

Thanks for any help!

- james

PS - attached a picture of the type of corners I'm talking about.

I can't see it being a problem, just very time consuming and dusty to make all the cuts. The cuts would have to be darn near perfect to prevent moisture intrusion at the corners or you can caulk every outside corner joint.
The reason cedar is like that is because its easy to cut and the wood can be shaved w/ a block plane to fit perfect at the joints.

Did you try contacting James Hardi company? Maybe give their technical dept a call or shoot them an email.

We just got through siding our house with HardiePlank and we love it. It takes paint beautifully. The house has never looked better.

With that being said, it does have it's limitations. From my experience, you can't do miters like your corners. At least with any ease. You can't block plane the planks the same way you can with cedar.

We went with corner boards(bucks) for obth the inside and outside corners.

One thing just occurred to me though while looking at your picture. I am seeing a line down the siding near the corner. Is that just a shadow line or is it something else? We had cedar shake siding on our first house. The corners had metal caps on them. Up here in MN, you can still get the metal caps. Would something like that work?

Also, why are you replacing your cedar siding? At least in the picture you have included, they look to be in good shape.

I didn't notice either Dan. It looks like he has corner caps. If that's the case he doesn't have to do any corner cuts, just install it at the corner and cap it.

I should have clarified by saying that the photo I attached above is not MY house... it's just an example I found online of what I want to do.

My cedar is cracked, rotted, and overall unsalvageable. I just wanted to try to keep the classic look of what the house originally had. I suppose I could just go with cedar.

Thanks for the input guys,

J

Jam, why don't you use the copper corners like in the photo example you posted then you won't have to bevel.

I have hunted around and can find only one manufacturer for metal siding corners that are designed for Hardie plank siding. Look at simplicitytool.com and the 199 style corners.

about 10 years ago now we hardiplanked the entire residence. As I'm a professional NO freeze board was used anywhere. So how to handle the corners? Well here's how to do it. First though a pre-requisite... you want to use ONLY THIS stuff: PL Sealants, Adhesives, Construction Adhesives, Polyurethane Sealants, Canned Adhesives, Wood Repair Products (made by OSI Sealants, Inc) construction adhesive sold at Lowe's, HD and others. And purchase in LARGE (flooring adhesive) sizes.

run your horizontal hardiplank "wild" beyond your corner framing (typically vertical 2 X 4, 2 X 6) except for the top piece (which you will cut flush). Run up all the courses on one face and snap a vertical line to exactly match up with the edge of the two-by. Then cut the entire plane flush with the underlying two-by. Follow this with doing the same on the alternate (perpendicular) plane.

now cut a 3/4 inch wide (from one-by fibre concrete stock) strip that matches your height of the corner from soffit to a bit below the lowest point of the lowest horizontal course. Now place a continuous bead of that aforementioned "goo" vertically on each exposed edge of the cuts on BOTH sides of the corner. Finally temporarily TAPE (with duct tape) the strip to the corner. A coupla hours later remove the tape. And be careful with this 3/4 inch X 3/4 inch cut piece regarding prior to install handling because if you try to support it only at the middle of say an 8 foot piece it will surely break.

let it set for 2 days and you'll need a wrecking bar to get this piece off the corner! The result is a BEAUTIFUL corner which when done on the entire residence at ALL corners and openings will be appreciated by everybody that knows the diff between great and lousy work.

Lewac, you fool. You are not a professional anything. Jamlove, get the 199 corners. You will be happy.