Thanks Rick. The hardibacker for siding has the exterior priming side but I think the backside is not that well protected--too bad. There's also the regular board that they use for countertops (I believe) that doesn't have that priming that I was hoping someone could say "yes, I've used that for an exterior garden wall and this is what you coat it with"...well, I can always hope! I think the sample I had was one of those paneling pieces, from what I recall, because it was scrap from a house manufacturing plant. And that's the one that crumbled--guess I had it turned up on the wrong side!

I wish that stuff was on my house on the trim part of it. I'm dealing with the particle board siding that is totally inferior. I was reading that it's much better than the vinyl siding for maintenance even. Sounds like you've had really good luck with it.

HOwieDoin,
Please accept my apologies and hope that no one got hurt. I was sure that is what they said when I said the wrong thing while visiting their garden and commented on the 'durock' board, I was sure one of them said Hardi backer board.
Now in their book (A Garden Gallery)page 73 they talk about 'time consuming stucco walls can be" and they searched for an alternative. "What we discovered is known as Haripanel, a concrete board product normally used to face houses. It is available at most lar lumber yards......textured to look like hand-troweled stucco."

Again sorry for the mis information.
Rick how do you like your Hardie home, I have begun to see some homes around here with that as siding, and quite a bit of advertising for it too.
Dena

No one got hurt Dena! I hadn't used the piece I had for anything. I had it laying around outside and it just crumbled when I picked it up. But I was wanting to construct a wall like L&L's and when I saw something that you had noted, I thought "hmmm--wonder how that works."

How thick would you say the wall was and how is it supported? Could you tell anything when you were at their garden? I'm guessing that maybe the primed part of the Hardibacker is on both sides and facing out. Maybe they're using pressurized wood or metal poles to secure it.

I've been seeing the other cement/fiberglass reinforced sheets at HD and was wondering how that would work. I think one of them was Durock. Thanks for your input!

Cement board has fiber in it for strength I think. It is what they put on floors first then hard tile on top also for showers/tubs before the tile is put up. It is quite heavy and only comes in 3'x4' pieces I think. Lowes/Home Depot/Menards should have it. You would need a pretty sturdy frame to hold it together. You could tile it,stucco, probably tufa it since it is designed for wet areas.
Paws

Dena-so far so good!We had the boards delivered only primed,then our painter went at it-still has some work to finish the second coat.Chances are we won't have to repaint,just powerwash now and then.the boards have a texture to them for that woodlike look.Check out our website at www.bluffhollow.ca,our house and cabin are shown there.And,given that we're in the hills and right beside a Crown forest reserve,no hydrants nearby,we got the best material on the exterior to retard any fire threat.
Recommend it highly!!
Cheers and goodnight.

The wall at Little and Lewis was quite sizeable, and did create a wall where a fence could have gone,the board comes in different sizes 4x8x1/4"-1/2".
Without entering all the information in the book, it says it is built over a strong fence like framework of treated lumber. Take the opportunity to check out the book at a library or one of the book stores, I think it is a good resource to have on hand. You can go through the book time and time again and not see the same thing, similar to their garden. I have sticky tabbed the pages that I want to come back to more frequently.
When you are at a store that has the boards take a minute to try and lift one. It is heavy and must be supported well. My son who has brought home several smaller pieces of various kinds from construction sites says you need to use the special attachers/screws, and it is best to use the saw blades that are designed to cut the stuff.
At one time I thought I would experiment with a a piece of the board fixed on a pallet board, and create littler color panels as partitions in the garden.
Dare I say, Tufaenough here is where you could work with a trowel. I am sure you have already thought about this or maybe even done it. You could practice all the troweling techniqes on a board that is smooth surface. In addition all the colors, dyes, oxides to boot.
Rick
Do you think the siding adds a good insulation rating to the home as well, I would think it would. And fire retardent/repellant is a great feature.
Dena

Dena-we weren't cold this past winter!We heat with wood only and we were cozy.OK,so we have heated slate floors in the bathrooms-we're not COMPLETE savages up here!
Cheers

The panel of the purple wall at L&L's appeared to be about 1/2" thick. If it's even part concrete, that has got to be one heavy 4x8!

Dena, I wouldn't expect concrete to have much insulative ability. Stone homes tend to be cold, and I've heard that even that stonework/brickwork often seen on the lower half of houses wicks the cold INTO the house.

Of course, if there's some kind of insulation in between the concrete and the inside, that would make a difference. Straw bale homes that have a concrete exterior are warm in winter and cool in summer with minimal heating/cooling, but it's due to the straw, not the concrete.

Sue

Two more advantages to Hardi Plank Siding:

Termites can't touch it.
Doesn't swell & contract like wood.

We are in the process of putting the siding on our house. Cedarmill, I believe, has the wood grain in it. Comes only in 12 ft. lengths, different widths, depending on the exposure you prefer. This stuff is HEAVY. We are also using the Hardi trim & soffit, which is also cementious. Siding has a 50 year warranty, soffit and trim (I think) has a 10 year warranty. Between added insulation, new windows, & Hardi plank siding, the house does seem more constant. Surely get a lot less street noise after the siding!!

I know they make 4 x8 sheets with various textures, but have to special order that around here. I don't see why, with proper spacing, it couldn't be used for a garden wall.

I do know that the scraps that have layed around and gone through a wet/dry process, became even harder. I broke them with a hammer and used to fill a hole.

I just like anything with cement!!!

Our builder and his siding guy had very little scrap.the bits left over were too small to play with.The sheets,in our case,were ordered at the same time as the planks.We didn't go for more(soffits,corners)because we went so far over budget that food is now optional in our house!!

A liitle OT but I picked up a few chunks of faux wood siding from a big custom home being finished.
It's made out of something almost as hard as concrete.
The cool thing is the wood grain is pretty deep, much deeper than vinyl patterns.
So pouring a slurry on it gives a pretty good faux bois pattern.

Check out these links for woodcrete. I saw some photos of this in Concrete Decor magazine. Very cool;

Here is a link that might be useful: Woodcrete

Dena, is the "haripanel" (hardipanel?) the same thing as what's known
back here as Stuccato board? Or was known, it's getting hard to
come by the last few years.

It came in 4x8 sheets about 1/4-5/16" thick, it looks like masonite on steroids
on the back, the front it looked like random pattern stucco, not too fake looking.
It was about 30.00/sheet. I sided my tenant's cottage with it 1990, not only
did it wear well, it's UNCHANGED, while the wooden boards over the seams
have twisted and cracked. Many people have used it on permanent fair booths
with the same result.

I thought that's what L&L's wall was made of and thought: GOOD, so that
stuff is still around, though I wondered how it could hold up in rain and snow
without the top being protected.
In fact, I immediately started to think about making a wall, slightly curved
(that stuff can be bent, about like plywood), like that red Chinese wall (Peking?)
with A ROOF on it!

I love that roofed wall look, and that would cover the top, hiding any
visible framing, or view of the top edge (don't like that), and keep the top dry.

I don't believe this stuff contained any concrete product, but I'm not sure.
I also never tried to paint it, not sure latex would work.
Anyone here ever used it?

I googled that Stuccato board, and all I found were lawsuit settlements. I guess that takes care of that.

Sue

Sheesh!
Well, it was just a whim.
Here's that lovely wall though.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:70017}}

OK,can everyone say HARDIE plank or board,or batten too?Throw in soffits you have a concrete house.Not stucco,darn it!

Out here it's called wonderboard. I'm pretty sure this is what your talking about and it should do fine outside. It's really meant to be an underlayment for ceramic/granite tile, it's pretty sturdy, comes in different thicknesses, and is a beast to cut. You could screw this to your walls like sheetrock and trowel tufa on it like you do venetian plaster, or press in leaves so it would be like a fossilized wall....Oh no...another project.
Jo

But Hardie does have a "stucco" finish in the large sheets!

I wonder if that could be used for a tub surroud? Maybe the smooth.

Here is a link that might be useful: James Hardie Vertical Siding

Thanks for the reference to James Hardie.We used it under our woodstove,as a code requirement,as well as exterior siding.
The Hardie product is textured like stucco,or like wood.Worth a look at HD or any good home improvement centre.Our builder needed a special blade to cut it,but other than that it went up like cedar siding.Baased on what happened here,I'd think that Hardie is the product for wall building.It's not cheap,but when it comes to your house,do you really want CHEAP screaming at you when you put up the nice garden wall.I'd think not!
Cheers

WonderBoard and James Hardie products are different altho Hardie does make a concrete backer board (cbu) that serves the same stone or tile underlayment function as WonderBoard. Loren La: I don't think you would like the results of either one for a tub surround -- looks and mtn. The Woodcrete product(Dixiesmom) is fencing, and designed to be exposed to the weather. And it is good looking.

You could build a free-standing wall using 4x4 posts, 2x4's every 16" and (properly protected painted and caulked front and back) 4 x 8 Hardi panels. I think the L&L wall is Hardi board or a Hardie look alike. Looking at the wall on page 72 I think I can see a hint of a seam (at the bottom) and a pattern repeat.

Barbara