If you are doing a "very expensive" rehab/addition on this old house, somehow it doesn't seem logical to go cheap on the siding. It's the first thing people see. Is there something between Hardi Board and vinyl that you could swing? Our builder suggested we use Smart Siding, but I didn't particularly like it. I wanted a wood look, and the Smart Siding was really fake looking, but their regular painted was nice looking. You might check it out. I know it was quite affordable. We ended up using Certainteed Impressions which was $6,000 more than Smart Siding. I love the look, and the installers have said they are very impressed with the quality and ease of install.

I have Nichiha shingles on my house. They look great, and are thicker than Hardi shingles. I'm almost positive they were cheaper than Hardi, since my builder let me substitute it, and I'm almost positive that they would have charged me the difference had it been more expensive. This was for pre-primed.

We'll be living in the house for the next 30 years easy. for the $15k extra, then probably another $10k to paint the whole thing, I could have the 4th bedroom and basement finished.

does any one know if one vinyl looks better than the other? We were leaning toward a dark grey with white trim.

smart side might not be that bad. Its a printable surface, so i would imagine once painted would look just like wood.

Izerac, thats great advise thanks.

that is an interesting idea lzerarc.

we did vinyl mastic brand,the middle of the road quality.

what costs money, and what we did, were added some finishing touches.

we have 2 1/2 inch white vinyl trim around all of our windows. it costs more than J, but looks really nice, and finishes off the windows. Not nearly as wide as the idea mentioned, above, but 6" would be out of place on my side house.

we also did the large white corners that are about twice the size of a standard corner board. these are insulation backed to keep form, and really add some punch to the exterior. we also did cedar shake vinyl on the front.

we also have an arch over the front door and garage door, that are being trimmed out in a sheet of Azak board.

All the extras did add to the cost, but really set our house apart from some similar dormers in the area.

however, vinyl is pretty standard in my area even though the house prices are high. Hardie really hasn't penetrated in the middle of the road areas.

The width can be whatever you would like. We used 6" on the corners and 4" around the windows. Bad picture, but here is the house with the addition I was building for them. I am also attaching a quick detail of what I am talking about.

For juniork: We have been planning on using Hardie board for our new construction, but heard about the Nichiha through a designer I work with and a friend of ours who is a contractor in another state said it was a great product. We are considering using it. Do you have photos of the exterior of your home? I would love to see them. Our new build will have a mix of shingles, lap siding and board and baton (maybe!).

Go Hardi. Certainteed does not warranty their product. They give a small portion only.