Category: Siding

Hardie board is siding made out of cement. People call it Hardie, Hardie board, Hardy board, or HardiePlank. They all mean the same thing. James Hardie is the company that makes it. The material itself is called fiber cement, and other companies make it too.

It is the most common upgrade on Middle Tennessee homes right now. This guide covers what it is made of, which houses have it, how long it lasts, how to check your own walls, and which fixes you can do yourself.

The short version

• It is cement, sand, and wood fiber baked together with steam. That is why bugs and rot leave it alone.
• The boards last 50 to 75 years. The paint does not. Plan to repaint every 7 to 15 years.
• Most problems are install problems, not board problems. The boards outlive bad work.
• The big one to check: there must be a 6 inch gap between the bottom of your siding and the dirt.
• Small fixes are fine to do yourself. Putting up a whole wall is not a weekend job.

What Hardie board is made of

Fiber cement has four ingredients. That is all.

• Portland cement. The same cement used in sidewalks.
• Sand. Ground fine.
• Cellulose fiber. This is wood fiber, broken down into tiny strands.
• Water.

Here is the part that matters. The wood fiber is not there to make the board look like wood. It is there to stop the board from cracking. Cement on its own is brittle. Mix in wood fiber and the board can flex a little instead of snapping.

How it gets made

The four ingredients get mixed with water into a slurry. Think of thin pancake batter.

That slurry gets spread into thin layers. The layers stack up and press together into one sheet, about as thick as a finger. While the sheet is still soft, a roller can press a wood grain pattern into the face. If the maker wants a smooth board instead, they skip that step.

Then comes the step that makes the whole thing work. The sheets go into an autoclave. An autoclave is a big sealed oven that cooks with high-pressure steam. The steam curing makes the board much stronger, and it makes the board hold its shape. A cured board does not swell in summer and shrink in winter the way wood does.

Last, the sheets get cut into planks and painted at the factory.

What that gets you

Because it is basically a thin slab of cement, a few things follow:

• It does not rot. There is nothing in it for rot to eat.
• Bugs leave it alone. Termites cannot chew cement.
• Woodpeckers cannot get through it.
• It does not burn. Fiber cement carries a Class A fire rating, the best one.
• It holds paint for a long time. The surface is stable, so the paint on top stays put.
• It is heavy. This is the trade-off. A plank is much heavier than vinyl, and it takes two people and the right tools to hang it well.

Two kinds: ColorPlus and primed

You can buy Hardie board two ways, and the difference matters later when something needs fixing.

ColorPlus comes painted from the factory. The color is baked on in a controlled room. It looks even, and it lasts well.

Primed comes with a base coat only. A painter puts the real color on after the boards are on your wall.

Neither one is wrong. But remember which one you have, because you can patch a primed board yourself and you are not supposed to patch a ColorPlus board the same way. More on that below.

Which houses have it

Hardie board shows up on two kinds of homes around here.

Newer houses. Builders started using fiber cement heavily in the 2000s. If your house went up after about 2005 and the siding is not vinyl, there is a good chance it is fiber cement.

Older houses that got re-sided. This is the bigger group. When a 1990s house with failing hardboard finally gets stripped, fiber cement is usually what goes back on. Same for older homes with tired wood siding.

It also turns up as an accent. Many brick houses here have fiber cement in the gables, on dormers, or across the back of the house where the brick stops.

How to tell if you have it

Four checks, none of which take long:

1. Knock on it. Fiber cement feels solid and sounds dull. Vinyl sounds hollow and gives under your knuckle.
2. Push on it. Vinyl flexes. Fiber cement does not move at all.
3. Look at a vertical seam. Vinyl panels lap over each other and leave an obvious overlap every few feet. Fiber cement boards meet end to end, and the seam is either caulked or covered by a thin strip of trim.
4. Look at the bottom edge of a board. Fiber cement edges stay crisp and square. Hardboard swells and goes soft and furry.

Not sure what you are looking at? Our guide to every siding type in Middle Tennessee walks through all twelve materials with photos.

Where you find it in Middle Tennessee

These are patterns based on when each area was built. They are not a survey of every house, so treat them as what to expect.

• Franklin, Brentwood, and the rest of Williamson County. This is the heaviest concentration. Newer neighborhoods here used fiber cement from the start, often mixed with brick or stone on the front.
• Nolensville, Spring Hill, and Mt. Juliet. Fast-growing areas built mostly after 2000. Lots of fiber cement, lots of board and batten gables.
• East Nashville and the older close-in neighborhoods. Here it shows up as a replacement on older homes. In the strict historic districts, the smooth version is the one that gets approved. The version with wood grain stamped into it usually does not.
• Antioch, Hermitage, Smyrna, and outer Murfreesboro. These areas are full of 1980s and 1990s homes with failing hardboard. Fiber cement is the usual replacement, so it is spreading street by street as houses get re-sided.
• Green Hills and Belle Meade. Mostly brick, with fiber cement on gables, dormers, and additions.

A note on the HZ10 version

James Hardie makes its boards in two recipes for two kinds of weather. HZ5 is built for cold places with freezing and snow. HZ10 is built for the hot, wet South, and the company says it is made to resist cracking, rotting, and swelling in humid heat.

Middle Tennessee siding contractors specify the HZ10 line for homes here. James Hardie assigns the zone by ZIP code, so if it matters to you, check your own address on their zone tool or ask your contractor which line they are quoting.

How long it lasts

The boards themselves last a long time. Here is how fiber cement compares to the other siding you will find on Middle Tennessee homes.

Fiber cement sits furthest to the right. Only brick beats it, and brick is left off the chart because its published life has no upper limit.

But the boards are only half the story. The paint on top wears out long before the board does, and the caulk in the joints wears out faster still. A Hardie wall is not a thing you install and forget for 60 years. It is a thing you check once a year and repaint a few times.

The warranties, in plain words

James Hardie publishes two warranties, and they cover different things.

The board warranty runs 30 years. It is non-prorated, which means it does not shrink as the years pass. A claim in year 29 is treated the same as a claim in year 2. It also transfers, so it follows the house if you sell.

The ColorPlus paint warranty runs 15 years and covers peeling, cracking, and chipping. This one also covers the labor to put it right, which is unusual and worth knowing.

Both are limited warranties with conditions attached. The most important condition is that the siding was installed the way the manufacturer says. That brings us to the real issue.

What to look for on your house

Here is the thing almost nobody tells homeowners: when Hardie siding fails early, the board is usually fine. The installation was wrong.

Water is the enemy, and these rules exist to keep water off the boards and out of the wall. All of them come straight from James Hardie’s own installation guide. You can check most of them from your yard.

The gap checks

• 6 inches from the ground. This is the big one. The bottom of your siding must sit at least 6 inches above the dirt. Mulch counts as dirt. Garden beds get topped up year after year, and eventually the soil touches the siding. Once that happens, the wall stays wet.
• 2 inches from anything solid. Where siding meets a roof, a deck, a walkway, steps, or a driveway, there must be a 2 inch gap. This one catches people adding a deck later: the new deck gets built up tight against the wall and the gap disappears. If that is on your list, we cover it in what a deck costs to build here.
• A quarter inch above flashing. Where siding sits on top of metal flashing, leave a quarter inch gap so water can run off instead of sitting there.
• 1 inch from the gutter end. Gutters should not jam up against the siding.
• Never sitting in standing water. If a puddle forms against your wall after rain, that is a problem to fix.

The water checks

• Kickout flashing. Where a roof edge runs into a wall, there should be a small angled piece of metal that throws water out into the gutter. Without it, every rain dumps water straight down behind your siding. Look up at the spot where a roofline meets a wall. If there is no little metal flap there, that is worth asking about.
• Stains running down the wall. A dark streak below a joint, a window corner, or a light fixture means water is getting in above it.
• Caulk that has pulled away. Look at the vertical joints between boards, and around windows and doors. Old caulk shrinks, hardens, and pulls off one side, leaving a gap.

Signs on the boards themselves

• Paint peeling or chalking across whole boards. Usually means the paint is simply due, not that the board is bad.
• Cracks running from nail heads. Often means the nails were driven too hard when it went up.
• A wavy, uneven wall. Usually means the nails were overdriven into soft sheathing underneath.
• Soft or crumbling board edges. This is the one that actually means the board is finished. It is rare, and it almost always shows up where one of the gap rules above was broken.

The rule of thumb: damage in one spot is a repair. Damage in the same spot on every wall is an installation problem, and fixing a few boards will not solve it.

Repairs you can do yourself

Let us be straight about this. Installing fiber cement siding is not a DIY job. The NAHB says plainly that fiber cement installations are typically not suited to do-it-yourself projects, because they need special tools and expertise. The boards are heavy, they crack if you handle them wrong, and cutting them makes dust you do not want in your lungs.

But upkeep and small repairs are a different matter. These are reasonable to take on.

Re-caulking a joint

This is the most useful thing you can do for your siding, and it is genuinely easy.

1. Dig the old caulk out of the joint. A putty knife works.
2. Brush the joint clean and let it dry.
3. Run a new bead in and smooth it with a wet finger.

Use a caulk that stays flexible. Look for the words permanently flexible on the tube. James Hardie asks for a sealant meeting ASTM C920 Grade NS, Class 25 or higher, or a latex sealant meeting ASTM C834. Those code numbers are printed on the tube, so you can match them in the store.

Washing it

Dirt and spider nests come off with a garden hose and a soft brush. Keep the pressure low and point the water down, not up. Spraying up under the boards pushes water behind them, which is exactly what you spent all this effort preventing.

Fixing a small chip or dent

This one depends on which kind of board you have, and the difference is important.

If your siding is primed and painted on site: you can fill small dents, chips, and cracks with a cementitious patching compound, then prime and paint over the repair.

If your siding is ColorPlus: do not do that. James Hardie specifically does not approve filling nail heads, holes, dents, or cracks with caulk or patching compound on ColorPlus boards. The factory finish will not match, and you may affect the finish warranty. Touch-up pens exist, but the manufacturer says to use them only on an area smaller than a dime. Anything bigger means replacing the board.

Painting it

You can repaint fiber cement yourself. Three rules from the manufacturer:

• Use exterior acrylic paint. Not stain. Not oil-based paint. Not alkyd. Those can cause the surface to roughen, crack, chalk, or let go entirely.
• Never paint a wet board. Let it dry fully first.
• If boards went up primed, they need their real paint within 180 days. Primer is not a finish and will not protect the board on its own for long.

What to leave alone

• Cutting boards. Cutting fiber cement releases silica dust, which damages lungs over time. OSHA’s rule for professionals is a saw with a blade 8 inches or smaller fitted with a dust collector and a filter that catches 99 percent or more. If you are not set up like that, do not cut it.
• Anything above the first floor. The boards are heavy and awkward. Ladder work with a 12 foot plank is how people get hurt.
• Replacing boards in the middle of a wall. Boards overlap and are nailed through the course above. Pulling one out without damaging its neighbors takes practice.
• Anything involving flashing. Flashing is what keeps water out of the wall itself. Getting it wrong is expensive and you will not see the damage for years.

Repair or replace?

A simple way to think about it:

• Paint is failing but boards are sound. Repaint. You are not replacing anything.
• A few damaged boards, rest of the wall fine. Replace those boards.
• Caulk gone at most joints. Re-caulk the house. This is maintenance, not failure.
• Damage concentrated low on every wall. Check the ground clearance first. You may be able to fix the cause by lowering the grade instead of replacing siding.
• Soft, crumbling boards in several places, plus stains inside the house. Get it looked at properly. Water has been getting into the wall and the siding may be the smallest part of the problem.

What it costs

Fiber cement runs $6 to $15 per square foot installed, or about $15,000 to $37,500 for a 2,500 square foot house. James Hardie branded product installed runs higher, at $16 to $40 per square foot.

Two things that are often left out of a quote:

• Tearing off the old siding adds $0.70 to $2.00 per square foot. This is the single most commonly missing line on a cheap estimate.
• Rotten sheathing underneath. On anything over about 25 years old here, expect some. Ask what the rate is before work starts, not after.

We break down whole-house siding costs for every material in our Middle Tennessee siding guide.

Common questions

Is it Hardie board or Hardy board?

Hardie, with an ie. It is named after James Hardie, the company that makes it. Plenty of people say and spell it Hardy, and contractors will know exactly what you mean either way.

How long does Hardie board siding last?

The boards have a published service life of 50 to 75 years, and James Hardie backs them with a 30-year non-prorated warranty that transfers to the next owner. The paint is a different story and needs redoing every 7 to 15 years. Caulk at the joints goes sooner than that and should be checked yearly.

Can I install Hardie board myself?

Realistically, no. The NAHB says fiber cement installation is typically not suited to do-it-yourself work because of the tools and expertise needed. The boards are heavy, they crack when mishandled, and cutting them releases silica dust that needs a dust-collecting saw. Re-caulking, washing, and repainting are all reasonable to do yourself.

Why is my Hardie siding rotting at the bottom?

Fiber cement does not rot, so something else is going on. The usual cause is that the bottom of the siding is too close to the ground. The manufacturer requires at least 6 inches of clearance between the siding and the dirt, and garden beds and mulch creep up over the years until they touch. Once the board cannot dry out, the paint blisters and the edge softens. Check the clearance before you replace anything.

Can I pressure wash Hardie siding?

Gently, if at all. A garden hose and a soft brush are safer. Keep any pressure low and aim the water downward. Spraying upward forces water up behind the boards and into the wall, which causes the damage you are trying to avoid.

Can I paint Hardie board a different color?

Yes. Use a high-quality exterior acrylic paint. Do not use stain, oil-based paint, alkyd paint, or powder coating, because those can roughen the surface, crack, chalk, or stop sticking. Never paint a board that is still wet. If your siding is ColorPlus, repainting it is allowed but may affect the finish warranty, so check first.

What is the difference between fiber cement and Hardie board?

Fiber cement is the material. Hardie board is one brand of it, made by James Hardie, and it is the best known. Allura, Nichiha, and CertainTeed make fiber cement too. They are similar products, but warranties and installation details differ by brand, so do not assume what applies to one applies to another.

Getting it quoted

Three questions separate a real quote from a cheap one.

1. Does the price include tearing off and hauling away the old siding?
2. What is the rate if rotten sheathing turns up underneath? It usually does on older homes.
3. What goes behind the boards? The drainage layer and flashing are what actually keep water out. A crew that cannot answer this is a crew to pass on.

One more worth asking: who is physically doing the work. Most siding here is sold by exterior companies that also roof and fit windows, and siding is sometimes subcontracted. Either answer is fine. Not getting a straight answer is the signal.

Our Middle Tennessee siding contractor directory lists every company we track along with its state license number and expiry date, so you can check it against the state register yourself. You can also request a free quote from our sponsor, a licensed Nashville contractor, or start with siding contractors in Nashville.

Sources

• James Hardie and its published FAQ, for the 30-year non-prorated transferable substrate warranty and the 15-year ColorPlus finish warranty covering paint and labour. Retrieved 5 October 2026.
• The Hardie Zone System, for the HZ5 and HZ10 product lines and what each is engineered for. The zone for a given address is assigned by ZIP code through James Hardie’s own tool. Retrieved 5 October 2026.
• James Hardie General Installation Requirements, for the 6 inch ground clearance, the 2 inch clearance to roofs, decks, paths, steps and driveways, the quarter inch clearance above horizontal flashing, the 1 inch gutter clearance, kickout flashing, the 180 day painting window, approved and prohibited paint types, caulk standards ASTM C920 and C834, and the repair patching rules including the ColorPlus exception. Retrieved 5 October 2026.
• NAHB and Portland Cement Association, Concrete Homes Technology Brief No. 15: Fiber Cement Siding, for the cement, sand and cellulose composition, autoclave steam curing, the role of cellulose fibre in preventing cracking, the Class A fire rating, annual caulk inspection, repainting every 7 to 15 years, and the statement that fiber cement installation is typically not suited to do-it-yourself projects. Retrieved 5 October 2026.
• James Hardie silica safety resources and OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1153, for the Table 1 control method when cutting fiber cement with a handheld power saw: a blade 8 inches or smaller with a commercially available dust collection system and a filter of 99 percent or greater efficiency. Retrieved 5 October 2026.
• HomeGuide house siding cost guide, updated 29 October 2025, for installed cost ranges, whole-house totals, service life figures and tear-off cost. Retrieved 5 October 2026.

This article is general information, not construction or engineering advice. Warranty terms are summaries of published limited warranties that carry conditions and exclusions; read the current warranty document for your product before relying on it. Confirm your Hardie Zone and product line with James Hardie or your contractor. Cost figures are national installed ranges and will vary with your house. Last updated 5 October 2026.

Your house almost certainly has the siding it has because of the year it was built. Builders used whatever was cheap, available and fashionable at the time, street by street and subdivision by subdivision. That is why a whole cul-de-sac in Antioch has the same swelling hardboard, and why half of Lockeland Springs has painted wood. This guide works through every siding type you will find around Nashville, Franklin and Murfreesboro: what it is, what it is made of, which houses have it, and what is good and bad about living with it.

Start here

• Find your build decade first. It narrows the answer faster than looking at the wall does.
• Built 1980 to 1998 and the bottom edges look swollen? That is probably hardboard, and there is a well-documented reason it is failing.
• Built before about 1980 with small, brittle, chalky shingles? Read the asbestos section before anyone touches it.
• In a historic district? The rules may decide your material for you. Vinyl is often not allowed.

Four checks at the wall

The decade table below narrows it down. These four checks confirm it, and none of them takes more than a minute.

1. Knock on it. Fiber cement and brick ring solid and feel heavy. Vinyl sounds hollow and gives a little under your knuckle. Aluminium sounds tinny and thin.
2. Run your hand down it. Chalky powder on your palm means aluminium, or vinyl old enough to have oxidised.
3. Look at the bottom edge of a board. Swollen, soft and furry means hardboard. Split, checked and flaking means real wood. Crisp and unchanged means vinyl, fiber cement or engineered wood.
4. Find a vertical joint. Vinyl panels lap over one another and leave an obvious vertical seam every few feet. Fiber cement and engineered wood meet in a butt joint that is caulked or covered by a trim strip. Brick has no vertical joints of that kind at all.

Small brittle shingles with a wavy bottom edge and thick chalky paint are a separate case. That is possibly asbestos-cement, and the right check is to stop and have it tested rather than handle it.

Find your house by its decade

What is probably on your walls, by when the house was built

Built	Most likely siding	Watch for
Before 1900	Wood clapboard, brick	Later layers hiding the original wood
1900 to 1940	Wood clapboard, wood shingle, brick	Asbestos or aluminium added later
1940 to 1970	Brick veneer, asbestos-cement, aluminium, wood	Asbestos shingles
1970 to 1980	Aluminium, early vinyl, hardboard, brick	The start of the hardboard era
1980 to 1998	Hardboard (Masonite), vinyl, brick fronts	Swelling and rot at the bottom edge
1998 to 2010	Vinyl, brick fronts, early fiber cement	Faded, brittle vinyl now at end of life
2010 to now	Fiber cement, engineered wood, vinyl, brick	Installation quality more than material

How Middle Tennessee got built

The siding on your house is a fossil of a building era. It helps to know which one.

1779 to 1860: founding and the first permanent houses

Nashville starts as Fort Nashborough in 1779, settled by a group led by James Robertson and John Donelson. It is renamed Nashville in 1784 and becomes a city in 1806. Franklin is founded on 26 October 1799 by Abram Maury Jr, the same day Williamson County is created. Murfreesboro is chartered in 1811 and serves as the state capital of Tennessee from 1818 until 1826, when the assembly left for good. Nashville became the permanent capital in 1843.

Houses from this period are log, brick, or heavy timber clad in wide wood boards. Almost nothing from this era survives as ordinary housing stock, but the brick tradition it started never really stopped here.

1870 to 1900: the Victorian city

This is the cottage-and-gingerbread era: steep roofs, decorative trim, tall narrow windows, and narrow painted wood clapboard almost universally. The surviving pockets are what later became Nashville’s historic districts.

1890 to 1935: streetcars make the first suburbs

This period built most of the old neighbourhoods people love now. By 1890 electric streetcar lines could run well beyond downtown, cheap land near the lines opened up, and middle-class neighbourhoods appeared on lots that had been estates.

East Nashville was platted by the East Edgefield Land Company and served by electric lines down Woodland, Shelby and Fatherland, with East End among the first of many subdivisions. Inglewood Place was first laid out in 1909, expanded in 1919 and again in 1933, with its big building boom through the 1920s and 1930s. Belmont-Hillsboro was subdivided from the Acklen and Montgomery estates in 1890 and 1891, got its streetcar line on Belmont Boulevard in 1901, and did most of its building between 1905 and 1920.

Siding here is wood: clapboard on the body, often wood shingle in the gables. Bungalows and four-squares dominate.

1945 to 1970: the ranch boom

Returning veterans with GI Bill mortgages drove a national building boom, and Nashville spread. Green Hills had seen small-scale building in the 1930s but filled in after the war, mostly brick-veneer ranch houses on large lots. Donelson developed right after the war. Marlin Meadows in Madison was built out mainly between 1952 and 1959. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 and the arrival of the interstates pushed growth further out; I-65 through Williamson County was finished in the late 1960s, which is the beginning of Brentwood and Franklin as commuter towns.

The ranch is the defining house: one storey, low-pitched roof, wide eaves, carport, picture window. Brick veneer is the default, with wood, aluminium or asbestos-cement on the gable ends and secondary walls.

1970 to 2000: subdivisions, and the problem materials

This is where most of the metro’s housing stock actually comes from, and where the siding problems concentrate. Vinyl became mainstream in the 1970s. Hardboard siding was installed heavily through the 1980s and 1990s. The brick-front-with-siding-on-the-sides pattern becomes the standard builder detail across Antioch, Smyrna, La Vergne, Hermitage and outer Murfreesboro.

2000 to now

Fiber cement and engineered wood take a growing share, especially in Williamson County and the newer parts of Mt. Juliet, Nolensville and Spring Hill. Vinyl is still widely used. Board and batten returns as a styling choice on gables and farmhouse-look builds.

Every siding type, one at a time

The photographs below are illustrations of what each material typically looks like, not identification references. Siding varies by manufacturer, age and how many times it has been painted. Use them to narrow down what you are looking at, then confirm it properly, and in the case of suspected asbestos have it tested rather than judged by eye.

Wood clapboard (also called lap or weatherboard)

What it is: long horizontal boards, each overlapping the one below, painted. The oldest exterior, and still the most authentic one for a historic house.

Made of: solid timber, historically poplar, pine or cypress here.

Found on: anything built before about 1940. East Nashville, Germantown, Edgefield, Belmont-Hillsboro, downtown Franklin, older parts of Murfreesboro.

Good: it can be repaired board by board rather than replaced wholesale, it takes paint well, and it is the only material that looks right on a Victorian or a bungalow. It is also what historic districts want to see. Properly maintained wood lasts a very long time.

Bad: it needs painting roughly every 7 to 10 years in this climate, and that is the real cost of owning it. It rots where water sits, especially at the bottom course and where boards meet trim. It burns. Insects eat it. Expect $5 to $15 per square foot installed, and a 20 to 40 year life if maintenance slips.

Wood shingle and shake

What it is: small overlapping pieces rather than long boards. Shingles are sawn and smooth; shakes are split and rough.

Made of: usually cedar.

Found on: gable ends and dormers of bungalows and Tudor-style houses, and as a full wall treatment on some upper-tier homes in Green Hills and Belle Meade.

Good: excellent texture, and the correct detail for certain house styles. Cedar naturally resists insects.

Bad: the most maintenance-hungry option on this list. In Middle Tennessee humidity, shaded north-facing cedar grows algae and holds moisture. Expect to clean and re-treat on a cycle, and to replace individual pieces regularly. $6 to $16 per square foot.

Asbestos-cement shingle

What it is: small, hard, brittle shingles, usually around 12 by 24 inches, often with a slightly wavy bottom edge and many layers of old paint.

Made of: cement mixed with asbestos fibre, pressed into thin sheets. First made in 1907 and installed into the early 1980s.

Found on: houses built or re-clad roughly 1930 to 1975. Very common on modest post-war houses across Davidson County, and frequently installed straight over original wood clapboard, which means the wood may still be underneath.

Good: genuinely durable, fireproof, and it does not rot or feed insects. Intact asbestos siding sitting on your wall is not hurting you.

Bad: brittle, cracks easily, cannot be nailed through, and matching replacement pieces is close to impossible. The serious issue is removal. Breaking, sanding, cutting or power-washing it releases fibres. Do not test it by snapping a piece off. Get it tested, and if it comes back positive, removal is a specialist job with its own disposal rules.

One more thing on older houses: any paid renovation work on a home built before 1978 falls under the federal lead-paint rule, which requires the firm to be EPA lead-certified. That applies to siding exactly as it applies to windows. We covered that rule in what drives window replacement cost.

Aluminium

What it is: thin painted metal panels, usually in a horizontal lap profile.

Made of: rolled aluminium with a baked finish. It arrived in the late 1930s and 1940s and was a mainstream choice through the post-war decades.

Found on: post-war houses, and as a retrofit over wood on older houses in the 1960s and 1970s. Madison, Donelson, Inglewood, older Murfreesboro.

Good: does not rot, burn or feed insects, and it is light. Old aluminium can be repainted, which is often the cheapest way to deal with it.

Bad: it dents permanently, from hail, ladders, mowers and baseballs, and dents cannot be popped out. The finish chalks as it ages, leaving powdery residue on your hand. It conducts heat, so it insulates poorly, and it can be noisy in wind and rain. $6 to $10 per square foot.

Hardboard, usually called Masonite

This is the one most people come looking for, so it gets the longest entry.

What it is: boards that look like painted wood lap siding but are a manufactured composite. Masonite is a brand name that became the general term, the way people say Hoover for a vacuum cleaner.

Made of: wood fibres, wax and resin, pressed under heat into dense boards. It is wood, but shredded and reconstituted, which matters enormously for how it fails.

Found on: houses built roughly 1980 to 1998, which in this metro means a very large share of Antioch, Hermitage, Smyrna, La Vergne, Old Hickory and the outer rings of Murfreesboro. Entire subdivisions went up with it, which is why whole streets have the same problem at the same time.

How to identify it: look at the bottom edge of the boards, particularly on the north side and anywhere near the ground, gutters or a splash zone. Failing hardboard swells like a wafer: the bottom edge thickens, softens and goes furry. You may also see swelling rings around nail heads, cracking along edges, and a dark waxy bleed on the surface.

The part worth knowing: this is not just your house. A nationwide class action, Naef v. Masonite Corp., was filed in 1994 on behalf of owners of property with Masonite hardboard siding installed between 1 January 1980 and 15 January 1998. A month-long jury trial in 1996 established that the siding was defective under the laws of most states, and the court approved a settlement in 1998 worth more than $1 billion, covering an estimated 4 million homeowners. The agreed damage signatures read like a checklist of what to look for: swelling around nail holes, buckling of more than a quarter inch between studs, edge cracking, thickness swelling over 15 percent, fungal degradation, and wax bleed.

What that means for you now: the claims programme ran through 2008 and is closed, so you cannot file today. The history is still useful for two reasons. It tells you the failure is a known product defect rather than neglect on your part, and it gives you the exact language to point at when you get quotes.

Good: cheap, $4 to $8 per square foot, and it did take paint well.

Bad: it absorbs water at any unsealed cut, edge or nail hole, and in this humidity it stays wet long enough to swell and rot. Painting slows that down but does not stop it once moisture is inside the board. It is the only material on this list we would say plainly: do not install it new.

Vinyl

What it is: moulded plastic panels that hook together and hang loose on the wall.

Made of: PVC plastic, with the colour running through the whole thickness rather than painted on. Produced from the 1950s, mainstream from the 1970s.

Found on: the single most common siding in the metro. Everywhere built from about 1975 onward outside the upper tier, and widely used as a replacement on older houses.

Good: cheapest practical option at $4 to $12 per square foot, never needs painting, does not rot or feed insects, and comes in a huge range of colours and profiles. A 30 to 40 year life is realistic.

Bad: it expands and contracts a lot with temperature, which is why it must hang loose rather than be nailed tight. A crew that nails it home leaves you with buckled walls by the first hot August. It cracks on impact, especially when cold, so hail and stray baseballs do real damage. Colour fades in strong sun, and faded panels are very hard to match for a later repair. Dark colours absorb heat and can warp, which matters more here than in cooler states. It is also not permitted in Nashville’s stricter historic districts.

Engineered wood (LP SmartSide and similar)

What it is: the modern, properly engineered answer to what hardboard was trying to be.

Made of: wood strands and fibres bonded with resins, treated with zinc borate against rot and termites, and factory-coated.

Found on: newer builds from roughly 2005 onward, and increasingly used in renovations.

Good: real wood texture, lighter and easier to cut than fiber cement, holds paint well, and far more rot-resistant than the hardboard it replaced. $7 to $12 per square foot, 30 to 50 year life.

Bad: it is still a wood product, so cut ends must be sealed and ground clearance matters. It needs repainting eventually, unlike vinyl. And it carries the reputational shadow of hardboard, which makes some buyers suspicious even though the product is genuinely different.

Fiber cement (Hardie and others)

What it is: the most popular upgrade material in the metro right now.

Made of: cement, sand, water and cellulose fibre. Developed by James Hardie in the mid-1980s.

Found on: newer Williamson County construction, renovations across the board, and it is the material historic districts will approve in its smooth form.

Good: does not rot, burn or feed insects, holds paint for a long time, and carries a 50 to 75 year service life. In a humid climate it is the strongest all-round performer.

Bad: heavy and brittle to work with, so installation labour costs more and poor installers do real damage. Cutting it produces silica dust that needs proper control. It still needs repainting eventually. $6 to $15 per square foot generally, and $16 to $40 for James Hardie branded product installed.

Hardie gets its own guide, because the questions people ask about it deserve more room than one entry here: what Hardie board is, how long it lasts, and how to check yours.

Brick

What it is: on almost every house here it is brick veneer, a single decorative layer tied to a wood-framed wall, not structural brick.

Found on: the regional default. Full brick on upper-tier houses in Brentwood, Green Hills and Franklin; brick fronts with siding on the sides across the mid-market.

Good: outlasts everything else, needs essentially no maintenance, does not burn or rot, and holds value.

Bad: most expensive common option at $8 to $18 per square foot, cannot be changed without a major job, and mortar joints eventually need repointing. The weak points are the flashing and the weep holes at the bottom, which people caulk shut without realising those holes are the drainage for the entire wall.

Stucco

What it is: a cement-based plaster applied in layers over the wall.

Good: long-lived at 50 to 80 years, seamless appearance, fire resistant.

Bad: unforgiving of water getting behind it, and this is a wet climate. Cracks need prompt attention. It is also the material most dependent on the installer getting the hidden drainage layer right, which you cannot inspect once it is finished. $7 to $17 per square foot.

Stone and manufactured stone

What it is: natural stone or a moulded cement product that imitates it, almost always used as an accent rather than a whole wall.

Good: appearance and durability.

Bad: by far the most expensive at $10 to $45 per square foot. Manufactured stone in particular fails where it meets the ground or lacks a proper drainage gap, and badly installed stone traps water against the wall behind it.

Steel

What it is: the tougher descendant of aluminium siding.

Good: resists dents far better than aluminium, 40 to 70 year life, does not burn or rot.

Bad: uncommon on houses here, so fewer local crews install it well, and it can rust at cut edges and scratches. $7 to $16 per square foot.

A note on profiles: shiplap, board and batten, Dutch lap

These are shapes, not materials, and the difference causes a lot of confusion when people are comparing quotes. Any of them can be made in wood, vinyl, fiber cement or engineered wood. The material decides durability; the profile decides looks.

• Lap or clapboard: plain horizontal overlapping boards. The default.
• Dutch lap: lap siding with a decorative groove along the top of each board. Common on mid-century houses and on vinyl.
• Shiplap: boards with a rebated edge so they sit flush against each other instead of overlapping, leaving a neat groove. Interior shiplap is a decorating trend. Exterior shiplap is a different and more demanding thing. Because the boards meet flush rather than shedding water over a lap, the joint relies entirely on the gap, the sealant and the drainage layer behind it. On a wet wall in this climate that is a real risk, and horizontal exterior shiplap is the profile most likely to trap water if it is fitted tight or caulked solid. If you want the look, the safe version leaves a ventilated gap behind the boards so the wall can dry. Ask any contractor proposing it exactly how the wall drains.
• Board and batten: wide vertical boards with narrow strips covering the seams. Sheds water well because it runs vertically. Currently fashionable on gables and farmhouse-style builds.

Which is best value over time

The sticker price per square foot is the wrong number to compare, because these materials do not last the same length of time. Divide installed cost by expected service life and the order changes.

Two warnings about reading that chart. Hardboard looks reasonable on it only because the sum assumes a material reaches its rated life, which is exactly the assumption hardboard is famous for failing. And wood and cedar look expensive partly because their figures assume ordinary maintenance; a well-kept wood house can outlast the number shown by decades.

What it costs to do a whole house

Per-square-foot pricing is how contractors quote, but it is not the number you actually want. Siding a house runs $4 to $13 per square foot installed, which comes to $10,000 to $32,500 for a 2,500 square foot home.

Typical installed cost by house size, all materials

House size	Installed cost
1,000 sq ft	$4,000 to $13,000
1,200 sq ft	$4,800 to $15,600
1,500 sq ft	$6,000 to $19,500
1,800 sq ft	$7,200 to $23,400
2,000 sq ft	$8,000 to $26,000
2,500 sq ft	$10,000 to $32,500
3,000 sq ft	$12,000 to $39,000
3,500 sq ft	$14,000 to $45,500

Read that as a bracket, not a quote. It applies the per-square-foot rate to floor area, which stands in roughly for wall area without actually measuring it. A two-storey house carries more wall per square foot of floor than a ranch does, and a house with several gables, dormers and corners takes longer to cut and fit than a plain rectangle. Your real number comes from someone measuring your walls.

Broken out by material, for that same 2,500 square foot house. The last column is the figure from the chart above: what each material costs you per square foot for every year it stays on the wall.

Installed cost, lifespan and cost per year by material, cheapest to own first

Material	Per sq ft	2,500 sq ft house	Lifespan	Per sq ft per year
Brick	$8 to $18	$20,000 to $45,000	100+ yrs (real brick)	$0.13
Fiber cement	$6 to $15	$15,000 to $37,500	50 to 75 yrs	$0.17
Stucco	$7 to $17	$17,500 to $42,500	50 to 80 yrs	$0.18
Hardboard (Masonite)	$4 to $8	$10,000 to $20,000	20 to 40 yrs	$0.20
Steel	$7 to $16	$17,500 to $40,000	40 to 70 yrs	$0.21
Vinyl	$4 to $12	$10,000 to $30,000	30 to 40 yrs	$0.23
Engineered wood	$7 to $12	$12,500 to $37,500	30 to 50 yrs	$0.24
Aluminium	$6 to $10	$15,000 to $25,000	25 to 40 yrs	$0.25
Wood and log	$5 to $15	$12,500 to $37,500	20 to 40 yrs	$0.33
Cedar	$6 to $16	$15,000 to $40,000	20 to 40 yrs	$0.37
Stone	$10 to $45	$10,000 to $25,000 as an accent	30 to 75 yrs	$0.52

Stone is the odd row there. Its total looks low because that figure is for stone used as an accent on the front of a house, which is how it is almost always used around here. Cladding a whole house in it costs a great deal more.

A few other things move the final figure:

• Materials are only about half the job. Materials and supplies run $2 to $7 per square foot and labour $2 to $6, so labour is 45 to 50 percent of what you pay. Crews charge $40 to $80 an hour.
• Tear-off is extra, and it is the line most often left off a quote. Removing and hauling the old siding adds $0.70 to $2.00 per square foot.
• Two storeys costs more than one, because of the scaffolding and fall protection.
• Permits run $30 to $200 where your jurisdiction requires one.
• You get a good share of it back. New siding returns roughly 75 to 85 percent of its cost in home value.

We broke the numbers down the same way for roofs in what an asphalt shingle roof costs in Middle Tennessee.

What is on the houses near you

These are patterns based on when each area was built, not a survey of individual houses, so treat them as what to expect rather than a promise.

• East Nashville, Germantown, Belmont-Hillsboro, Hillsboro-West End: painted wood clapboard, some wood shingle in gables, plus whatever was added over the top in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Madison, Donelson, Inglewood, older Murfreesboro: post-war brick ranch with aluminium, wood or asbestos-cement on secondary walls.
• Green Hills, Belle Meade, Brentwood, established Franklin: brick veneer, with cedar or fiber cement on gables and dormers.
• Antioch, Hermitage, Smyrna, La Vergne, outer Murfreesboro: the brick-front-and-siding-sides pattern. Hardboard if built in the 80s or 90s, vinyl if later.
• Mt. Juliet, Nolensville, Spring Hill, newer Gallatin and Hendersonville: newer construction, so vinyl, engineered wood and fiber cement, often mixed with brick or stone on the front.

If your house is in a historic district

This is simpler than it sounds, and it matters because getting it wrong means taking the siding back off at your own cost.

Nashville has two kinds of historic district, and they work differently.

• In the stricter kind, you need permission before you change the outside of your house, including re-siding.
• In the looser kind, you generally do not need permission to re-side an existing house. Those rules only cover new buildings, additions, demolitions and moving a structure.

Where permission is required, the rules are specific about materials. Metro’s guidelines say plainly that vinyl and aluminium are not appropriate. What they will approve is smooth fiber cement, with no more than 5 inches of each board showing. The woodgrain-embossed version most crews carry as standard is not accepted. Work is also not reviewed at all if it cannot be seen from the street.

Franklin is stricter. There you need a certificate before you change the outside of your house, and where original wood is uncovered the expectation is to match what was there and replace only the damaged part rather than the whole board.

The simplest move is a phone call before you order anything. The Metro Historic Zoning Commission is on 615-862-7970, the permit itself is free, and routine work is often approved within a couple of days.

A note on accuracy: we checked the two district types, what each one reviews, the material wording and the enforcement rule against Metro’s published Historic Zoning Handbook and a Metro staff report. Each district adopts its own guidelines, so confirm yours before buying materials.

Common questions

How do I tell what siding I have?

Start with the build year, which narrows it fast, then look at an edge. Wood and hardboard look similar once painted, but hardboard swells and softens at the bottom edge while wood splits and rots. Vinyl is light, slightly flexible and hangs loose, so it rattles if you push it. Aluminium is rigid, dents, and leaves chalky residue on your hand. Fiber cement is heavy and rings solid when tapped. Asbestos shingles are small, brittle and chalky, and should not be snapped off to test.

Why is my siding swelling at the bottom?

That is the classic signature of hardboard siding absorbing water. It was installed widely between 1980 and 1998, and a 1996 jury trial found the product defective under the laws of most states. Swelling around nail heads, buckling between studs, edge cracking and a dark waxy bleed are the other signs. The compensation programme closed in 2008, so the practical path now is replacement.

How much does it cost to side a 2,000 square foot house?

Expect roughly $8,000 to $26,000 installed, depending almost entirely on the material. Vinyl sits at the bottom of that range and brick, stucco and steel at the top. Treat it as a bracket rather than a quote: it applies an average per-square-foot rate to floor area, and your real wall area depends on how many storeys, gables and corners the house has. Removing the old siding is extra, at $0.70 to $2.00 per square foot, and it is the line most often missing from a cheap estimate.

Can I just paint over old siding instead of replacing it?

Often yes, and it is much cheaper: $1.00 to $3.00 per square foot to paint against $4 to $12 to replace. Painting works well on aluminium, wood and fiber cement. It does not fix hardboard that has already taken on water, because the damage is inside the board. Two cautions: paint on siding lasts 10 to 15 years, and painting may void a manufacturer warranty. On vinyl, going darker than the original colour risks heat absorption and warping.

Is asbestos siding dangerous?

Intact asbestos-cement siding sitting on a wall is not releasing fibres. The risk comes from disturbing it: breaking, cutting, sanding or power-washing. If you suspect it, have it tested rather than snapping a piece off, and treat removal as a specialist job with its own handling and disposal rules.

What is the difference between shiplap and lap siding?

Lap siding overlaps, so each board sheds water onto the one below. Shiplap has rebated edges so boards sit flush with a neat groove between them. Outside, that makes shiplap more demanding: the joint cannot shed water on its own and depends on the gap and the drainage layer behind it. In a humid climate it is the profile most likely to trap moisture if fitted tight. If you want the look, ask the contractor how the wall drains behind it.

Can I put vinyl siding on a house in East Nashville?

It depends which kind of historic district you are in, and the two are easy to confuse. In the stricter kind, re-siding needs permission and vinyl is not accepted. In the looser kind, re-siding an existing house generally is not reviewed at all. Call the Metro Historic Zoning Commission on 615-862-7970 and ask about your specific address before buying anything.

Getting it quoted

Whatever you have, three questions separate good quotes from cheap ones. Does the price include tearing off and hauling away the old siding, which runs $0.70 to $2.00 per square foot and is the most commonly omitted line? What is the rate if rotten sheathing turns up underneath, which it usually does on anything over about 25 years old here? And what goes behind the panel, meaning the drainage layer and the flashing, which is what actually keeps water out?

Also worth knowing: most reputable contractors will not install new siding over old siding, because any rot underneath carries on where nobody can see it. A quote that is cheap because it skips the tear-off is cheap for that reason.

Our Middle Tennessee siding contractor directory lists every company we track with its state license number and expiry date, and you can request a free quote from our sponsor, a licensed Nashville contractor. If your house is in the city itself, start with siding contractors in Nashville.

Sources

• Founding dates and early history: City of Franklin and Williamson County (founded 26 October 1799), City of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County (chartered 1811, state capital 1818 to 1826), and published histories of Nashville (Fort Nashborough 1779, renamed 1784, city 1806, permanent state capital 1843).
• Streetcar-suburb and neighbourhood development history for East Nashville, Inglewood Place and Belmont-Hillsboro, from National Register nomination materials and Nashville neighbourhood histories.
• Post-war development of Green Hills, Donelson and Madison, and the effect of the 1956 Federal Aid Highway Act, from Metro Historical Commission post-war housing material.
• Naef v. Masonite Corp.: class period 1 January 1980 to 15 January 1998, the 1996 trial finding, the 1998 settlement, the agreed damage signatures, and the 2008 close of the claims programme. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
• Metro Historic Zoning Handbook and a Metro staff recommendation, for the two district types, what each reviews, the material wording and the enforcement rule. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
• HomeGuide house siding cost guide, updated 29 October 2025, for installed cost ranges, service life, whole-house totals by house size and by material, the materials and labour split, hourly labour rates, tear-off cost, permit cost, resale return and painting costs. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
• Material introduction dates come from industry histories and should be read as approximate: asbestos-cement from 1907 into the early 1980s, aluminium from the late 1930s, vinyl produced from the 1950s and mainstream from the 1970s, fiber cement developed by James Hardie in the mid-1980s.

This article is general information, not legal, engineering or construction advice. Historic district rules are adopted district by district and change over time; confirm the rules for your address before ordering materials. Suspected asbestos should be tested by a qualified professional rather than sampled by hand. Cost figures are national installed ranges and will vary with your house. Last updated 4 October 2026.