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Two-story home clad in charcoal James Hardie lap siding with white trim

Chalked vinyl swapped for fiber cement on a two-story

Twenty-year-old vinyl that had chalked, warped, and cracked, replaced across a two-story home with HardiePlank and HardieTrim.

Mount Pleasant, SC

Two-story home clad in charcoal James Hardie lap siding with white trimFaded, weather-streaked lap siding on a two-story Mount Pleasant homeBeforeAfter
Before: chalked, mildew-streaked claddingAfter: HardiePlank + HardieTrim
The problem
Twenty-year-old vinyl had chalked to a flat beige, warped along the south elevation from reflected heat, and cracked where storm debris hit it. Wind-driven rain was finding its way behind the panels at the corners.
What we did
Vinyl and old housewrap stripped to sheathing, taped WRB installed, HardiePlank lap in ColorPlus Light Mist with HardieTrim corners and window surrounds, all penetrations flashed and sealed.
Result
One color across all four elevations, no warp on the hot side after two summers, and a wall assembly that drains what gets past the cladding.

Project Specs

Scope
Full re-side, two stories, 3,100 sq ft of wall
Product
HardiePlank HZ10 lap + HardieTrim
Duration
21 working days
Investment range
$52,000 – $58,000
Extras
New window head flashing throughout

Investment ranges reflect the scope described. Your house gets measured before it gets priced.

Why the vinyl failed here and not everywhere

We install vinyl and we defend it on the right house. This was not the right house. The south elevation took reflected heat off a light hardscape all afternoon, and vinyl warps against sustained radiant heat in a way fiber cement simply does not.

The second problem was repair. The color had chalked to a flat beige over two decades, so the storm-cracked panels could not be matched. Any partial fix would have read as a patch, which is how a vinyl repair job turns into a full-elevation replacement anyway.

Stripping to sheathing rather than layering over

Going over the existing vinyl would have been faster and cheaper on day one. It also would have made it impossible to inspect the sheathing, flash the window heads properly, or establish a real drainage plane — and wind-driven rain was already getting behind the panels at the corners.

We stripped the vinyl and the original housewrap down to sheathing, inspected the whole envelope, and installed a taped water-resistive barrier before any cladding went back on.

Two-story detail work

Two stories means staging, slower material handling, and more labor hours per square foot — which is most of why this project carried a higher per-square-foot number than the single-story work we do. It also means more terminations to flash correctly, and each one is a place a wall can fail quietly for years.

HardiePlank lap in ColorPlus Light Mist runs the field, with HardieTrim at corners and window surrounds. Every penetration was flashed and sealed, and new head flashing went over every window throughout. Two summers in, the hot elevation shows no warp and the color reads identically on all four sides.

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We measure the wall, name the product line, and state the sheathing rate before tear-off — so the estimate you sign is the number you pay.

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