James Hardie Siding Designs & Styles in Overland Park
Last week we began discussing James Hardie Fiber Cement siding and it’s benefits for use in the Overland Park and Kansas City areas. This week, we’ll look at the various designs, styles, and looks you can achieve with Hardie siding.
James Hardie make all the modern styles available. Lots of times one or two of the styles are combined to create a unique exterior.
In Overland Park and Kansas City, we see all three of the styles above. Let’s look into each style and talk about them individually.
Board and Batten
This siding style is popping up more and more. We’ve noticed it being installed a great deal on the modern farmhouse and is very popular with the black/white color scheme. We work on lots of older homes in Overland Park and Kansas City which have masonite batten board siding, which isn’t nearly as durable as the new Hardie product.
Our take on batten board siding is that it looks great on ranch style homes (1 story homes) and on 2 story homes when combined with a second style of siding. We like it in a light to mid dark color palette and think it’s best not to go crazy on the trim. A trim color that is in the same family or close to the body color keeps the home from being too busy, but adds subtle contrast.
Panel
Panel continues to be a popular choice in many developer led neighborhoods. James Hardie’s panel product looks great, and is a little easier on the installation side than batten board, lap, or shingle. So if you like the panel, you can save a little bit of money on the labor side of things.
Most of the panel siding we install is what is pictured above. It has a light cedar texture and grooves every 8” on-center. This style is combinable with shingle and lap as well. We normally see homeowners elect to put shingle or lap on the upper peaks on the front of the home. This breaks up the look a bit, adding visual intrigue.
Shingle
Shingle siding is a classic. There are a great many homes in old Kansas City, Leawood, and Overland Park that are siding with cedar shake shingles. People love the classic look, but dealing with real cedar shake shingles is a maintenance burden. If the real wood shingles aren’t properly maintained, we see them peel badly and then the only way to get them to look new again is to replace them all!
Peeling and wood rot isn’t concerning with Hardie Shingle. The bond achieved is excellent, or you can opt to buy the shingle siding pre-coated by James Hardie in the factory and get their excellent guarantee. We’re big fans of the shingle siding. We’ve sided full exteriors with it, and also used it as an accent on lap, panel, and even stucco sided homes.
Lap
Lap is an extermely popular choice, especially if modern is your aesthetic. Lap siding has been around forever and looks great in a great many scenarios. It can be used to complement a modern look with straight lines, or can be used classicly with batten board on a farmhouse.
We like lap a great deal. It’s versatile siding, and we combine it in many ways to fit homeowner’s needs. Sometimes we’ll side the front of a home in lap, and the sides and back in a different style to give the front a unique look. Let your creativity run wild with lap siding.
Color Plus
We mentioned above James Hardie’s ColorPlus siding. Of course, we often paint houses in the field, and if you have a very specific color you’d like, Hardie Siding comes pre-primed for field painting.
However, we’d say definitely consider the color plus. The siding is coated in the factory, and the finish and durability are hard to beat with a field coated application.
Hardie have developed their color line, continually expanding it with more and more color options over the years. Check it out here, and see if they have a color you like. I bet they do or have one that is close.
That gives you an idea of what is possible with Hardie. If you’d like to get an estimate and have us model your home with a different siding style, this is possible as well. We use some nice contractor software here at Great Plains Painting that allows us to take photos of your home and visualize what it might look like with a different siding type. Call us today and lets talk about Hardie siding and schedule an estimate.