Siding and Trim

The siding used on this prototype home is pre-painted NichiHa fiber cement lap siding. The shakes are a pre-stained Western Red Ceder, the tongue and groove pine is Blue Stain Pine and the trim is Miratec. All of these exterior finish products were purchased through an Asheville company--Carolina Colortones. Carolina Colortones offers the best selection of siding options in the Asheville area and specializes in pre-painted and pre-stained exterior finish products. My experience working with Carolina Colortones was excellent. I chose the NichiHa product for several reasons. NichiHa products contain over 50% fly ash, a recycled content material generated from coal burning power plants. Not only does this material not end up in a landfill, but in my research it ends up creating a more stable fiber cement product than other companies incorporating more wood fiber content. NichiHa also recycles 95% of the water used at its manufacturing facility and treats the remaining 5% that is discharged. Overall, I was very impressed with NichiHa's strong environmental conviction. The siding was pre-painted with 2 coats of a low VOC paint and it comes with a 25 year warranty. This not only saved money, but also the time and headaches associated with painting the material on site. The shakes were also pre-stained with 2 coats of a low VOC stain. Having the shakes pre-stained was very important to me as all 6 sides would be fully covered. Many builders only paint or stain the exterior side or face of the shakes which usually results in a lower quality product that is more susceptible to the elements over the years. I also chose a darker stain for the shakes as this will reduce UV damage and require less restaining in the future. The tongue and groove pine used on the soffits and the ceiling of the front porch is called Blue Stain. The blue stain results from a fungus that is released from the mouths of beetles that infest the pine trees out west ultimately killing the tree in the process. I used this blue stain pine for both environmental and aesthetic reasons. The dead standing trees can be used for certain applications and the stained byproduct matched my overall color scheme.
In my spare time I have also been working on a smaller prototype cottage design that starts with a basic 28x36 footprint. This cottage plan will have 5 different floor plans or layouts ranging in size from 1008 sq ft to about 1500 sq ft depending on the specific needs of the client. For these cottage plans, I would use Eco-Panels walls with the integrated LP Smartside siding option and Carolina Colortones to finish out the gables and trim details. Having the siding already integrated as part of the structural and insulated wall system significantly reduces costs, delays, waste and headaches. Finished as a board and batten style, these cottage plans will also be very high performance, while potentially being even more affordable than this larger prototype.