I got all the Hardipanel tiles finished up for the shed yesterday. Painted them a handful of different colors, and they should be a lot of fun to look at.
The Hardipanel comes with a note that basically says "try not to machine cut this stuff - it'll kill you." Scoring is recommended method (it is VERY easy to score, even easier than drywall). The problem with scoring (and that's how I cut the pieces for the retaining wall, which I still need to blog) is that the edges aren't nearly as clean as machined cuts. They have that raggedy, fuzzy appearance to them, and sanding Hardipanel is apparently even worse for you than machining it. Suffice it to say that I used a circular saw with a cement blade to cut these 16x16 squares - it was pretty dusty. I stayed upwind, I wore a respirator, I held my breath. But it's hard to keep those cuts straight - the saw's fence isn't long enough, and though I made my own 2x4 fence the saw was still jumpy (I was cutting a few sheets at a time).
It took the paint REALLY well. I'm just using a flat exterior paint (Valspar, the Lowe's store brand), and two quick coats (only about 15 minutes apart) did the trick - rich and deep color. It rained and I wasn't able to hang them...next time.
4 comments:
Chris, are you painting both sides and edges? What's your method...paint one side and edges, let dry, then flip and paint opposite side?
I didn't paint both sides. Yikes. I hope you're not going to tell me that I should. (I did paint the edges.) The Hardipanel is primed, and it'll be sitting flush against the sheathing; I'll have rubber furring strips at the seams that should keep the water out. Any reason to paint the back side?
Nah, sorry to worry you..especially not necessary on a shed. I didn't realize you are installing against wall sheathing. What are the rubber furring strips you are using?
Yeah, I was going to simply fasten the squares to the studs, but I realized that the sheathing would help with the lateral stability (and it did a lot) and that I could keep more bugs out. The rubber strips are pretty basic EPDM - I have a bunch left over from when I installed the Cembonit panels (you can see that here). It came from the Cembonit folks...
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