James Hardie: The Right Siding for Texas
If you're going to put new siding on a Central Texas home, James Hardie fiber cement is the material that makes the most sense. We install Hardie siding across Austin, San Antonio, San Marcos, New Braunfels, Lockhart, Buda, Kyle, Wimberley, Seguin, Schertz, Cibolo, and the small towns and rural properties throughout Hays, Caldwell, Comal, and Guadalupe counties. After watching what holds up in our climate and what doesn't, Hardie has earned its reputation as the gold standard — and as a contractor that takes its work seriously, it's the only fiber cement we install.
Fiber cement is a composite of Portland cement, sand, cellulose fibers, and water. It looks like wood from a few feet away, but it doesn't burn, doesn't rot, doesn't get eaten by termites or carpenter ants, doesn't expand and contract dramatically with humidity, and doesn't fade out of its color in three summers the way some vinyl does. That last point matters a lot in Central Texas, where UV exposure punishes painted surfaces in a way that's hard to appreciate until you've watched it happen to your own house.
The Hardie Product Line
HardiePlank Lap Siding
The most popular Hardie product and probably the one you've seen on most new construction in Central Texas over the last 15 years. Horizontal lap siding boards in widths from 5.25 inches up to 12 inches, available in smooth, Cedarmill (wood-grain texture), Beaded, or Colonial Smooth profiles. HardiePlank is the workhorse of the line and looks great on almost any home style — traditional, transitional, farmhouse, ranch, or modern.
HardiePanel Vertical Siding
Large vertical sheets used on their own or combined with battens to create board-and-batten styling. Board-and-batten has become extremely popular in Central Texas farmhouse and modern-rustic builds, and HardiePanel with HardieTrim battens delivers the look with all the durability of fiber cement. We install it as full-house siding or as accent gables paired with HardiePlank on the field walls.
HardieShingle Siding
Cedar-shake-style siding panels with the look of individual shingles. Most often used as accent siding on gables, dormers, and entry features rather than full-house siding. Adds visual texture and a distinctive look to homes that need a focal point.
HardieTrim & HardieSoffit
The trim, fascia, and soffit components that complete the system. Hardie trim around windows, doors, corners, and bands lets the entire exterior — not just the field siding — match in material and durability. HardieSoffit handles eave undersides and porch ceilings without the rot problems wood soffits develop in our humidity.
ColorPlus Technology vs. Field-Painted
Hardie siding comes in two finish options. Primed Hardie ships with a factory primer and is painted on-site after installation in any color you want. ColorPlus Technology siding ships with a factory-baked color finish in a wide range of curated colors, applied in a controlled environment for far better durability and uniformity than any field paint job. ColorPlus comes with a 15-year limited finish warranty and resists fading dramatically better than field-painted alternatives in Texas sun. We recommend ColorPlus for almost every project unless you need a very specific custom color.
Why Hardie Holds Up in Central Texas
Three things wreck siding in this region. First, sun. Our UV exposure is brutal nine months a year, and it accelerates fading and surface degradation on every painted material. Hardie ColorPlus is engineered specifically to resist UV damage. Second, hail and wind-blown debris. Vinyl siding cracks. Wood splits. Hardie shrugs off impacts that would total other materials. Third, fire. Texas wildfire risk is real, especially west of I-35 and into the Hill Country, and Hardie is non-combustible — it carries a Class A fire rating, the highest available, and many insurers offer discounts for fiber cement exteriors.
On top of those climate factors, Hardie handles the freeze-thaw cycles we now have to design for, doesn't host mold the way wood can in our humid summers, and doesn't get eaten by the termites that thrive in Central Texas soil.
Installation Done to Hardie Specification
Hardie siding is forgiving of climate, but it is not forgiving of bad installation. The board must be the correct distance from the roof, from the ground, from horizontal surfaces, and from masonry. Fasteners must be the right type, the right length, and driven to the right depth — not overdriven, not underdriven. Joints must be flashed properly. Trim returns must be detailed correctly. We install to Hardie specifications because that's the only way to qualify for the full warranty and the only way to get the service life Hardie is capable of delivering. We've seen too many bad Hardie installs in our area to take any of those details casually.
Hardie Plus Roof Plus Gutters
We're a roofing company that does siding and gutters, which means we can handle the whole exterior envelope of your home as a single coordinated project. Roof, siding, gutters, fascia, soffit, drip edge, and trim — all installed by the same crew working off the same plan, with all the flashing intersections handled correctly because the same people are doing both sides of every joint. That coordination matters more than people realize, and it's a real reason to consider doing exterior projects together rather than one at a time.
Color samples on-site: Hardie ColorPlus offers a curated palette of more than 20 colors. We bring physical sample boards to every estimate so you can see how each color looks against your existing brick, stone, roof, and trim in real Texas sunlight.