I am putting on new siding and considering either Hardie Plank or LP Smartside and Trim
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| Posted in Energy Efficiency and Durability on
Which performs better,and which is better long term? And what kind of wrap goes under the siding chosen? Are Styrofoam sheets good performance compared to Tyvek or install both Styrofoam and Tyvek over it? Thank you very much,
Kind regards, Kay
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Replies
Kay,
Louisiana-Pacific's SmartSide siding is made from wood fibers and resin. It's a type of OSB. SmartSide was developed to replace Inner-Seal siding (also made from OSB), an LP product with a large number of failures that ended up in court.
I'm not aware of any complaints or failure reports for SmartSide.
When you ask about a wrap, I assume you are talking about a water-resistive barrier (WRB). There are a wide number of WRB products that work well. Here is more information: All About Water-Resistive Barriers.
Styrofoam is a brand name for a type of rigid foam insulation called extruded polystyrene (XPS). Most people install exterior rigid foam because of its insulating value, but in some cases it can also be used as a WRB. For more information, see:
How to Install Rigid Foam Sheathing and
Using Rigid Foam As a Water-Resistive Barrier.