I was wondering about some siding choices for ICF.

I am considering using certianteed fiber cement board, but am not sure on the installation. I want to use ring shank nails but my carpenter says they tend to blow the siding apart, I don't think roofing nails will hold in the ties. I was going to ring nail 7/16 plywood straping to the ties and nail the siding to that with roofers. A lot of work to be sure.

Any suggestions?

Having attached alot of fibercement siding to ICFs it is my professional opinion that the best method is to use screws. I purchase a stainless buglehead from McFeeleys that has a builtin spur on the back side of the head to facilitate seating of the screw in the siding. The head of the screw must be flush with the siding since this is a blind nailing situation. I would advise against any ring shank nail being used in an ICF stud. You will only make a bigger hole and unlike wood the plastic web will not swell back against the rings. My experience with nails into the plastic studs is that the smaller the shank the better the holding power. Be very careful with certainteed cement board. It is much harder than Hardie and you will find it very easy to "blow out a rather large chunk" with a roofing nail, especially since the ICf provides no "rigid" backing to help prevent blowout. Can the plywood strapping and spend the extra on a good screw.

I used Hardiplank. Don't know how it compares w/ Certainteed, but I'd sure follow up on the comments about it being harder.

Blowouts were no problem at all with nails. I used Buildblock forms which have a reinforced area in the web every 8" vertically. I used 9 1/4" Hardiplank w/ 8" exposure. We nailed the plank using spiral siding nails in a coil nailer. I blind nailed the plank with a nail into the reinforced area of every web, 6" spacing. The spiral nails go into, and hold, in the plastic of the web a lot better than ring shank. I pulled out some RS from a web. What I found is the rings fill up with plastic, effectively leaving you with a smooth shank nail. All indications are the siding is on for the count. I don't see any indications of looseness, or of wind pulling it out. Contrary to Kent's comment about screws needing to be flush, James Hardie installation instructions call for the nail head to be snug, not flush, even for blind nailing. This is what I did. The nail head thickness creates a thin ventilation gap between planks.

Here's a pre-Christmas pic of what it looks like.

Screw on the siding, it is little, if any more work.

Grabber makes a Hardi-Plank screw, self driving tip, great for ICF, comes 1 5/8 and 2 1/4. 1 5/8 should be fine.

Have you sheet metal contractor bend some 20g metal 12"x12" for all the corners on the building, attach it to the webs and this will allow you to screw on the corners and the siding to the corner areas.

Certainteed you will find is a little more dense than Hardi, not as forgiving, Don't use Hardi 1x for the corners or window/door details, very brittle, I suggest 1x Advantage.

L P smart side is a much better product. Check it out.

Give us a link please

http://www.lpcorp.com/sidingtrim/lpsmartside/lpsmartside.aspx

We have discussed this quite a few times, and many of us have what we believe are the best way, which is why the screw/don't screw debate goes on!

I installed the first HardiPlank 7" exposure on ICFs in CT back in 96 on my own home. At that time, Hardi recommended using a RS roofer blindnailed so the large head would provide extra holding power. I have never had any issues with my house, and thru the years Hardi relaxed some of their instructions to the point of using rs siding nails for ICFs. Blow-outs have not been noticed by me on Hardi, I do not know about the certainteed product!

Since then, I have always used the hardi with a 4"-5" exposure continuing to blimd nail it with hot dipped rs siding nails, not the electro-galv crap nails.

There are 122 pages of info here, there is also a search function to find out more!

We built a house a few years ago in which the owner decided not to go with an ICF garage just the house. Well unfortunately he had a fire in his garage a few weeks ago that burnt the entire garage and the fire spread up into the roof trusses.
The owner also installed the hardi board siding himself and against our recommendation he nailed it on. I have always heard the biggest concern about nailing is vibration. Well I watched the fire hoses spray this siding for literally 4 hours and not one piece fell off or even came loose. I just started to put hardi on my own house and ring shank nails it is.