Smooth Hardie Trim or Roughsawn? Selecting the right Hardie Trim for your project.

Typically used at corners and around windows/doors, Hardie Trim is our standard when installing trim on a Hardie siding project. And in Edmonton, when you’re using Hardie Trim - that usually means a smooth textured finish. The only option available when Hardie introduced their current trim product (named NT3) to the market in 2010, Smooth Hardie Trim provides clean lines and a gorgeous contrast from the textured, woodgrain siding we butt against it.

Smooth Hardie Trim installed with Hardie’s 8.25” Cedarmill Lap Siding

While we’ve always enjoyed working with smooth Hardie Trim, and our clients definitely like the finish - it isn’t without challenges. A smooth finish will show imperfections in both the product and the installation much easier than a textured product, and there are competitive options. And while there are ways to mitigate those issues (check out the section on trim tabs in this blog post if you’re interested to learn more), lots of installers don’t want to take the time or cost to install smooth trim properly. So depending on your contractor, your “Hardie” siding project might include engineered wood as the trim product without you being informed.

So Hardie worked to develop a version of NT3 that retained it’s flexibility and durability while adding a woodgrain texture. And in 2015, they launched their Roughsawn finish, a rustic, deep woodgrain designed to better hide nail heads and mimic the look of wood.

Roughsawn Hardie Trim installed Hardie’s 8.25” Cedarmill Lap Siding

With the same durability and price point as Hardie’s smooth trim and the texture contractors were asking for, we all expected Roughsawn Trim to dominate the market, and to some extent it did. In Calgary specifically, where contractors locally were more inclined to use alternative woodgrained trim products than in Edmonton, the adoption was swift. Local suppliers moved out their remaining inventory of smooth Hardie Trim and have stocked woodgrain ever since. In Edmonton, things played out a bit differently.

Local suppliers were hesitant to make the switch (adoption of Hardie Trim in a smooth finish was reasonably good, even if some contractors did prefer engineered wood), and most contractors never pushed their builders to make or allow a change. As such, 11 years later, smooth trim is still the standard here. Of the 100s of Hardie siding renovations we’ve completed in Edmonton, we’ve done about a dozen Roughsawn projects, and that’s about a dozen more than any other contractor locally.

Thankfully, when a client does prefer the Roughsawn finish (which we do have on display for your convenience at our showroom), it is relatively easy to get access to. Our Edmonton Hardie suppliers all have Calgary branches, so we can typically get the trims up in a couple of days if needed. You’d have a harder time finding a couple pieces if you ran short in a pinch, but that’s really up to your contractor to manage.

Despite having access to both, Edmonton does seem to prefer the contrast of a smooth trim with a woodgrain siding. While we quote smooth trim as our standard, we try to show the difference to any clients considering Hardie trim in our showroom, and the preference for smooth is the norm. But if you do like the look of the roughsawn trim, or simply want to compare the two, let us know!