I'm looking for suggestions or recommendations for replacement siding. I am looking for clapboard appearance with 4" exposure. It looks like my options are -

wood
engineered wood
fibrous cement

All seem to have their positives and their negatives. I need to consider costs (material and labor), appearance, maintenance and longevity.

 

Lp smartside has 6" siding with a recommended 4 7/8" exposure. Since these are not tapered (beveled) you would need to rip the siding, running it through a table saw, to get a exposure like 4".
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I went to their web site and was surprised that their lap siding isn't sized to replicate what is the most common clapboard exposure in the North East. I walked past a couple of dozen houses this morning and all had 4" exposure. Of course they were all wood clapboards.

I'm still trying to find some one that has, or has installed, fibrous cement. I heard that it has high labor costs.

 

I used to be a big fan of fiber cement, but nowadays I prefer LP Smartside. You will have the same problem with fiber cement... you could use it, but you'd still need to rip it all to size. And I wouldn't want to be the guy who had to rip it all.

 

HardiePlank lap siding is available in 4" exposure in a couple of their lines. I've never worked with it and have been reading about how difficult it is to work with primarily because of the weight yet the specs show that the stuff weighs just over 2 lbs/sf.

That's why I'm here. There is so much BS on line that it's hard to make an informed (and expensive) decision.

 

I replaced the siding last year on one of my houses. I ended up making my own clapboard siding out of Eastern Hemlock which had a 6 inch reveal.

I liked it.

The sawing went pretty quick, and I was getting 25 pieces of clapboard per log on average, which was a lot of siding for very little trees harvested, and it went up really fast since I used 10 foot long logs. Putting up siding that covers 6 inches to the weather, 10 feet long really covers a house in a hurry!

With either shingles or clapboards, you get some cupping with 6 inches to the weather (instead of 4 inches) but it goes on faster, saves 1/3 the cost, and is divisible nicely (unlike say 5 inches to the weather). But as with everything, that is your call.