I will be siding a new addition in the Hardiplank cement siding. I haven't found a good starter board before I start my first course.
When I did the cedar part which is on the old section of the house, I used a 1x 8" wide pine board. But the foundation there is nearly 3 feet off the ground, so I'm not worried about the soft pine.
Due to the way we wanted to add a ramp from garage to addition to old house, the foundation on the addition is only about 8 inches from the ground. So as an added deterent to ants and termites, I don't want to start with a soft pine board. Would it be reasonable to just start with a nearly full Hardiplank in other words a nearly full reveal on the first board so I just have the 1st course overlapping it by about a 1/4 inch or maybe double up and use two of the Hardiplank siding boards as the first starter and caulk the heck out of the seam between them? I want to stay with a wide first board to match the rest of the old house which is a 20"s federal at this point (it was a 1860's Italiate originally, but all vestiages of that are gone).
I haven't been able to find any real wide cement boards, nor any cedar ones locally at least.
All thoughts appreciate, if replying by email, please remove nospam.
Thanks.