Cutting hardibacker

[James Hart]

The guy at Home Depot told me i could cut Hardibacker concrete board with a utility knife. It's not going well.

Is there a jigsaw blade that would work well for this?

Thanks,

Jim

[David Christopher]

James, I bought a cheap masonry blade for my circular saw and it cut like butter

[Greg Carr]

I have always used a scoring tool available in the tile tool area of the big box stores. It is the same tool you use for concrete backer board. It has a small carbide tip like the tip on a circular saw blade. For straight cuts you can score lines on both sides using the scoring tool and a strait edge and then snap it along the line. For curves I used a Remington abrasive grit jigsaw blade. You can also get abrasive grit hole saws. I don't think a utility knife would cut it :D. Good luck.

Greg

[Ray McGrath]

I've always used a utility knife to score, and then break concrete board.
after scoring break with pressure on opposite side from score.

Ray

[Steve Jenkins]

When I put the hardiboard on my house i had a lot of curves to cut and i got a carborundum blade for my jigsaw. It doesn't have "teeth" just carborundum powder/chips adhered to the blade. It works great. I'm not sure if you can get them at the depot or not. I bought mine where I buy my sawblades and have sharpening done. For straight cuts I gave up on the circular saw blades designed for cement board and bought a dry cut diamond blade for my circular saw. the others though cheaper got dull pretty fast and the diamond one was only about 40 bucks and is still going strong after the hardiboard, landscape blocks, and flagstone.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

One of my guys has a tool that is very handy for cutting hardiboard or hardibacker....Porter Cable shears....they look like a drill until the very end, then a pair of what seem to be very dull scissors. You can cut curves and straight lines all day with it.

[Paul Girouard]

Grinder with a abrasive wheel. Dusty , work up wind or wear a dust mask , or both.

[Mark Berenbrok]

Use a steel square and a utility knife and score both sides 3 or 4 times using moderate pressure. It'll snap fairly cleanly. I did my storage shed last summer and although it was tedious, it was alot cleaner than trying to cut the stuff with a saw. That stuff will put up a small cloud of dust when you saw it.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I have always used a scoring tool that has a carbide tip on it. Score each side a time or two and snap.

[James Stokes]

I use a grinder with a diamond blde on it. The shears talked about earlier are the best thing but they are rather expensive for just 1 or 2 tile jobs.

[Jason White]

Hitachi makes a set of jigsaw blades for cutting cement board. I've used them and they're pretty good. Got them on Amazon, I think.

Jason




The guy at Home Depot told me i could cut Hardibacker concrete board with a utility knife. It's not going well.

Is there a jigsaw blade that would work well for this?

Thanks,

Jim

[frank shic]

i've heard a home depot employee tell a customer, "to make a cutout, you just score a circle with the scoring tool, make an 'x' and then just tap it." obviously he's NEVER done it himself lol. the special jigsaw blade will work especially well when you have to make narrow cuts and won't have enough material to make an easy manual snap. consider using schluter ditra in the future. one roll will cover as much surface area as several sheets of hardibacker and it's much easier to carry and lay down as well - no screws needed! of course i realized this only after tiling our bathrooms and kitchen...

[C Scott McDonald]

Do you guys put in blocking around the edges of the hardi board? I thought I read it cannot have unsupported edges. They might be talking about something different too for that matter.

Scott

[Ken Fitzgerald]

i've heard a home depot employee tell a customer, "to make a cutout, you just score a circle with the scoring tool, make an 'x' and then just tap it." obviously he's NEVER done it himself lol. the special jigsaw blade will work especially well when you have to make narrow cuts and won't have enough material to make an easy manual snap. consider using schluter ditra in the future. one roll will cover as much surface area as several sheets of hardibacker and it's much easier to carry and lay down as well - no screws needed! of course i realized this only after tiling our bathrooms and kitchen...

Frank,

That is exactly how I put a hole in mine for the shower control valve assembly. I did score in on both sides.

[Harold Shay]

I completely sided my house with 5' LAP siding. The hardie is great product. I used a circular saw with a cheap carbide blade $7 ea. did not use any edging and it is holding great.

[Zach England]

roto zip :)

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
+1 on the Roto -Zip.

[Bob Lloyd]

James

A carbide tipped scoring tool is made for that, works great and much less dust than cutting with a power tool and costs about $10. Lowes or Home Depot should have them.

Bob

[matt swiderski]

I've used both the carbide scoring tool and an angle grinder. If your not cutting too much then the carbide scoring tool works great, but if cutting a lot of boards then your hands can get tired (the scoring tool I used didn't have a very large handle). The angle grinder created alot of dust, so if you use one, or any power tools, make sure to wear a mask. Hope this helps.

[Rich Tesoroni]

Hitachi hardiboard blade from Amazon too.

This is an outdoor project on a windy day. I've never seen such a cloud of dust.

Rich

[James Hart]

Thanks for all the help.

I wound up using the carbide scoring tool. It worked pretty well. I only trashed one board when it didn't snap cleanly along the score.

I did use a fortified thinset mortar and fiberglass seam tape where the boards met. Probably a little overkill, but I didn't want to wind up pulling it out.

Jim

[Gary Curtis]

The contractor and crew that built my new house used a Marathon-brand blade in skillsaws. Be sure to wear a dust mask.

Gary Curtis
Northern California