Naperville homes with cracked siding get help from James Hardie to fix issues as they sue developer

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (WLS) -- The four Naperville homeowners who reached out to the I-Team about cracked siding on their relatively new homes are getting brand new siding from a company that had nothing to do with the problem, but wanted to help.

Some homeowners are also now filing a lawsuit against the developer.

Fiber cement siding is supposed to last 50 years.

"I'm so, so relieved!" said homeowner John Furth. "I mean it looks beautiful, the house, the siding is brightened up. There's no loose panels, there's no cracks."

After the I-Team's first report aired, James Hardie, a fiber cement siding company that had nothing to do with the problem, supplied the four homeowners with free siding.

"It just makes me smile now," Furth said.

"These are entities that had nothing to do with the problem that have stepped up and helped us out," said neighbor Aravind Raman.

"We are based out of downtown Chicago, this is our community and our city, so for us it was so important that we reach out to these homeowners even though this is not our problem, this is not our product. It was a competitor product," said Atousa Ghoreichi, senior vice president of Marketing, Communications and Public Relations at James Hardie.

"They should be able to have a home that the exterior is beautiful as they want it to be, with the durability and protection that they deserve," said Chad Fredericksen, vice president of the professional channel for James Hardie.

James Hardie also connected the homeowners to a local contractor, Style Exteriors, who is installing the siding at a significantly reduced cost.

"We've worked with the homeowners, we've worked with James Hardie; it's a great partnership that we have there to control those costs," said Patrick McGowan, vice president of Style Exteriors.

So how did relatively new siding suddenly start cracking? Oak Hill Builders and Developers, Inc., who constructed the homes, blamed the fiber cement siding manufacturer Allura, saying homeowners could file a claim with a class action lawsuit and settlement about cracked siding against that siding company. However, homeowners and their attorney said their specific brand of Allura didn't qualify for the settlement.

In a letter to a homeowner, Allura blamed the developer, saying the cracks "were not determined to be product related" and were due to "installation deviations."

Since all of the homes are out of warranty, the developer then said it would only replace siding at cost, without profit or mark-up. But that bill would have been roughly $55,000. Homeowners said that would cost too much, and are grateful for the other companies coming forward.

In updated statements, Oak Hill Builders said that "nothing was done improperly with the siding selections and/or installations on the homes" and that it "has been in business for over 25 years and has always stood behind the quality of the materials and the workmanship of their custom-built homes."

Oak Hill Builders also recently offered "to pay each homeowner $15,000 with no strings attached, towards installation of the replacement siding."

But the four homeowners who reached out to the I-Team said they are not taking the $15,000 because it is not enough to cover costs. Those homeowners recently filed a joint lawsuit and are seeking more money. They also said the initial building contract states that their homes would be built with James Hardie fiber cement siding, not the other brand they received.

"The siding that we had on our house was not what we thought it would be and it was not a Hardie product. But now we have a Hardie product and we're very happy to have it on there," Furth said.

The developer responded to the homeowners' lawsuit saying, "In all cases, the siding material previously used was consistent with contract specifications and was competitive material of equal or greater cost than James Hardie siding material."

The I-Team has also learned that there are more homeowners dealing with the cracking issue. In its new statement, Oak Hill Builders said there were in fact eight homes affected but that nothing was done wrong with the construction of them.

Spokespeople at unrelated siding company James Hardie said other homeowners can also reach out to them and they will see if they can help at some level.