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Anybody who’s ever
installed fiber-cement siding knows what a challenge it
is-and knows it’s not a product you can install alone.
That’s why Mike Walda, a carpenter and now president of
Bear Cub Industries, invented the Bear Clip-a little
piece of plastic that’s revolutionizing the installation
of fiber-cement siding. “I have feedback from Habitat
for Humanity in Orlando, which uses everybody from
college kids to doctors and attorneys and people who’ve
never swung a hammer to build houses,” says Walda, who
launched the company in August, 2005. “We sided a
little 1,200 sq. ft. house in five hours with
inexperienced labor-and all the corners were straight.
We didn’t have to take down one piece of siding when it
was done.”
The Bear Clip
takes the challenge out of installing fiber cement, says
Wald. The clip hooks onto the top edge of each row and
supports the board above-level, hands-free, and at an
exact 1 1/4 in. overlap while the installer nails it in
place. After the board is nailed, the exposed portion
of the clip snaps off at an engineered fracture point,
leaving the hidden portion behind the siding. If a
starter strip is level, the clip-manufactured to a
.002-in. tolerance-will hold the siding perfectly level
too. Bear Clips come in various depths to accommodate
various siding thicknesses.
In its first six
months, according to Walda, the Bear Clip won
distributors and caught on throughout the United States,
Canada, New Zealand and Australia. “The first of this
past July we went into Lowe’s, which usually give you 25
stores for a test market,” Walda says. “They gave us
197 stores. In the first week sales were $800; $3,000
the third week, and the fourth week was $15,000. We’ve
sold almost a quarter million dollars in product so far
this year.”
Next up for Bear
Cub is Bear Skin-a plastic sheet for use as a joint
flashing behind every butt joint in the siding.
Scheduled to be available by the end of October, the
product is a proprietary plastic, 20-year UV-rated sheet
4 ml thick that is “basically a six by twelve Post-it
Note,” Walda says. “You just peel and stick.” Builders
have been cutting Tyvek and flypaper to put behind the
siding. “Why would you put a 120-day UV-rated product
behind 50-year-warranted siding? Ours is rated 20
years.”
Both products help
builders lower costs, says Walda. “There are only two
ways to lower your costs – one is to increase
productivity; the other is to decrease labor costs. We
do both.”
“A typical job you
can put up five or six squares a day,” he adds. “You
immediately go the eight squares a day with our
product. And your $10-an-hour carpenter can do ‘clip,
board, nail; clip, board, nail, decreasing your labor
costs.”
Bear Skin was
scheduled to be available by the end of October with
distribution in the Eastern U.S., Midwest, West and
Southwest.
LBM Journal, November, 2006 |
