Ferndale Siding An Honest Answer to a Question We Get a Lot
Homeowners in Ferndale and around Whatcom County ask us fairly often why we don't offer LP SmartSide. It's a legitimate question — SmartSide is a well-known engineered wood siding product, it's less expensive than fiber cement, and plenty of contractors install it. We've looked at it closely, and we made a deliberate decision not to. This page explains why, without exaggerating anything about the product itself.
What LP SmartSide Actually Is
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood product — strand-based substrate treated with resins and zinc borate for insect and fungal resistance, then coated with a primer or factory finish. It's lighter than fiber cement, easier to cut, and generally costs less installed. For dry inland climates, or on projects with a tight budget, it can be a reasonable choice when installed and maintained correctly. We're not going to pretend otherwise.
Why We Don't Install It Here
Our reservations aren't about the product being poorly made. They're about how it performs over the long run in this specific climate — and about the installation discipline required to keep it performing well.
It's Still Wood at the Core
Engineered or not, SmartSide's substrate is wood strand. Wood swells, wicks moisture along cut edges, and is vulnerable wherever the factory coating is breached — a saw cut, a nail hole, a scratch during handling. Fiber cement doesn't have that vulnerability because there's no wood fiber to absorb water in the first place.
Ferndale's Climate Is Exactly the Wrong Test Case
Whatcom County sits right up against Bellingham Bay and the Strait of Georgia, which means homes here deal with salt-laden air, long stretches of driving rain off the water, and a moss season that can run most of the year on shaded elevations. That combination is hard on any siding, but it's particularly unforgiving toward a wood-based product:
- Salt air accelerates the breakdown of coatings and sealants faster than it does in drier inland regions.
- Driving rain pushes moisture into laps, corners, and butt joints — exactly the spots where cut edges on engineered wood siding are most exposed.
- Extended moss and algae growth holds moisture against the siding surface for weeks at a time, which is a problem for a wood-based product in a way it simply isn't for fiber cement.
None of this means SmartSide will fail on every home. It means the margin for error is thin, and the maintenance burden to keep that margin from closing is real.
Maintenance and Sealing Never Really Stop
To keep engineered wood siding performing, every cut edge, seam, and joint has to be properly primed and caulked at install, and that caulking has to be inspected and refreshed on a schedule for the life of the siding. Skip a cycle, or miss a spot during install, and you've created a place for water to sit against exposed wood strand. In a wetter coastal climate like ours, that's not a hypothetical — it's a maintenance commitment homeowners have to actually keep up with, year after year.
Warranty Terms Reflect the Risk
Engineered wood siding manufacturers generally structure their warranties around proper installation and ongoing maintenance being documented — which is reasonable from their side, but it puts more of the long-term risk on the homeowner and installer than we're comfortable carrying on a product that's already more moisture-sensitive by nature.
What We Install Instead — And Why
We install James Hardie fiber cement exclusively. It's a mix of cement, sand, and cellulose fiber — non-combustible, dimensionally stable, and it doesn't absorb and release moisture the way wood-based products do. Hardie's HZ5 formulation is engineered specifically for the wetter, harsher climates of the Pacific Northwest, which matters directly for a coastal Whatcom County property.
Hardie's ColorPlus factory finish is baked on under controlled conditions, which gives it better fade and chip resistance than a field-applied or shop-primed coating, and it comes with a substantial transferable warranty. Because the substrate itself isn't wood, cut edges and joints are far more forgiving if a homeowner's maintenance schedule slips a year here or there — which, realistically, happens.
Our Standard Isn't About Selling You Something Pricier
We understand fiber cement costs more upfront than engineered wood. We standardized on Hardie because we're the ones who get the call five, ten, fifteen years later, and we'd rather build a reputation on siding that holds up against salt air and driving rain than on a lower bid today. That's a standard we apply to every home we work on, not just the ones with obvious water exposure.
If you're planning a siding project in Ferndale or anywhere in Whatcom County and want a straight answer about what will actually hold up on your home, we're happy to take a look and talk through it. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — there's no obligation, and we'll give you our honest read on your specific property.