Burlington Blanchard Homes Sit Between Two Weather Problems
Blanchard doesn't get talked about as its own market very often — it's a small, mostly rural community tucked at the base of the Chuckanut foothills, close enough to Samish Bay to pick up salt air off the water, and wooded enough on most lots to keep large sections of a house in shade for much of the day. That combination is unusual. Most homes deal with either coastal exposure or heavy tree cover, not both at once. Homes here get both, and the siding has to handle whatever each side of the house is exposed to.
This page is specifically about siding installation for homes in and around Blanchard — new work and full re-siding, not spot repair — and what a correct job looks like given the specific mix of conditions this area sits in. We install James Hardie fiber cement exclusively, and everything below is written around that system, since it's the only product line we install to spec on homes here.
What Blanchard's Climate Actually Does to a Wall
Salt Air Off Samish Bay
Being close to Samish Bay means Blanchard homes take on salt-laden air as a routine condition rather than an occasional one, especially on lots with more open exposure toward the water. Salt air accelerates corrosion on exposed fasteners, flashing, and trim hardware over time. It's a slow process — nobody notices it happening — but it shows up eventually as rust streaking at nail heads or trim edges, and it shows up faster on hardware that wasn't rated for the exposure in the first place.
Driving Rain From Pacific Storm Fronts
Storms moving through this part of Skagit County tend to bring rain with real wind behind it, which pushes water sideways into panel joints, window flashing, and trim seams instead of letting it run straight down a wall. On a well-built wall assembly this doesn't matter much — the water-resistive barrier underneath the siding sheds it before it reaches the sheathing. On a wall where that barrier was rushed, taped poorly, or lapped in the wrong direction, wind-driven rain finds the gap.
A Moss Season Extended by Tree Cover
This is the part that sets Blanchard apart from a lot of nearby towns. Rural, wooded lots near the Chuckanut foothills keep entire wall faces in shade for long stretches, especially on north- and east-facing walls tucked under fir or cedar canopy. Shade slows drying time after every rain, and a wall that stays damp longer grows moss and mildew faster than one that gets regular sun exposure. Homes on more open, cleared lots closer to the water don't have this problem nearly as badly — it's specifically the tree-covered properties where installation detail around drainage and airflow matters most.
What a Correct James Hardie Installation Actually Involves
Fastening and Spacing
James Hardie publishes exact fastener type, spacing, and placement requirements, and those specs vary by product line and by how exposed a given wall is. Following that spec fully — not a shortcut version of it — is what keeps panels secure through wind events off the bay and is also what keeps the manufacturer's warranty valid if a problem shows up later.
Clearance Above Grade, Roofline, and Ground Cover
Hardie specifies minimum clearance between the bottom of the siding and grade, roofing, decks, and other horizontal surfaces. On rural lots that clearance matters for an extra reason beyond the usual splash-back concern: ground cover, mulch beds, and undergrowth common on wooded properties tend to build up against a foundation over the years in a way that manicured suburban lots don't, and siding installed without enough clearance to begin with loses that margin faster.
Flashing and Sealant at Every Penetration
Windows, doors, hose bibs, vents, and any fixture that interrupts the siding plane is a place water can work behind the cladding if it's flashed incorrectly. This is the slowest, least visible part of an installation — it's also the part that decides whether a wall stays dry behind the siding for decades or starts trapping moisture within a few wet seasons.
Field-Cut Edges
Any panel cut on site — around a window, at a corner, at the end of a run — needs to be sealed or primed per Hardie's specification before it goes up. An unsealed cut edge is one of the more common places fiber cement actually takes on water, and it has nothing to do with a flaw in the material — it's a step that got skipped in the field.
Drainage Gap and Airflow Behind the Siding
On shaded, wooded lots this detail matters more than almost anywhere else in the job. A rainscreen or drainage-plane gap behind the siding gives a wall the chance to dry out between wet spells instead of staying damp continuously. Skip it, or install panels tight against the barrier with no gap, and a shaded north wall can stay damp for days after every storm — exactly the condition moss and mildew need to take hold.
Installation Shortcuts and How They Fail on a Blanchard Home
| Shortcut | What it looks like on install day | How it shows up later here |
|---|---|---|
| Standard fasteners instead of corrosion-resistant hardware | No visible difference | Rust streaking and loosened trim within a few years, worse on bay-facing walls |
| Skipped clearance at grade or ground cover | Siding looks flush and tidy | Wicking, softness, and paint failure at the bottom courses as ground cover builds up over time |
| No drainage gap behind the siding | Appears well-fitted, looks fine | Chronic dampness and persistent moss on shaded, tree-covered walls |
| Rushed flashing at windows and doors | Looks sealed from the outside | Hidden moisture intrusion, often not caught until interior staining shows up |
| Unsealed field-cut edges | Cuts look clean and painted | Localized swelling or delamination at the cut, especially on rain-exposed walls |
How We Handle an Installation, Step by Step
Site and Exposure Walk
Before anything is priced, we walk each wall of the house and note how it's actually exposed — which faces catch wind and salt air with a clearer line to the water, which sit under heavy tree canopy and stay shaded most of the day, and where existing moss buildup or soft trim suggests a chronic moisture issue rather than a one-time problem.
Tear-Off and Sheathing Inspection
Old siding comes off and the sheathing underneath gets checked before anything new goes up. Installing new siding over damaged sheathing just hides a problem that will eventually resurface; we'd rather find and address soft spots or rot at this stage, even if it adds a step to the schedule.
Weather Barrier and Drainage Plane
The water-resistive barrier goes on with correct overlap and taped seams at every joint and penetration, and a drainage gap is built in behind the siding — especially on the shaded walls where this matters most. This layer is completely hidden once the job is done, but it's doing most of the real work of keeping the wall assembly dry.
Siding Installation to Manufacturer Spec
Panels go up following Hardie's fastening, spacing, and clearance requirements as the baseline, not as something applied loosely. Field cuts are sealed as they're made, not batched and finished at the end of the day.
Final Walkthrough
We walk the finished job with the homeowner, confirm the work matches the estimate, and go over what basic seasonal maintenance looks like for a house with this specific mix of shade and coastal exposure.
New Construction vs. Re-Siding an Existing Blanchard Home
New construction and re-siding an older home are related jobs with real differences. On new construction, siding goes onto fresh sheathing and a new water-resistive barrier — there's no guesswork about what's behind the wall, though the same attention to sun and shade exposure per wall still applies from day one. Re-siding an existing home means tear-off first, and an honest look at what the original construction left behind. On some of the older rural homes in this area, that can mean discovering clearance that was never adequate, flashing that was skipped around an added deck or porch, or a wall that's been trapping moisture under old siding for years without anyone knowing until it comes off. Both approaches require the same attention to spec; re-siding just adds a discovery phase new construction skips.
Timeline and Cost Factors for a Blanchard Installation
Every estimate is specific to the house, but a handful of factors consistently move both timeline and price on a project out here:
| Factor | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Square footage and number of stories | More area and height mean more labor and, on taller walls, more staging equipment |
| Lot access and site clearing | Wooded, rural lots can require more room to stage material and equipment than a cleared suburban lot |
| Sheathing condition underneath old siding | Rot or water damage found during tear-off adds repair scope before new siding can go up |
| Exposure to wind, water, and tree canopy | Bay-facing walls and heavily shaded walls each warrant different flashing and drainage attention |
| Product line and finish selection | James Hardie offers multiple panel styles, textures, and ColorPlus finishes at different price points |
Weather windows matter here too. Wind off the bay can shut down safe staging and panel handling on days that would otherwise be workable further inland, and heavy tree cover means some lots hold onto wet ground longer after a storm than an open lot would. We build some flexibility into project timelines rather than promising a fixed date that a bad stretch of weather is likely to break.
A Checklist for a Correct Installation
Whether you're evaluating our work or getting a second opinion from another contractor, these are reasonable things to confirm before a siding installation on a Blanchard home is considered done:
- Fasteners and hardware rated for coastal exposure, not standard-grade material, especially on water-facing walls
- Documented clearance between the bottom of the siding and grade, ground cover, decks, and roofing
- A drainage gap or rainscreen detail behind the siding on shaded, tree-covered wall faces
- Flashing visible and properly lapped at every window, door, and wall penetration before siding covers it
- All field-cut edges sealed or primed, not left raw
- A continuous, properly lapped water-resistive barrier underneath the siding
- Installation that follows the manufacturer's published fastening and spacing spec, not a generalized approach
- A final walkthrough where the contractor explains what was done, not just a final invoice
Why a Crew That Already Works in Blanchard Matters
Installation quality on paper and installation quality in practice aren't the same thing, and the gap shows up fastest on a property with two competing exposure problems instead of one. A crew that regularly works homes with this mix of salt air and heavy shade makes different calls than a crew installing here occasionally between jobs elsewhere — where a drainage gap is worth the extra step, which fastener spec actually holds up on a bay-facing wall, and which wall on a wooded lot needs the closest attention even though it's the one that looks least urgent. That judgment only comes from doing this specific kind of work repeatedly in this specific place, not from applying a generic installation checklist the same way on every job regardless of what the lot actually looks like.
If you're planning new siding for a home in Blanchard, or want a straightforward second opinion on whether an existing installation was done correctly, we're glad to come take a look. Reach out using the form below for a free, no-pressure estimate.