Burlington Two Different Answers to the Same Problem
Homeowners in Burlington and across Skagit County are usually comparing the same two products when they start pricing siding: James Hardie fiber cement and LP SmartSide engineered wood. Both are marketed as upgrades over vinyl. Both hold paint well and look good on the day they go up. But they are built from fundamentally different materials, and that difference matters a lot once you factor in salt air off the Sound, driving rain off the Skagit Valley, and the long moss season that sets in every fall and doesn't fully let go until late spring.
We get asked why we only install Hardie and won't quote LP SmartSide, even when a customer specifically requests it. It's a fair question, and the answer isn't that SmartSide is a bad product in every application. It's that we've made a professional call about what holds up best on homes in this specific climate, and we'd rather explain our reasoning than just say no.
What LP SmartSide Actually Is
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood product — strand-based wood fiber, resin, and zinc borate for insect and decay resistance, pressed into panels and coated with a resin-saturated overlay. It's a real improvement over old-school hardboard siding from decades past, and LP backs it with a warranty. It cuts easily, it's lighter to handle than fiber cement, and in drier climates it performs reasonably well.
The catch is that it's still wood at its core. Wood fiber expands and contracts with moisture, and no factory treatment changes that basic chemistry. In a region where wind-driven rain hits siding sideways for days at a stretch, every seam, butt joint, and cut edge is a place where moisture can find its way in if caulking isn't maintained on schedule. Once water gets past the surface treatment into the wood fiber core, the damage doesn't reverse — it swells, it delaminates at the edges, and repairs mean replacing whole boards rather than spot-fixing.
Why Fiber Cement Behaves Differently
James Hardie siding is Portland cement, sand, and cellulose fiber, cured into a rigid board. It has no wood fiber core to swell, rot, or feed moss and mildew growth. That's the practical reason we standardized on it: in a county that sees genuine coastal humidity and a moss season long enough to leave a green tint on north-facing walls if nothing is done about it, a cementitious product simply doesn't have the same failure mode that engineered wood does.
Hardie is also non-combustible, which matters to insurers and to homeowners who've seen wildfire smoke drift into the valley during dry summer stretches. And Hardie's ColorPlus factory finish is baked on and warrantied against fading and peeling — it isn't a field-applied primer coat that depends on how carefully it was rolled on-site.
Side by Side
| Factor | LP SmartSide (engineered wood) | James Hardie (fiber cement) |
|---|---|---|
| Core material | Wood strand fiber + resin | Cement, sand, cellulose |
| Moisture behavior | Can swell/delaminate if water reaches the core | Does not swell or rot from moisture exposure |
| Combustibility | Combustible (treated wood product) | Non-combustible |
| Finish | Resin overlay, field or factory paint | Baked-on ColorPlus factory finish |
| Weight/handling | Lighter, easier to cut on site | Heavier, requires fiber-cement-rated blades and fasteners |
| Long-term maintenance | Caulk joints and cut edges need regular inspection | Lower maintenance once installed to spec |
Installation Sensitivity Cuts Both Ways
To be fair to LP SmartSide, it isn't automatically doomed in this climate — a crew that flashes every joint correctly, caulks on schedule, and keeps up with maintenance can get a long service life out of it. But that's exactly the problem from a contractor's standpoint: its performance depends heavily on maintenance discipline continuing for decades after we've left the job site, on a schedule we can't control. Hardie also has to be installed to manufacturer spec — proper clearance off grade, correct fastener pattern, factory-cut or scored-and-snapped edges sealed at cuts — but if that's done right, the material itself isn't the thing standing between you and water damage. We'd rather stake our name on a product where correct installation is the main variable, not correct installation plus years of maintenance vigilance against a material that can absorb water.
The Line We Draw
We install exclusively James Hardie fiber cement — the HZ5 product line engineered for Pacific Northwest moisture exposure, in the plank, panel, and shingle profiles, with the full range of ColorPlus finishes. We don't install LP SmartSide, vinyl, cedar, or unfinished fiber cement alternatives, because we've chosen to stand behind one system we trust completely rather than offer several we'd have to caveat. That's a narrower lineup than some contractors offer, and we think that's the point — every crew on every job knows the product cold.
If you're weighing siding options for a home in Burlington or anywhere else in Skagit County, we're happy to walk through what we saw on similar homes in this climate and why we recommend what we do. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — there's a form right below this page.