Lynden Exterior Two Fiber Cement Products, One Important Difference
If you've been getting quotes for new siding in Lynden or anywhere else in Whatcom County, you've probably noticed that most contractors are steering you toward fiber cement. That's a good sign — fiber cement has earned its reputation as a durable, low-maintenance, fire-resistant alternative to wood and vinyl. But "fiber cement" isn't a single product. It's a category, and within that category, Allura and James Hardie are the two names you'll run into most often.
We get asked fairly regularly why we quote Hardie products exclusively and won't install Allura, even when a homeowner has already priced it out or has it on hand from a previous contractor conversation. This page is our honest answer. We're not going to tell you Allura is junk, because it isn't — it's a legitimate fiber cement product manufactured to recognized industry standards. What we will tell you is why, after years of installing and standing behind our work on homes across this region, we made Hardie our standard and stopped quoting Allura altogether.
What Allura Gets Right
Fairness matters here, so let's start with the good. Allura board and panel siding is genuine fiber cement — a mix of Portland cement, sand, and cellulose fiber, autoclaved for strength. That means it shares fiber cement's core advantages over vinyl or wood:
- Non-combustible core material, which matters for fire-rated assemblies and insurance conversations
- Resistant to termites and other wood-boring insects
- Won't warp, crack, or rot the way solid wood siding can
- Holds paint and factory finishes better than wood over the long term
- Competitive up-front pricing, often quoted slightly below Hardie in the same market
For a lot of applications, Allura is a reasonable, code-compliant product. Plenty of contractors install it successfully. Our decision not to isn't about the material failing some basic test — it's about the details that matter once a board has been on a house in this climate for ten, fifteen, twenty years.
Why We Standardized on One Product
Factory Finish and Warranty Structure
The biggest gap between the two brands isn't the cement recipe — it's what happens to the board before it ever gets to the job site. James Hardie's ColorPlus finish is a baked-on, multi-coat factory process with color consistency and adhesion testing built into the manufacturing line, backed by its own dedicated finish warranty separate from the substrate warranty. Allura's factory-finish offerings have historically been more limited in color selection and regional availability, and in many markets contractors end up field-painting Allura rather than installing a factory-finished board.
Field-painted fiber cement is not the same product as factory-finished fiber cement. Paint applied on-site, in variable temperature and humidity, by whichever crew is doing the job that week, will never match the consistency of a controlled factory process — and it shifts the long-term finish warranty burden onto the paint manufacturer and the installer rather than the siding manufacturer. When a homeowner calls us in twelve years asking why the south-facing wall is fading differently than the rest of the house, we want a manufacturer warranty behind that finish, not a "the paint should have held up" conversation.
Manufacturing Consistency and Track Record
James Hardie has been manufacturing fiber cement specifically engineered for different U.S. climate zones — including a dedicated HZ5 product line for the colder, wetter regions of the Pacific Northwest — for decades, with a correspondingly long track record of field performance data. Allura's ownership and manufacturing footprint in North America has a shorter and more variable history, including changes in ownership and plant locations over the years. That's not a knock on the current product; it's a practical concern about batch consistency, long-term supply of matching replacement boards, and how a manufacturer responds to warranty claims a decade from now.
Distributor and Warranty Support
When something needs to be replaced under warranty — a cracked board, a finish defect, a shipment that doesn't match previously installed siding — we need a manufacturer and distributor network that responds quickly and reliably in this specific market. Hardie's distribution and contractor support network in Western Washington is deep and well-established. That matters more than people expect when you're the contractor standing in front of a homeowner's house trying to get a replacement board that matches a color run from three years ago.
How Whatcom County's Climate Raises the Stakes
Lynden sits close enough to the Salish Sea and Puget Sound air currents that salt-laden moisture is a real factor on siding, trim, and fasteners, even miles inland. Add Whatcom County's long, wet fall-through-spring stretch of driving rain off the water, and you've got a climate that tests every seam, joint, and finish coat on a house far harder than a drier region would. Then there's moss — the extended damp season here supports moss and algae growth on north-facing walls and shaded elevations for months at a time, which means the siding's surface has to tolerate repeated wetting, shading, and occasional cleaning without the finish breaking down.
In a climate like this, the difference between a factory-cured, factory-finished board and a field-painted one shows up faster than it would in a drier, milder region. Moisture that gets behind a marginal caulk joint or under a finish that's starting to chalk doesn't get much chance to dry out between storms. That's exactly the scenario where the extra engineering and finish quality behind a climate-specific product line pays for itself, and it's the core reason we don't want to install a product where we're less confident in the finish's long-term behavior on this specific coastline.
Allura vs. James Hardie: Side-by-Side
| Factor | Allura | James Hardie |
|---|---|---|
| Core material | Fiber cement | Fiber cement (climate-engineered HZ5 line for the PNW) |
| Factory finish | Limited factory-finish availability; often field-painted | ColorPlus factory finish standard on most product lines |
| Finish warranty | Varies; field-painted work relies on paint manufacturer warranty | Dedicated ColorPlus finish warranty from Hardie |
| Substrate warranty | Manufacturer-backed, terms vary by product | Long-term limited warranty, transferable to a subsequent owner |
| PNW-specific engineering | General-purpose fiber cement | HZ5 formulation designed for wet, freeze-thaw climates |
| Regional distributor support | Variable by market | Established, deep network in Western Washington |
| Typical installed cost | Often modestly lower | Modestly higher, reflecting finish and warranty structure |
Notice that the material cost gap is usually small. When homeowners run the numbers over a 20-30 year ownership horizon — factoring in repainting cycles, warranty coverage, and resale considerations — the gap narrows further or disappears.
The ColorPlus Finish, Explained
Because the finish question is the heart of our decision, it's worth explaining what ColorPlus actually is. Hardie applies multiple coats of finish to each board in a factory setting, with a baking process between coats that cures the finish into the fiber cement surface rather than leaving it sitting as a surface film. The result is a finish that's more resistant to chipping, cracking, and UV fade than a field-applied paint job, and it comes backed by Hardie's own finish warranty — separate from and in addition to the product warranty on the board itself.
That matters practically: a factory finish means every board on the truck matches, every board holds up to the same standard, and if a section ever needs a color-matched replacement, we're pulling from Hardie's standard color palette rather than trying to remix a field-mixed color years later. For a wall that's going to spend a Whatcom County winter getting rained on sideways and a summer with moss creeping up the shaded side, that consistency is worth the modest price difference.
What Correct Installation Looks Like, Regardless of Brand
To be clear, no siding product — Allura, Hardie, or anything else — performs well if it's installed wrong. A big share of the siding failures we get called out to inspect trace back to installation mistakes, not the material itself. Whatever brand ends up on your wall, correct installation should include:
- Proper drainage plane and weather-resistive barrier behind the siding, not siding installed directly against sheathing
- Manufacturer-specified fastener type, spacing, and penetration depth
- Correct clearance between the bottom edge of the siding and grade, decks, and roof lines
- Properly flashed and caulked joints at windows, doors, and penetrations
- Board joints and butt joints treated per manufacturer instructions, not just butted and caulked
- Adequate gaps left for expansion where the manufacturer calls for them
We install exclusively to James Hardie's published installation specifications, which is also a requirement for the manufacturer's warranty to remain valid. If you ever have Hardie siding installed by someone else, ask to see how they're handling these details — a beautiful-looking installation can still be doing the wrong thing behind the wall.
What This Means for Your Project
If another contractor has quoted you Allura siding, that doesn't mean they've done anything wrong — plenty of reputable companies install it, and it's a legitimate product. We simply made a business decision, based on the finish warranty structure, climate-specific engineering, and regional support behind James Hardie, to put our name behind one fiber cement product rather than switching between brands based on whichever is cheaper that quarter. When we tell a Lynden homeowner their new siding is going on a house that has to survive salt air, sideways rain, and a long moss season, we want to be standing behind the product we have the most confidence in for exactly those conditions.
If you're weighing siding options for a home in Lynden or anywhere in Whatcom County, we're happy to walk through what we install, why, and what it would look like on your specific house. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — there's a form right below this page to get started.