Lynden Exterior Why We Only Install One Brand of Siding
Most exterior contractors will install whatever a homeowner asks for. We don't. Lynden Exterior Co. installs James Hardie fiber cement siding and nothing else. No vinyl, no LP SmartSide, no Cemplank or Allura fiber cement, no primed spruce or cedar. That's not a sales gimmick — it's a decision we made after years of tearing old siding off homes in Lynden and across Whatcom County and seeing, firsthand, which products held up to our climate and which ones didn't.
This page explains the reasoning, not just the conclusion. You should understand why we made this call before you hire us, so you know exactly what you're getting and why we won't budge on it.
What This Climate Actually Does to Siding
Lynden sits inland from the Salish Sea, but Whatcom County as a whole gets a steady dose of marine air moving in off the Strait of Georgia and Bellingham Bay. That means salt-laden moisture in the air, even miles from open water, working on fasteners, trim, and any siding material with a weak moisture skin. Add in the region's long stretch of driving rain — wind-blown, sideways rain that hits walls directly rather than just falling on roofs — and you've got a wall assembly that's under near-constant wet-dry cycling for most of the year.
Then there's moss. Whatcom County's moss season isn't a few weeks in spring — it's most of the year on north- and west-facing walls that don't get much sun. Moss holds moisture against a wall surface long after the rain has stopped, and it thrives in exactly the shaded, damp wall cavities this region produces in abundance. Any siding material that's sensitive to sustained moisture contact is going to show it here faster than it would in a drier climate.
We don't say any of this to scare anyone — it's just the honest baseline every siding decision in this county has to be measured against.
What James Hardie Fiber Cement Actually Is
James Hardie siding is made from cement, sand, and cellulose fiber, cured into rigid boards and panels. It's not a paint-grade wood product and it's not a plastic extrusion — it's an engineered mineral-based material. That composition is what makes it non-combustible, dimensionally stable, and largely indifferent to the freeze-thaw and wet-dry cycling that wears down other siding types.
Fiber cement isn't unique to Hardie — other manufacturers make it too. What sets James Hardie apart, in our experience, is the consistency of the product, the depth of their climate-specific engineering, and a factory finish system and warranty structure that we think actually holds up when a homeowner needs to use it.
The HZ5 Climate Engineering
James Hardie manufactures different formulations for different climate zones — they call this HZ5 for cold, wet, marine-influenced climates like the Pacific Northwest, versus formulations built for hot, dry, or freeze-heavy regions elsewhere in the country. HZ5 boards are engineered specifically for high moisture exposure and freeze-thaw cycling, which is precisely the stress pattern Whatcom County puts on a wall. We install HZ5 product on every job here — it's not an upsell, it's the correct product for this ZIP code.
Why We Stopped Installing Everything Else
Every one of these products has legitimate strengths. We're not going to tell you they're garbage — that wouldn't be honest, and it isn't why we walked away from them. Here's the actual trade-off analysis that led us to standardize on one product:
| Material | What It Gets Right | Why It's Not What We Install Here |
|---|---|---|
| Vinyl siding | Low upfront cost, no painting required | Expands and contracts significantly with temperature swings; can crack or warp under sustained wind-driven rain and doesn't offer the fire resistance of fiber cement |
| LP SmartSide | Engineered wood strand product, lighter and easier to install than fiber cement | Wood-based core means cut edges and any moisture intrusion point need flawless field sealing; long-term moisture exposure is the one condition it's least forgiving of, and this county has a lot of it |
| Cemplank / Allura fiber cement | Same base material category as Hardie, competitively priced | We found the factory finish consistency and regional climate-specific engineering weren't matched to what Hardie offers, and warranty terms varied by distributor rather than being uniform |
| Primed spruce or cedar | Natural material, classic look, renewable | Requires the most ongoing maintenance of any option — repainting cycles, moisture and rot vigilance, and vulnerability to the same moss and mildew growth this region produces on shaded walls |
Every material on that list can be installed correctly and can perform reasonably well for a while. But "for a while" isn't the standard we want to build our reputation on, and it isn't what a homeowner in Lynden is paying for when they replace siding — a job most people expect to last decades, not one maintenance cycle.
ColorPlus Factory Finish vs. Field-Applied Paint
One of the biggest practical differences between Hardie and almost everything else on that list is where the paint gets applied. Hardie's ColorPlus finish is baked on at the factory, cured under controlled conditions, with a color-matched caulk system for seams and cut edges. Field-painted siding — whether it's cedar, primed spruce, or site-finished fiber cement — depends entirely on weather conditions at the time of painting and the skill of whoever's holding the sprayer.
A factory finish means the color and the protective coating go on before the board ever gets exposed to job-site moisture, temperature swings, or an unexpected rain shower mid-project. In a region where a dry, calm painting window isn't guaranteed on any given week, that consistency matters more than it might somewhere drier.
A Warranty That Actually Transfers
James Hardie backs their ColorPlus products with a non-prorated warranty on both the substrate and the finish, and it's transferable to a new owner if the home sells within the coverage period. That transferability matters in a market where homes change hands — new siding is a selling point, but only if the warranty behind it is still worth something to the buyer, not just the original owner.
We won't put our labor behind a product where the warranty terms are inconsistent, prorated in a way that shrinks coverage over time, or hard to actually invoke if something goes wrong. That's part of why we standardized on one manufacturer instead of juggling different warranty structures across different products.
What Correct Installation Actually Involves
Fiber cement siding is only as good as the installation behind it. James Hardie publishes detailed installation specifications, and deviating from them — wrong fastener spacing, missing clearances, improper flashing details — is how a good product ends up with a bad reputation. On every job, we hold to:
- Correct fastener type, spacing, and embedment depth per Hardie's published specs
- Proper clearance between the bottom of the siding and grade, decks, roofing, and other horizontal surfaces
- Rain-screen or drainage plane detailing behind the siding so incidental moisture has somewhere to go
- Correctly lapped and sealed house wrap or weather-resistive barrier before the first board goes up
- Factory-mitered or properly caulked joints using Hardie's specified sealant system
- Flashing at every window, door, and roofline penetration, installed before siding closes over it
Skip any one of those steps and you can undermine even the best material. That's true of any siding product, which is another reason we'd rather be excellent at installing one system than mediocre at installing five.
What This Means for the Cost of Your Project
We're not going to quote fake numbers here, but it's worth understanding the cost factors that go into a Hardie project so you can budget realistically.
| Cost Factor | What Drives It |
|---|---|
| Board profile and texture | Lap siding, shingle-style panels, and board-and-batten all price differently based on material use and labor complexity |
| Tear-off and disposal | Removing existing siding down to the sheathing, especially on older homes with multiple layers |
| Wall condition underneath | Sheathing repair or replacement if moisture damage is found once old siding comes off |
| Trim and detail work | Corner boards, window and door casing, and fascia detailing add labor time relative to plain field siding |
| Home size and wall complexity | Cut waste and labor hours scale with the number of corners, gables, and penetrations |
The material itself is a mid-to-upper-range investment compared to vinyl, but the maintenance savings and lifespan tend to even that out over the years you own the home — no repainting cycles, no warping, and a finish that's holding its color a decade or more after installation.
Our Standard, Not a Sales Pitch
We understand that "we only install one brand" sounds like marketing. It isn't — it's a liability and quality-control decision. When you hire a contractor who installs five different siding systems, they're spreading their expertise across five sets of manufacturer specs, five warranty structures, and five different failure modes to watch for. We'd rather know one system cold, install it the same correct way on every home in Lynden and the surrounding county, and stand behind it without hedging.
If you're weighing siding options and want a straight answer about how James Hardie would perform on your specific home — its exposure, its wall assembly, its current condition — we're happy to walk it with you. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate and we'll give you the same honest assessment we've laid out here.