Fairhaven Siding Two Different Materials, Two Different Bets on Your House
Homeowners in Fairhaven and around Whatcom County often ask us why we only install James Hardie fiber cement siding when LP SmartSide engineered wood sits right next to it at the supply yard, often at a lower material cost. It's a fair question, and it deserves an honest answer rather than a sales pitch. Both products have real engineering behind them. They just handle our climate differently, and that difference is why we standardized on one.
What LP SmartSide Actually Is
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood product: strand-based wood fiber bonded with resins, then treated with a zinc borate additive for fungal and insect resistance, and finished with a factory primer or coating. It's lighter than fiber cement, easier to cut and nail without specialized blades, and it holds paint well when the finish is intact. For interior regions with drier air, it performs reasonably well when detailed correctly.
The catch is in the name: it's still a wood product at its core. Wood fiber, no matter how it's engineered or treated, swells when it absorbs water and shrinks when it dries out. That cycle is manageable in a climate that's mostly dry with occasional rain. It's a much tougher assignment on a peninsula that sees driving rain off the Salish Sea, salt-laden air rolling in from the marina and Bellingham Bay, and a moss season that can stretch from October well into spring.
What Fiber Cement Is Built From
James Hardie siding is made from Portland cement, sand, and cellulose fiber, cured into a dense, stable board. It doesn't absorb water the way wood fiber does, so it doesn't swell, cup, or telegraph moisture damage through the paint film the same way. It's also non-combustible, which matters more each year as wildfire smoke and ember exposure become a regional reality even here in Northwest Washington. The ColorPlus factory finish is baked on under controlled conditions, not brushed or sprayed on a jobsite where weather and temperature swings affect cure quality.
Where the Real Trade-Offs Show Up
We're not going to tell you LP SmartSide is a bad product in the abstract — it's engineered to a real standard and plenty of installers use it successfully. Our concern is what happens at the edges, literally. Cut ends, fastener penetrations, and butt joints are where engineered wood siding is most vulnerable to moisture intrusion, and those are exactly the details that get rushed on a job site under time pressure. Miss field-sealing a cut end on Hardie and you've got a cosmetic touch-up. Miss it on engineered wood siding and you've opened a path for water to get into the substrate, and by the time it shows on the surface as swelling or delamination, the damage is often already done underneath.
In a marine climate with sustained moisture exposure and heavy moss growth on north-facing walls and shaded elevations, that maintenance discipline has to hold up year after year, through every crew that ever touches the house. Fiber cement gives you a much wider margin for error over the life of the siding. That's the trade-off in plain terms: engineered wood asks more of ongoing maintenance and installation precision in exchange for lighter material and easier handling; fiber cement asks more of the install budget up front in exchange for a material that's inherently less sensitive to the water exposure our county deals with for a good chunk of the year.
Side-by-Side, Honestly
| Factor | LP SmartSide | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Core material | Engineered wood strand, resin-bonded | Cement, sand, cellulose fiber |
| Moisture response | Can swell/absorb at cut ends and joints if unsealed | Dimensionally stable, minimal absorption |
| Fire rating | Combustible | Non-combustible |
| Finish | Factory primer or coating; job-applied paint common | Factory-baked ColorPlus finish |
| Weight/handling | Lighter, easier to cut | Heavier, requires fiber-cement blades/tools |
| Warranty structure | Manufacturer warranty, install-detail dependent | Strong transferable warranty |
Why We Standardized on One Product
When a company installs multiple siding systems, crews inevitably develop habits from whichever product they used most recently, and detailing quality drifts. By installing James Hardie exclusively — across the HZ5 climate-engineered line built for the Pacific Northwest — every crew member knows the flashing details, the fastener spacing, and the joint treatment cold, on every single job. That consistency matters more than any single product spec sheet in a climate where Fairhaven's salt air, driving rain, and long moss season don't give a wall assembly many easy months. It's also why Hardie backs the product with a warranty structure that transfers to future owners, which tells you something about how confident the manufacturer is in long-term performance when installed to spec.
What This Means for Your Project
If you're planning a re-side in Fairhaven or elsewhere in Whatcom County, the material decision is one of the few choices you make once and live with for decades. We'd rather walk you through the real trade-offs — including telling you what LP SmartSide gets right — than oversell you on the product we happen to install. If it makes sense for your home, we'll say so plainly.
Want to talk through your specific house, exposure, and elevation? We offer free, no-pressure estimates — fill out the form below and we'll take a look.
