Ferndale What LP SmartSide Actually Is
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood siding — strands of wood fiber bonded with resin, treated with a zinc borate preservative, then coated with a wax and resin barrier before it leaves the factory. It's a real step up from the OSB siding products of the 1990s, and we're not here to pretend otherwise. It's lighter than fiber cement, easier on saw blades, budget-friendly, and it holds up reasonably well to impact. For a lot of contractors, it's a solid, defensible choice.
We don't install it. Not because it's a bad product, but because it's a wood-based product, and wood-based siding comes with a maintenance relationship that we don't think fits well with what Ferndale and the rest of Whatcom County throw at a house year after year.
The Core Issue: It's Still Wood
Underneath the resin coating and zinc borate treatment, LP SmartSide is still cellulose fiber. That's the whole trade-off in a sentence. Engineered wood siding performs fine as long as its factory-applied protective layer stays intact everywhere — every cut edge, every fastener hole, every seam around a window or door. The manufacturer's own installation instructions are specific and strict for exactly this reason: field-cut edges need to be primed and sealed, caulking has to be maintained, and paint touch-ups aren't optional cosmetic choices — they're part of keeping water out of the wood fiber.
That's a lot of ongoing responsibility to hand to a homeowner, and it's the opposite of what most people want from siding they just paid to have replaced.
Why That Matters More in Ferndale Than in a Lot of Places
Ferndale sits close enough to Bellingham Bay and the Strait of Georgia that salt-laden air is a regular visitor, not an occasional one. Salt air accelerates the breakdown of caulk joints and factory coatings faster than it would inland. Add in the driving rain that comes through Whatcom County off the water, often wind-driven at an angle that finds its way under trim and around penetrations, and you've got two of the exact conditions that stress a wood-based siding's weak points: cut edges and seams.
Then there's moss. Our moss season here isn't a few weeks — it's most of the wet half of the year, and it doesn't stay on the roof. It colonizes north-facing walls, areas under eaves, and anywhere siding stays damp longer than a few hours after a rain. Moss and algae growth on organic-based siding materials holds moisture against the surface, which is precisely the scenario that engineered wood products are least equipped to shrug off indefinitely. None of this means LP SmartSide "fails" here — it means it requires more vigilant upkeep here than it would in a drier, calmer climate, and we've found most homeowners don't want to sign up for that as a permanent chore.
Warranty Structure Is Part of the Calculation Too
LP's warranty coverage is tied to proper installation and ongoing maintenance — caulking, painting, and prompt repair of any damage are conditions of keeping that coverage valid, not just good advice. That's a reasonable structure for the manufacturer to set, but it puts the burden of proof back on the homeowner if something ever needs to be claimed. We'd rather put a product on your home where the maintenance bar is lower and the warranty conversation is simpler.
What We Install Instead
We're a James Hardie-only siding contractor. Hardie fiber cement is sand, cement, and cellulose fiber, cured into a rigid board — there's no wood fiber core to protect from water intrusion, and it's non-combustible, which matters to us and to a lot of our customers given how many summers now bring wildfire smoke to Western Washington.
A few specific reasons Hardie fits our climate better:
- ColorPlus factory finish — baked-on color that resists fading and doesn't rely on the homeowner keeping up with repainting on a strict schedule.
- HZ5 climate-engineered formulation — Hardie makes region-specific product lines, and the HZ5 formulation is built for the wetter, harsher climate zones the Pacific Northwest falls into.
- Non-combustible core — no wood fiber to worry about at all, salt air or not.
- Strong transferable warranty — coverage that isn't contingent on the same level of ongoing edge-sealing and caulk maintenance that engineered wood products require.
Where This Leaves You
If a contractor offers you LP SmartSide, that's not automatically a red flag — it's a legitimate product when installed and maintained exactly to spec. We simply made a business decision, based on what we see on homes in this county year after year, that we'd rather install one product and install it right than offer several and hope every homeowner keeps up with a wood-based maintenance schedule indefinitely. Fiber cement lets us make a promise about longevity that we're comfortable standing behind in Ferndale's climate.
If you're weighing siding options for a home in Ferndale or anywhere else in Whatcom County, we're happy to walk you through what we see locally and why we land where we do. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — there's no obligation, and we're glad to answer questions even if fiber cement isn't the direction you end up choosing.