Anacortes Exterior Two Different Materials, One Big Decision
If you've spent any time researching siding replacement in Anacortes, you've probably run into two products that get compared constantly: James Hardie fiber cement and LP SmartSide engineered wood. Both are marketed as upgrades over vinyl. Both come with factory finishes and manufacturer warranties. And on a spec sheet, they can look like two versions of the same idea. They aren't.
We install James Hardie fiber cement exclusively. We don't carry LP SmartSide, and we want to explain why in plain terms — not by trashing the competing product, but by walking through what each one actually is, how each behaves over years of exposure to Pacific Northwest weather, and why we decided one was worth staking our business on and the other wasn't.
What LP SmartSide Actually Is
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood product. At its core, it's strand-based wood — similar in concept to OSB — treated with resins, zinc borate for insect and fungal resistance, and a wax coating, then finished with a primer or factory coating. It's a genuine improvement over the old cheap masonite and hardboard siding that failed so badly in the 1980s and 90s. LP has put real engineering into solving those old problems, and for a lot of markets, it performs reasonably well.
The core trade-off doesn't go away, though: it's still a wood-based product. Wood, even engineered and treated wood, swells when it absorbs water and shrinks when it dries. That cycle is manageable in a dry climate. In a marine climate like ours, where the material rarely gets a long stretch to fully dry out, that cycle happens more often and the margin for error in installation and maintenance gets thinner.
What James Hardie Fiber Cement Actually Is
Fiber cement is a completely different chemistry — Portland cement, sand, and cellulose fibers, cured under pressure and heat. There's no wood grain to swell, no organic material for moisture to feed on, and the material itself is non-combustible. It's heavier and more brittle to work with, which means installation takes more skill and more time, but the payoff is a siding that doesn't rely on staying dry to hold its shape.
Hardie also engineers regional product lines — its HZ5 formulation is built specifically for climates like the Pacific Northwest, accounting for the freeze-thaw and moisture cycling that's normal here. That's not a marketing detail; it's the reason we can install it with confidence in Anacortes rather than treating every home as a generic install.
Where the Difference Shows Up: Skagit County Weather
This comparison isn't theoretical for us — it's the reason we standardized on one product. Anacortes sits right on the water, and that means siding here deals with a specific combination of stressors that inland siding rarely faces:
- Salt air: Airborne salt accelerates the breakdown of many coatings and can be corrosive to fasteners and finishes that aren't rated for it.
- Driving rain off the Sound: Wind-driven rain doesn't just wet a wall surface — it pushes moisture into seams, laps, and joints that a calmer climate wouldn't stress the same way.
- A long moss and algae season: Our wet, mild winters and shaded lots (especially under the fir and cedar canopy common around Anacortes and greater Skagit County) keep north-facing walls damp for extended stretches, which is exactly the environment moss and mildew need.
- Short drying windows: Even in summer, marine-layer mornings mean siding here spends more days per year in a damp state than siding fifty miles inland.
Every one of those factors is a moisture-and-organic-growth problem before it's anything else. That's the exact category of stress that separates a cement-based product from a wood-based one, no matter how well the wood product is engineered.
Moisture Behavior, Side by Side
| Factor | James Hardie Fiber Cement | LP SmartSide Engineered Wood |
|---|---|---|
| Core material | Cement, sand, cellulose fiber | Engineered wood strand (resin/zinc borate treated) |
| Response to repeated wetting | Does not swell or rot; dimensionally stable | Can swell at cut edges and joints if seals fail |
| Combustibility | Non-combustible | Combustible (treatments reduce, don't eliminate, risk) |
| Vulnerable points | Field-cut edges need factory-matched sealant/caulk | Cut edges, butt joints, and fastener penetrations need diligent sealing |
| Moss/algae resistance | Inorganic surface resists organic growth better | Organic wood content can support growth if coating wears |
| Typical manufacturer warranty | 30-year non-prorated limited warranty (ColorPlus adds finish coverage) | 5-year workmanship / longer limited product warranty, terms vary |
Installation Sensitivity Is the Real Story
Neither product fails on a well-built wall with a competent crew. The honest difference is how much room for error each one tolerates, and how forgiving each one is when a fastener is slightly overdriven, a joint isn't perfectly sealed, or a cut edge doesn't get primed before it's installed.
With engineered wood, an exposed or poorly sealed cut edge is a direct path for water into the wood fiber. Once moisture gets past the treated surface, that's the one part of the panel most likely to swell, delaminate, or degrade — and it usually happens at the joints and corners where it's hardest to inspect. With fiber cement, an installation mistake is still a problem worth fixing, but the material itself isn't racing against the clock the way untreated wood fiber would be.
This is a big part of why we made a business decision, not just a preference: our crews build their whole process — cutting, priming exposed edges, gapping and caulking, fastening — around one material system. That specialization is part of what keeps quality consistent from house to house. Splitting our crews' attention across two chemically different products with two different failure modes and two different maintenance schedules works against that.
Maintenance Over Time
This is where the marine climate really matters. LP SmartSide's factory finish needs to stay intact to keep water out of the wood substrate. That generally means periodic caulk inspection, prompt touch-up of any nicks or scratches, and attentive gutter and drainage maintenance around the home, since standing water or splash-back against the siding is a bigger risk to a wood-based product.
James Hardie's ColorPlus finish is baked on at the factory and holds color well without the same substrate vulnerability if it does get scratched — the material under the finish isn't going to rot from a chip in the coating. Homeowners still need to keep an eye on caulking at trim and penetrations (that's true of any siding), but the consequence of a missed maintenance cycle is much lower.
For a lot of Anacortes homeowners, especially those with second homes, rental properties, or just busy schedules, that lower maintenance ceiling is the deciding factor once they understand it.
Fire Consideration
Wildfire smoke has become a more regular part of Pacific Northwest summers, and while Anacortes isn't the highest wildfire-risk area in the state, ember exposure during regional fire events is a real consideration for exterior materials. Fiber cement's non-combustible core is a straightforward advantage here that engineered wood, even treated, can't fully match. It's not the only reason we chose Hardie, but it's part of the honest picture.
What This Means for Your Project
We're not going to tell you LP SmartSide is a bad product — plenty of installers use it successfully, and it has real advantages, including being lighter to handle and often less expensive upfront. What we will tell you is that after installing siding in this specific climate, on homes exposed to Sound-side wind and salt air, we decided the long-term moisture behavior of fiber cement was worth the higher material cost and more demanding install process. That's a standard we apply to every house we work on, not just the ones where a customer asks for it.
If you're comparing quotes and one contractor is offering engineered wood at a lower price, it's worth asking directly how they handle cut-edge sealing, joint treatment, and what their own warranty covers versus what the manufacturer's does. Those answers tell you more than the spec sheet does.
Questions Worth Asking Any Siding Contractor
- How do you seal field-cut edges, and is that step included in your written scope?
- What does your installation warranty cover, separate from the manufacturer's product warranty?
- How does the product you're proposing perform specifically in a coastal, high-moisture climate?
- What's the expected maintenance schedule — caulk checks, repainting, touch-ups — over the first 10 years?
- Is the product rated or engineered for this region, or is it a general national spec?
Where We Land
James Hardie fiber cement isn't the cheapest siding option, and it isn't the easiest to install. We chose it because, house after house in Skagit County's wet, salty, moss-prone conditions, it's the product that holds its shape, its finish, and its warranty coverage the longest with the least ongoing worry for the homeowner. That's the whole basis of our decision — not brand loyalty, but what we've found actually stands up to this coastline.
If you'd like to talk through your specific home — sun exposure, tree cover, current siding condition, and what a Hardie install would involve — we're happy to walk the property and put together a free, no-pressure estimate.