Anacortes Exterior One product line, on purpose
We get asked fairly often why we don't offer a menu of siding brands the way some contractors do. The honest answer: we settled on James Hardie fiber cement years ago and haven't found a reason to change. This isn't about upselling. It's about what actually holds up on homes in Anacortes and the rest of Skagit County, where salt air off Fidalgo Bay, driving rain, and a moss season that can run half the year put real stress on exterior materials.
When you're the crew who has to stand behind the work, you get particular about what goes on the wall. Here's the reasoning behind our standard.
What James Hardie is, and why it fits this climate
James Hardie siding is fiber cement — a mix of cement, sand, and cellulose fibers pressed into planks, panels, and shingles. It's non-combustible, doesn't rot, and doesn't feed insects. More importantly for our area, it handles moisture cycling without the swelling, delaminating, or warping that wood-based and composite products can be prone to over time when they take on repeated wetting from rain and coastal humidity.
Hardie also makes climate-specific formulations under its HZ5 engineered-for-climate line, built for regions with more moisture exposure — which describes the Anacortes waterfront and much of Western Washington. That's not marketing fluff; it reflects real differences in how the product is engineered to perform in wetter, cooler conditions versus hot, dry ones.
ColorPlus factory finish
Most Hardie product we install comes with the ColorPlus finish — color baked on at the factory under controlled conditions, rather than field-painted after installation. That matters here specifically because field-applied paint has to cure properly to bond and perform, and Skagit County doesn't always cooperate with a painting schedule. A factory finish also tends to hold color and resist fading and chipping longer than site-applied paint, and it comes backed by its own finish warranty separate from the product warranty.
The product lines we work with
- HardiePlank lap siding — the most common choice, available in several textures and exposures, the workhorse for most homes we side.
- HardieShingle — for homes wanting a shingle look without the maintenance of actual cedar shingles.
- HardiePanel — vertical panel applications, often used for accents, gables, or modern designs.
- HardieTrim — trim boards that match the durability profile of the siding itself, so the whole exterior system ages consistently.
Warranty and longevity
James Hardie backs its siding with a long, transferable limited warranty — a real consideration if you plan to sell the home down the road, since siding condition is one of the first things buyers and inspectors notice. But a warranty is only as good as the installation behind it. Fiber cement is installation-sensitive: proper clearances, fastening patterns, joint treatment, and flashing details all affect whether the product performs the way it's designed to. We install to Hardie's published specifications, not shortcuts, because a technically correct install is what keeps that warranty valid and keeps water out of your wall assembly.
Why we don't install everything else
We're often asked about LP SmartSide, vinyl, Cemplank, Allura, or primed wood. Each of those has honest use cases and each has trade-offs — cost, maintenance schedule, moisture behavior, or long-term appearance — that we've decided we're not willing to build our reputation on in this climate. Rather than stock five product lines and hope each homeowner picks the right one, we standardized on the product we've seen perform consistently on homes exposed to the same salt air, rain, and moss conditions found throughout Anacortes and the surrounding county. If you're weighing Hardie against another product for your project, we're glad to walk through the specific trade-offs honestly rather than just tell you what you want to hear.
What correct installation actually involves
Fiber cement done right isn't just nailing boards to a wall. It involves:
- Proper weather-resistive barrier and flashing detail before the first board goes up
- Correct fastener type, spacing, and penetration depth
- Manufacturer-specified clearances from grade, roof lines, and decks
- Properly sealed and caulked joints where Hardie specifies caulking, and properly gapped where it doesn't
- Field-cut edges primed or sealed to prevent moisture intrusion at cuts
Skipping any of these doesn't always show up in year one. It shows up in year five or ten, usually as moisture damage at the bottom edges, around penetrations, or at trim joints — the exact failure points a coastal Skagit County climate will find if they're not done right.
Bottom line
We install James Hardie exclusively because it's the product we're confident will still look and perform well a couple decades from now on a home exposed to Anacortes weather — and because a single, well-understood product system lets our crews install it correctly every time, rather than juggling different specs for different materials.
If you're planning a siding project and want to talk through what Hardie would look like on your specific home, we're happy to walk the property with you and put together a free, no-pressure estimate.