Birch Bay An Honest Answer to a Question We Get a Lot
Homeowners in Birch Bay and along the Whatcom County coastline ask us fairly often why we don't offer LP SmartSide as an option. It's a legitimate question — LP SmartSide is a widely used, nationally distributed product, and plenty of contractors install it well. Our answer isn't that it's a bad product. It's that after years of working on homes exposed to salt air, driving rain off the Strait of Georgia, and a moss season that can run eight months out of the year, we made a decision to install one siding system — James Hardie fiber cement — and stand behind it completely rather than offer several products with different risk profiles.
This page explains what LP SmartSide is, what it does well, and why the specific demands of this coastline led us to standardize on something else.
What LP SmartSide Actually Is
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood siding product. At its core, it's strand-based wood — similar in concept to oriented strand board (OSB) — that's treated with zinc borate for insect and fungal resistance, then coated with a resin-saturated overlay and factory primer. It comes in lap boards, panels, and trim, and it's a genuine improvement over the old hardboard sidings that gave engineered wood a bad reputation decades ago.
It's lighter than fiber cement, easier to cut without specialized dust control, and it holds a nail well. For a lot of climates and a lot of budgets, it's a reasonable siding choice, and we're not going to pretend otherwise.
Where It Genuinely Performs
- Impact resistance is good — the engineered wood strand structure resists denting better than vinyl
- It's lighter to handle on-site, which can reduce labor time on straightforward installs
- Factory priming gives installers a paintable surface without a separate primer step
- Cost is typically lower than fiber cement, which matters on tighter budgets
The Core Trade-Off: It's Still Wood
Here's the issue that matters most for this specific stretch of coastline. LP SmartSide's strand-based core, treated and coated as it is, is still an organic wood product. Its long-term performance depends entirely on moisture staying out — at every cut edge, every seam, every fastener penetration, every point where two pieces meet. Get water into the substrate and trapped there, and the product's Achilles' heel is exposed: swelling, delamination, and eventually rot at the compromised areas, even though the face of the board may look fine from the street.
James Hardie fiber cement doesn't have that vulnerability. It's cement, sand, and cellulose fiber — an inorganic material that doesn't have an organic core to break down. It can get wet and dry out without the same structural consequence. That single difference is the whole reason we made the switch years ago and never looked back.
Why This Matters More Here Than Almost Anywhere
Birch Bay sits right on the water, which means homes here deal with three things at once that engineered wood siding was never designed to shrug off indefinitely:
- Salt-laden air that accelerates the breakdown of coatings, caulk, and exposed wood fiber faster than it would inland
- Driving, wind-blown rain off the Strait of Georgia that pushes moisture into laps and seams that a calmer climate wouldn't test as hard
- A long, damp moss and algae season that keeps siding surfaces wet for extended stretches, which is exactly the condition an organic-core product handles worst
None of those three factors is dramatic on its own. Combined, and repeated year after year for the 20-30+ year life a homeowner expects from siding, they add up to a maintenance and moisture-management burden that we don't think is fair to ask a homeowner to carry.
Installation Sensitivity Is the Real Risk
Every engineered wood siding manufacturer, LP included, publishes detailed installation requirements around cut-edge sealing, minimum ground clearance, flashing details, and caulking maintenance schedules. Followed exactly, on every board, every time, those specs do a lot of work to protect the product. The problem is real-world installation isn't always that exact, and the failure mode when a detail gets missed isn't cosmetic — it's moisture intrusion into a wood-based substrate, often not visible until it's already progressed.
Fiber cement isn't installation-proof either — Hardie has its own spec sheet, and we follow it closely — but the consequence of a missed detail is far less severe, because the base material isn't the part that fails when water gets in.
| Factor | LP SmartSide (engineered wood) | James Hardie (fiber cement) |
|---|---|---|
| Core material | Wood strand composite, zinc borate treated | Cement, sand, cellulose fiber (inorganic) |
| Consequence of a sealing gap | Potential swelling/delamination at the affected area | Minimal — material doesn't have an organic core to break down |
| Combustibility | Combustible (wood-based) | Non-combustible |
| Coastal salt-air performance | Requires diligent maintenance of caulk and coating | Factory ColorPlus finish holds up well with far less upkeep |
| Typical installed cost | Lower | Moderate to higher |
| Warranty structure | Prorated after an initial period on many components | Long-term, largely non-prorated coverage on Hardie's core products |
Warranty Structure Tells You What the Manufacturer Expects
It's worth reading warranty documents closely, because they quietly reveal how a manufacturer expects the product to age. LP SmartSide's warranty offers strong coverage upfront but shifts to prorated terms after a set number of years on several components — a structure that's common for engineered wood products because manufacturers know moisture-related wear is a real long-term variable. James Hardie's warranty on its core siding products is structured very differently, with long-term, largely non-prorated coverage that reflects the durability of an inorganic material. We'd rather stand behind a warranty structure that matches what we're telling homeowners about longevity, and Hardie's does.
Moss and Algae: A Whatcom County Specialty
Anyone who's owned a home in Birch Bay for more than a season knows moss and algae staining on north-facing walls and shaded elevations isn't hypothetical — it's routine. On engineered wood siding, sustained surface moisture from moss growth is exactly the condition that stresses the coating and, over time, the substrate underneath. On fiber cement, the same moss and algae growth is a cosmetic cleaning issue, not a structural one. That distinction is a big part of why we don't want to install a product here that turns a normal regional nuisance into a long-term durability question.
Fire Performance Is Part of the Conversation Too
It doesn't get talked about as often as moisture, but it's worth stating plainly: James Hardie fiber cement is non-combustible. LP SmartSide, being wood-based, is a combustible material, even with its treatments. For homeowners weighing insurance considerations or simply wanting the most fire-resistant exterior available, that's a meaningful and verifiable difference, not a marketing point.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie Instead
We install Hardie's climate-engineered HZ product lines, which are formulated specifically for the moisture conditions of the Pacific Northwest rather than a one-size-fits-all national spec. Combined with the factory-applied ColorPlus finish — which resists fading and chipping far better than field-applied paint — and a warranty structure built for actual long-term ownership, it's the system we can install once and trust to perform through decades of Birch Bay weather without asking the homeowner to babysit caulk lines every year.
Choosing one product line also means our crews aren't switching between installation methods, fastening patterns, and detailing requirements from job to job. That consistency is part of how we keep quality high.
What to Ask Before Choosing Engineered Wood Siding
- Ask what the manufacturer's warranty says about proration and what triggers it
- Ask how cut edges, seams, and butt joints will be sealed, and how often that sealant needs to be inspected or renewed
- Ask what ground clearance and flashing details the manufacturer requires, and confirm your installer follows them exactly
- Ask how the product performs specifically in coastal, high-moss climates, not just the manufacturer's general marketing claims
- Ask what a 15- or 20-year maintenance plan looks like, in writing, not just what year-one looks like
Our Position, Plainly Stated
LP SmartSide isn't a scam or a poorly engineered product — it's a wood-based siding that performs reasonably in a lot of climates and budgets. Birch Bay's combination of salt air, driving coastal rain, and a long moss season is a demanding enough environment that we decided the long-term risk-to-homeowner wasn't worth it when a non-combustible, inorganic alternative with a stronger warranty exists and costs only moderately more installed. That's the entire reasoning behind why we're a Hardie-only contractor.
If you're comparing siding options for a home in Birch Bay or elsewhere in Whatcom County, we're happy to walk through what we install, why, and what it would look like on your specific house. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — there's a form right below this page.