Ferndale Siding What LP SmartSide Actually Is
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood siding product — strand-based wood fiber treated with resins and zinc borate for insect and moisture resistance, then coated with a primer or factory finish. It's been on the market for decades, it's lighter than fiber cement, easier on saw blades, and generally costs less installed. For a lot of climates, it holds up fine for many years. We're not here to tell you it's a scam or that every installation fails. We simply don't install it, and homeowners in Ferndale deserve to know why before they choose a siding product for a house that has to survive a Whatcom County winter.
Why Wood Fiber and Whatcom County Don't Mix Well
SmartSide is still wood at its core. The strand board substrate is engineered to resist moisture better than solid lumber, but it is not moisture-proof — it's moisture-resistant, and resistance has limits. Those limits get tested hard here. Ferndale sits close enough to the Salish Sea that salt air is a constant, driving rain off the water is routine through fall and winter, and the long stretch of gray, damp months means siding surfaces don't get much chance to fully dry out between storms. Add in the moss season that hits north-facing walls and anything shaded by trees or eaves, and you've got a product whose core material is engineered wood fiber sitting in conditions that favor moisture retention for months at a time.
The failure mode we've seen discussed most with engineered wood siding isn't dramatic — it's slow. Edge swelling where boards meet trim, moisture wicking up from the bottom edge near grade, and softening around butt joints and fastener penetrations that weren't perfectly sealed. None of that is a defect in the product; it's what happens when any wood-based material has its protective coating compromised — by a nail popped slightly proud, a caulk joint that failed, a gutter that overflowed one too many times — and then sits wet in a marine climate. Once moisture gets past the coating and into the strand board, it doesn't dry out quickly here the way it might in a drier region.
Installation Sensitivity Is the Real Issue
SmartSide's warranty and long-term performance depend heavily on installation being done exactly to spec — correct clearances from grade and roof lines, proper flashing at every penetration, factory-cut edges sealed, caulking maintained on a schedule. That's true of most siding products to some degree, but the margin for error is narrower with an engineered wood product than with a material that doesn't absorb water in the first place. On a house exposed to driving rain and salt air, a small installation shortcut that might not matter in a dry inland climate can turn into a moisture problem within a few winters here. We don't like putting a product on a house where our installation crew has to be perfect forever for the material to hold up — houses get touched by other trades, gutters get neglected, caulk ages out, and we'd rather not bet a homeowner's siding on nothing ever going slightly wrong for 30 years.
Where It Does Make Sense
To be fair to the product: SmartSide works better in drier climates, on homes with generous roof overhangs that keep walls mostly dry, and for owners committed to inspecting and re-caulking on a regular schedule. It's a reasonable engineered wood option in the right setting. Ferndale's combination of coastal humidity, salt exposure, and moss-friendly shade just isn't that setting, in our experience deciding what we're willing to stand behind.
Why We Install James Hardie Instead
James Hardie fiber cement siding is made from cement, sand, and cellulose fiber — there's no wood fiber core to swell, rot, or feed moss and mildew. It's non-combustible, which matters more each fire season, and Hardie's HZ5 product line is engineered specifically for climates like ours: freeze-thaw cycles, sustained moisture, and coastal exposure. The factory-applied ColorPlus finish is baked on under controlled conditions rather than field-painted, so it resists fading and holds up against the salt air blowing in off the water far better than a job-site coating can. Hardie backs the product with a strong, transferable warranty, and because the material itself doesn't absorb and hold water the way engineered wood does, a small installation imperfection down the road is far less likely to turn into a structural moisture problem.
We made the call years ago to install one product line and install it right, rather than offer several options and let homeowners guess which one fits our climate. For a house in this corner of Whatcom County — where the moss season is long, the rain comes sideways, and the air carries salt — fiber cement has consistently made more sense to us than engineered wood.
Comparing the Two
| Factor | LP SmartSide | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Core material | Engineered wood strand | Cement, sand, cellulose fiber |
| Moisture behavior | Resistant, can swell if compromised | Does not swell or rot |
| Fire rating | Combustible | Non-combustible |
| Finish | Primed or factory-coated | Factory-baked ColorPlus finish |
| Installed cost | Generally lower | Generally higher |
If you're weighing siding options for a home in Ferndale or anywhere else in Whatcom County, we're happy to walk your property, talk through what your specific exposure looks like, and give you a straight answer — no pressure, no hard sell. Reach out for a free estimate and we'll tell you exactly what we'd do if it were our own house.