Blaine Siding Homeowners in Blaine ask us about LP SmartSide fairly often, usually after getting a quote from another contractor or reading about it online. It's a legitimate product with real advantages, and we want to explain honestly what it does well, where it runs into trouble in our climate, and why we made the decision years ago to install James Hardie fiber cement exclusively instead.
What LP SmartSide Actually Is
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood product. It's made from wood strands bonded with resins under heat and pressure, then treated with a zinc-borate additive for insect and fungal resistance and coated with a primer at the factory. It comes in lap siding, panels, and trim, and it's noticeably lighter and easier to cut than fiber cement, which is part of why some crews prefer working with it.
It also has a real strength: because it's engineered wood rather than solid lumber, it resists the splitting, cupping, and knot-related defects you'd see in old-school cedar or primed spruce. For a wood-based product, that's a genuine step forward, and we're not going to pretend otherwise.
Where It Runs Into Trouble
The core issue is unavoidable: it's still wood. Wood strands, resin, and a zinc-borate treatment slow decay, but they don't stop it. The entire performance of the product depends on an intact factory coating and a homeowner's ongoing commitment to caulking, priming, and repainting on schedule for the life of the siding. Every cut edge, every seam, every nail penetration is a place where moisture can get past that coating if it isn't sealed and maintained correctly.
That matters more here than in a lot of places. Blaine sits right on the Salish Sea, close enough to Semiahmoo Bay that salt-laden air is a constant, and Whatcom County gets long stretches of driving rain off the water for much of the year. Add in the region's extended moss season — damp, shaded north- and west-facing walls that barely dry out between fall and spring — and you have exactly the conditions that stress an engineered-wood product's weak points: unsealed edges, aging caulk lines, and paint film that's thinning faster than the homeowner realizes.
We've also found the warranty structure worth being upfront about. LP's warranty coverage is tied to documented maintenance — proper installation per their instructions, timely caulking, and repainting on their required schedule. If that maintenance record isn't kept up, coverage can be reduced or denied. That's not unusual for engineered wood products generally, but it puts the long-term protection largely in the homeowner's hands rather than in the material itself.
Installation Sensitivity
LP SmartSide is also less forgiving of installation shortcuts than it looks. Every field cut needs to be primed before it goes up. Every seam, corner, and penetration needs correct caulking, and that caulk needs to be inspected and refreshed as it ages. Miss a step, or let maintenance lapse a year or two, and moisture can get behind the coating and into the strand substrate — at which point the damage is happening in a material that doesn't recover the way it started out.
None of this makes LP SmartSide a bad product when installed and maintained exactly to spec. But "exactly to spec, forever, on every wall, in a marine climate" is a high bar, and it's a bar we don't think most homeowners want to be signed up for indefinitely.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie Instead
We made a decision a while back to install only James Hardie fiber cement siding, and products like LP SmartSide are a big part of why. Hardie's fiber cement is engineered from cement, sand, and cellulose fibers — there's no wood substrate to swell, split, or feed rot if a seam gets damp. It's also non-combustible, which matters to us and to a lot of our customers.
Hardie's ColorPlus factory finish is baked on and backed by a strong finish warranty, so repainting isn't the built-in maintenance cycle it is with primed wood products. And Hardie's HZ product lines are engineered for specific climate zones, including the wet, coastal Pacific Northwest conditions Blaine and the rest of Whatcom County deal with — that engineering is aimed directly at the salt air, driving rain, and persistent moisture that wear on lesser materials here.
We're not saying LP SmartSide is junk — it's a reasonable product for the right situation. We're saying that after years of installing siding in this specific climate, we settled on the one material system we're confident holds up here with the least amount of ongoing homeowner maintenance and the fewest weak points at the seams. That's Hardie, and it's the only thing we put on houses now.
Table: Quick Comparison
| Factor | LP SmartSide | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Base material | Engineered wood strands | Cement, sand, cellulose fiber |
| Combustibility | Combustible | Non-combustible |
| Finish maintenance | Repainting on a required schedule | Factory ColorPlus finish, warrantied |
| Moisture vulnerability | Higher at unsealed cuts/seams | Low; not wood-based |
| Climate-specific engineering | General purpose | HZ5 line for Pacific Northwest conditions |
If you're weighing siding options for a home in Blaine or elsewhere in Whatcom County, we're happy to walk through what we see in this climate and why we'd recommend Hardie for your project. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — there's no obligation, and we'll give you a straight answer.