Anacortes Siding What LP SmartSide Is, and What It Gets Right
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood siding product built from wood strands bonded with resins, treated with a zinc-borate-based process (LP calls it SmartGuard) to resist fungal decay and insects, then coated with a factory primer or finish. It's been on the market for decades, it's lighter than fiber cement, it cuts and nails more like traditional wood, and in a lot of parts of the country it performs reasonably well. It's also generally less expensive up front than fiber cement, which is a real factor for a lot of homeowners.
We're not going to pretend LP SmartSide is a bad product across the board. It has a legitimate place in the siding market, and plenty of licensed, competent contractors install it. This page isn't about telling you it's junk. It's about explaining why, after weighing the trade-offs against what our customers in Skagit County actually deal with year after year, we made the call to stop installing it and put James Hardie fiber cement on every home we side.
Why We Don't Install It
It's Still Wood
Strand-based and resin-saturated or not, LP SmartSide's core is engineered wood. Wood products resist moisture better than they used to, but they don't stop being wood — they can still swell, delaminate, or break down if water gets past the finish and stays in contact with the substrate for extended periods. The SmartGuard treatment slows decay; it doesn't make the product waterproof or immune to long-term moisture exposure.
Installation Tolerance Is Thin
LP SmartSide performs the way it's supposed to only when it's installed exactly to spec — correct clearance from grade, correct flashing at every penetration, correct caulking at butt joints and trim, correct fastener placement, correct paint maintenance on any field-cut or exposed edge. Skip one of those steps, or let maintenance slide for a few years, and that's exactly where problems start. We'd rather install a product where a small installation or maintenance lapse doesn't turn into a moisture problem behind the wall.
Cut Edges Need Ongoing Attention
Every time a piece gets cut in the field — around a window, at a corner, at a utility penetration — that raw edge needs to be sealed and kept sealed. On a fiber cement product, an unsealed cut edge is a cosmetic issue. On an engineered wood product, an unsealed cut edge is where water gets in. That's a maintenance obligation we don't want to hand a homeowner, and it's a callback risk we don't want to carry as the installer.
Anacortes and Skagit County Make These Trade-offs Sharper
This isn't a product that fails everywhere it's installed — plenty of installations in drier climates go decades without trouble. But Anacortes isn't a dry climate. We're on the water, we get salt air rolling in off Rosario Strait and the Guemes Channel, and our winters bring long stretches of driving rain pushed sideways by wind off the Sound. Add in the shaded, damp conditions under mature evergreens that a lot of Skagit County lots have, and you get a long moss season on north- and west-facing walls that keeps siding surfaces wet longer than they would be in most of the country.
Salt air accelerates the breakdown of paint films and caulk joints faster than inland air does. Driving rain finds gaps in flashing and trim that might never get tested in a calmer climate. And moss holds moisture directly against the siding surface for weeks at a time. None of that is catastrophic for a well-built wall system, but it does mean the margin for installation or maintenance error is smaller here than it is in, say, eastern Washington. We'd rather build in that margin from the start than count on every homeowner staying on top of caulk and paint touch-ups for the life of the siding.
LP SmartSide vs. James Hardie Fiber Cement
| Factor | LP SmartSide (engineered wood) | James Hardie (fiber cement) |
|---|---|---|
| Core material | Wood strand, resin-bonded | Cement, sand, cellulose fiber |
| Moisture behavior | Resists decay when sealed; can swell/delaminate if water penetrates and stays | Doesn't rot, swell, or support fungal growth |
| Fire performance | Combustible (treated for decay, not fire) | Non-combustible |
| Cut edge maintenance | Must be sealed and monitored ongoing | Should be primed/painted, but not a moisture entry point the way raw wood is |
| Factory finish | Primed or pre-finished, repaint cycle typical | ColorPlus baked-on finish, longer repaint interval |
| Coastal/wet climate track record | Performs best with strict install and maintenance discipline | Engineered specifically for high-moisture climate zones (HZ5) |
| Upfront cost | Generally lower | Generally higher |
The honest summary: LP SmartSide asks more of the installation and more of the homeowner's ongoing maintenance to get the same long-term moisture resistance that fiber cement gives you by default. That gap matters more in Anacortes than it would in a dry, low-wind climate.
What Correct LP Installation Actually Requires
If a homeowner does choose engineered wood siding — from us or anyone else — here's what a genuinely correct installation has to include. We list this not to scare anyone off the product, but because it illustrates how many steps have to go right, every time, for it to hold up:
- Minimum clearance maintained between the siding bottom edge and grade, decking, or roofing
- Factory-primed or field-primed cut edges sealed before installation, not after
- Correct flashing and kick-out flashing at every roof-to-wall intersection and window/door head
- Proper caulking at all butt joints, trim intersections, and penetrations, using a compatible sealant
- Fasteners set to manufacturer depth and spacing — overdriven nails create moisture entry points
- A repaint or recoat cycle kept on schedule rather than deferred
- Prompt attention to any moss, algae, or standing debris buildup against the siding face
Every item on that list is achievable. But it's a list that has to be executed correctly on day one and then maintained for the life of the siding. Fiber cement removes several of those failure points entirely.
Warranty Structure: What's Really Covered
LP SmartSide carries a manufacturer warranty, but like most siding warranties it's prorated after the first several years and it typically has installation and maintenance requirements attached — meaning a claim can be reduced or denied if the product wasn't installed or maintained to spec. That's not unique to LP; it's how most siding warranties work. But it puts real weight on getting every installation detail right, since a shortcut during install can affect coverage years down the road, long after the original crew is gone.
James Hardie's warranty structure is a major reason we standardized on their product. It's transferable to a new owner if the home sells, which matters to buyers evaluating an older home, and it's tied to a product engineered for the specific climate zone it's installed in.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie
We install James Hardie fiber cement exclusively — not LP SmartSide, not vinyl, not Cemplank, Allura, primed spruce, or cedar. Fiber cement doesn't rot, doesn't support fungal growth, and won't swell or delaminate the way wood-based products can if water gets behind them. It's non-combustible, which matters increasingly to insurers and to homeowners thinking about wildfire exposure even in a coastal county. Hardie's HZ product lines are engineered specifically for climate zones like ours, and the ColorPlus factory finish holds color and resists the fading and chalking that salt air and UV accelerate on field-painted surfaces.
Standardizing on one product also means our crews install it constantly — the flashing details, the fastening schedule, the joint treatment are second nature, not something relearned on every different product line. That consistency is worth more to long-term performance than any single spec sheet.
If You Already Have LP SmartSide
If your home currently has LP SmartSide and it's performing fine, we're not going to tell you to rip it off. Keep the caulk joints maintained, keep the paint schedule current, keep an eye on any north- or west-facing walls where moss tends to build up, and address any soft spots or swelling immediately rather than waiting. When it does come time to replace it — whether due to age, damage, or a remodel — that's the point where we'd walk you through why we'd recommend Hardie fiber cement as the replacement, and what that would look like on your specific home.
If you're planning a siding project in Anacortes or elsewhere in Skagit County and want a straight answer about what's on your walls now and what we'd recommend instead, we're happy to take a look. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate using the form below.