Lynden Siding Vinyl Isn't a Bad Product — It's Just Not the Product We Stand Behind
We get asked about vinyl siding often enough that we think homeowners deserve a straight answer instead of a sales pitch. Vinyl is inexpensive, widely available, and easy for crews to install fast. Those are real advantages, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. But after years of working on homes throughout Lynden and the rest of Whatcom County, we made a decision to install James Hardie fiber cement exclusively, and we won't put vinyl on a house even when a customer requests it. Here's the honest reasoning behind that.
What Vinyl Gets Right
Vinyl siding is lightweight, low-cost, and doesn't need painting. For a lot of markets, especially drier climates, it holds up reasonably well for a couple of decades. It's also forgiving to manufacture in a huge range of colors and profiles. If price alone were the deciding factor, vinyl would win a lot of bids. We understand why it's still the most common siding material installed nationally.
Where It Runs Into Trouble Here
Lynden sits inland from Bellingham Bay but still gets plenty of salt-tinged marine air moving through Whatcom County, along with long stretches of driving rain off the Pacific and a moss season that can stretch from October well into spring. That combination is hard on any siding product, and it exposes vinyl's specific weak points:
- Thermal movement: Vinyl expands and contracts significantly with temperature swings. Panels are hung, not fastened tight, to allow for that movement — which means seams, waviness, and buckling are baked into the product's design, not just installation error.
- Impact and brittleness: In our cooler, wetter winters, vinyl gets brittle and cracks or shatters more easily from hail, thrown debris, or even an errant baseball. Once a panel cracks, it's a piece-by-piece patch job, and matching faded color years later is rarely clean.
- Moisture behind the panel: Vinyl is installed as a loose-fitting rain screen, which is fine in theory, but it also means moisture, salt-laden condensation, and organic growth can work their way behind panels over time, especially on north-facing or shaded walls where moss and algae thrive in our damp winters.
- Fade and color limits: Vinyl's color is mixed into the material, but darker, richer tones absorb heat and are prone to warping — which locks homeowners into a narrower, often lighter palette than they'd choose otherwise.
- Combustibility: Vinyl is a petroleum-based plastic. It will soften, deform, and burn in a sustained fire, which is a real consideration during Washington's summer wildfire smoke seasons even for homes not directly in a fire zone.
None of this means every vinyl-clad home in Lynden is falling apart. Plenty perform fine for years. But when we're the ones installing it and warranting our work, we have to weigh long-term performance in our specific climate, not just year-one appearance.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie Instead
James Hardie fiber cement is a different category of material. It's engineered from cement, sand, and cellulose fibers, which makes it non-combustible, dimensionally stable, and far less reactive to the temperature and moisture swings that give vinyl trouble. Hardie also builds region-specific product lines — the HZ5 formulation used in our climate zone is engineered for areas with more moisture cycling and freeze-thaw exposure, which fits Whatcom County's weather pattern better than a one-size-fits-all product.
The ColorPlus factory finish is baked on and warranted separately from the substrate, which means a much broader, deeper color range holds up without the fade and chalking that plagues field-painted or lower-grade siding. It's also heavy and rigid enough that it doesn't buckle, and moss and algae have a harder time getting a foothold on the surface.
Fiber cement isn't cheap, and it's less forgiving to install — it requires correct fastening, clearances, and caulking details, which is exactly why we treat installation as seriously as the product itself. But it's a material we're comfortable warrantying on a home that's going to face decades of Pacific storms, salt air, and moss season.
Our Bottom Line
| Consideration | Vinyl Siding | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | Lower | Higher |
| Impact/brittleness in cold | Prone to cracking | Rigid, impact-resistant |
| Moisture/moss resistance | Gaps allow buildup behind panels | Dense material, factory-sealed edges |
| Combustibility | Combustible plastic | Non-combustible |
| Color/finish longevity | Limited dark colors, fades over time | Baked-on ColorPlus finish, wide palette |
We'd rather turn down a vinyl job than install something we don't believe will hold up on a Whatcom County home for the long haul. If you're weighing siding options for a home in Lynden, we're happy to walk through what we see on the roofs and walls around here and give you a straightforward, no-pressure estimate on what Hardie fiber cement would look like for your project.