Lynden Siding An Honest Look at Allura Fiber Cement Siding
Homeowners in Lynden ask us about Allura fairly often, usually after getting a second quote or reading about it online. It's a legitimate fiber cement product, and we don't want to pretend otherwise. But after years of installing and repairing siding across Whatcom County, we made a decision to install James Hardie exclusively — and we think you deserve the real reasons why, not vague talking points.
What Allura Gets Right
Allura is manufactured fiber cement, meaning it shares the same basic chemistry as the products we do install: cellulose fiber, sand, and Portland cement, cured into a rigid, non-combustible board. That puts it in a completely different category from vinyl or engineered wood. Fair credit where it's due:
- It's made in the U.S. and carries the fire resistance and dimensional stability that fiber cement is known for
- It's a lower-cost option than some competing fiber cement lines, which matters on tighter budgets
- It resists rot, pests, and impact far better than wood or vinyl siding
If a homeowner already has Allura on their home and it was installed correctly, we're not going to tell them it's failing or that they need to rip it off. That's not honest, and it's not our call to make about a product we didn't install.
Why We Don't Install It Ourselves
Finish and Warranty Fragmentation
This is the biggest issue for us. Allura board is frequently shipped primed rather than factory-finished, which means the actual paint or coating is applied later — sometimes by a separate coating company, sometimes on-site. That splits the warranty into pieces: the substrate has one warranty, the finish (if factory-applied) may have another, and site-applied paint carries whatever the painter or paint manufacturer offers, which is usually much shorter. When a homeowner calls us in ten years about fading or peeling, we want a single manufacturer standing behind the whole system, not three parties pointing at each other.
Support and Distribution in Whatcom County
Lynden sits close enough to the Salish Sea that our homes deal with real salt air, plus the driving, wind-pushed rain that rolls in off the Pacific most of the winter. Add the long moss season we get here from shade and standing moisture, and siding gets tested hard. James Hardie has built a deep distributor and installer network throughout the Pacific Northwest specifically because the region is demanding on exterior products. Allura's presence in this corner of Washington is thinner — replacement boards, matching trim profiles, and touch-up materials aren't always readily on hand locally when a homeowner needs a repair five or ten years down the road.
Cut-Edge and Moisture Detailing
Fiber cement is only as good as the installation, and every fiber cement product has vulnerable points at field cuts, butt joints, and penetrations where the factory finish doesn't cover the exposed edge. That edge has to be sealed correctly every time or it will wick moisture over the years — a real concern given how much driving rain and lingering damp we get in this part of Whatcom County. We've standardized our crews around one product's detailing requirements so there's no ambiguity on a rainy Tuesday in November about which sealant, which primer, and which sequence to use. Splitting our crews' attention across multiple fiber cement systems with different edge-treatment specs is how mistakes happen.
Why We Standardize on James Hardie
James Hardie's ColorPlus finish is baked on and cured at the factory as one integrated system, backed by a single manufacturer warranty that covers both the board and the finish — not a patchwork of separate guarantees. Hardie also engineers its HZ product lines by climate zone, so the boards specified for our region are built for the exact combination of moisture, wind-driven rain, and temperature swings we deal with here, rather than a one-size-fits-all formulation. Combined with a transferable warranty that matters if you ever sell the home, and a distribution and training network that's mature in this region, it's the system we're willing to put our name behind on every job.
None of this means Allura is a bad product or that a home with it installed is in trouble. It means that after weighing warranty structure, regional support, and the moisture challenges specific to Lynden and Whatcom County, we decided one system was worth building our entire business around. If you're weighing your options for a siding project, we're happy to walk through what we install and why — reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate and we'll give you the same straight answers you just read here.