Everett Homeowners in Everett and across Snohomish County ask us about LP SmartSide often enough that we think it deserves a straight answer. It's a well-marketed engineered wood siding product, and it has real strengths. It's also a product we've made a deliberate decision not to install. Here's the honest reasoning, not a sales pitch against a competitor.
What LP SmartSide Gets Right
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood product made from strand board treated with resins and zinc borate for insect and fungal resistance, then coated with a wax layer. It's lighter than fiber cement, easier to cut and nail without special blades, and generally less expensive up front. For some builders and some climates, it's a reasonable siding choice. We're not disputing that.
Why We Don't Put It On Homes Here
It's Still a Wood-Based Product
At its core, SmartSide is engineered wood — strand board, not solid lumber, but wood fiber all the same. Wood-based products depend on an intact factory coating and correctly sealed cut edges, seams, and fastener penetrations to keep moisture out. In a marine climate like Everett's, where salt air, driving rain off Puget Sound, and a long moss-and-mildew season are simply part of the year, that dependency worries us. Once moisture works past the coating at a joint, corner, or nail hole, the substrate can swell, delaminate, or soften from the inside — often before it's visible from the ground.
Installation Sensitivity
SmartSide's warranty and performance depend heavily on installers following LP's caulking, flashing, and clearance specifications to the letter — every cut edge sealed, every panel gapped and caulked correctly, proper ground clearance maintained. That's true of most siding products to some degree, but the margin for error is narrower with an engineered wood substrate than with fiber cement. On a re-roof, deck build, or trim replacement years later, if the next contractor doesn't reseal a disturbed edge, that's an opening for moisture. We'd rather not install a product where a future stranger's shortcut can undermine the whole wall.
Long-Term Maintenance Burden
SmartSide needs to be repainted on a maintenance schedule to keep its protective coating intact — typically similar intervals to other painted wood sidings. In a county that sees extended wet stretches and moss growth on north-facing and shaded walls, that maintenance schedule tends to compress. Homeowners who fall behind on repainting are the ones we see with the worst moisture problems down the line.
Fire Performance
Wood-based siding, even treated and engineered, is combustible. Fiber cement is not. That's a meaningful distinction for insurance conversations and for peace of mind, particularly as wildfire smoke and drought summers have become more common even on the wet side of the state.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie Instead
We install James Hardie fiber cement exclusively, and it comes down to matching the product to what actually survives long-term in this climate:
- Non-combustible core. Fiber cement doesn't burn, full stop — no coating or sealing schedule required to maintain that property.
- Built for wet climates. Hardie's HZ10 product line is engineered specifically for the Pacific Northwest's moisture exposure, not a generic national spec.
- Factory-applied ColorPlus finish. The color and protective coating are baked on at the factory under controlled conditions, backed by its own finish warranty, rather than relying on a field-applied coating and a homeowner repainting schedule.
- Moisture behavior. Fiber cement doesn't swell, rot, or delaminate the way wood-based products can when water gets past a seam.
- Warranty structure. Hardie backs its siding with a strong, transferable product warranty — a real asset when a home sells.
The Trade-Off, Honestly
Fiber cement costs more up front than SmartSide and it's heavier and more labor-intensive to install correctly, which is part of why we're deliberate about installation technique on every job. That's the trade we've decided is worth making. We'd rather install a product once that holds up through decades of Snohomish County rain, salt air, and moss season than install something less expensive that asks the homeowner to stay ahead of a repainting schedule to keep moisture out.
| Factor | LP SmartSide | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Core material | Engineered wood strand | Fiber cement (non-combustible) |
| Moisture risk if coating fails | Swelling, delamination | Does not swell or rot |
| Maintenance | Repainting on a schedule | Factory-baked ColorPlus finish |
| Fire performance | Combustible | Non-combustible |
| Upfront cost | Lower | Higher |
If you're planning a siding project in Everett or anywhere in Snohomish County and want to talk through what actually makes sense for your home, we're happy to take a look and give you a straight, no-pressure estimate.