Fairhaven Siding We Used to Install Cedar — Here's Why We Stopped
Cedar siding has a long history in Whatcom County. It's a native wood, it looks beautiful fresh off the truck, and there's a real craft tradition behind it in the Pacific Northwest. For years, cedar was a standard recommendation for homes in Fairhaven and the surrounding areas. We're not writing this page to trash the product. We're writing it because, after years of installing and repairing cedar siding in this exact climate, we made a business decision to stop offering it — and homeowners deserve to know why before they sign a contract with anyone, including us.
This isn't about cedar being a "bad" product in the abstract. In a dry climate, properly maintained cedar can last decades. The problem is that Fairhaven isn't a dry climate. Between salt air off Bellingham Bay, driving rain that comes in sideways for months at a time, and a moss season that can run from October through May, cedar siding is fighting an uphill battle here that it doesn't have to fight in Denver or Sacramento.
What Cedar Actually Gets Right
To be fair to the product: cedar has natural oils that provide some rot and insect resistance compared to other softwoods. It's lightweight, it's workable, and when it's finished well and kept up on a strict schedule, it has a warmth and texture that manufactured products still try to imitate. Cedar shakes and shingles also have genuine historical and architectural value on certain home styles common around Whatcom County, and we understand why homeowners are drawn to it.
The honest issue isn't the wood itself on day one. It's what happens to that wood over the next 10, 20, and 30 years when it's mounted vertically on a wall that faces the weather coming off the water.
Where Cedar Performs Best
- Covered porches, gables, and areas with generous roof overhangs that shed rain away from the wall
- Homes with a realistic annual maintenance budget and a homeowner willing to do it every year, not every five years
- Drier interior climates without sustained coastal moisture and salt exposure
The Climate Problem: Salt Air, Driving Rain, and Moss
Fairhaven sits close enough to Bellingham Bay that salt-laden air is a constant, low-grade factor on exterior materials — it accelerates finish breakdown and fastener corrosion in ways that inland siding jobs never have to deal with. Add in the driving, wind-blown rain that Whatcom County gets for a good chunk of the year, and you have moisture being pushed into every seam, joint, and end-grain cut on a cedar wall, not just falling straight down onto it.
Then there's moss. Cedar is an organic material, and in our long, wet, shaded shoulder seasons, moss and algae find cedar siding to be an excellent place to grow — especially on north-facing walls and anywhere tree cover keeps a wall from drying out between storms. Once moss and algae take hold, they hold moisture directly against the wood surface, which is exactly the condition that leads to soft spots, cupping, and rot underneath a finish that still looks okay from the street.
What Cedar Maintenance Actually Requires
This is the part that doesn't always get spelled out clearly at the time of installation. Cedar siding is not a "install it and forget it" product anywhere, and it's especially not that in a marine climate like ours. To get anywhere near its potential lifespan, cedar needs:
- Re-staining or re-sealing on a cycle of roughly every 3-5 years, sometimes sooner on sun- and rain-exposed elevations
- Regular washing to remove moss, algae, and mildew before it embeds itself in the wood grain
- Prompt caulking and touch-up any time a board checks, splits, or a finish coat starts to fail
- Careful attention to end grain at corners, butt joints, and trim — the spots where water gets in first
- Periodic inspection behind and around the siding for hidden moisture damage, which often isn't visible until it's advanced
Most homeowners don't sign up for that schedule when they choose cedar for its looks. They find out about it a few years in, when the finish starts chalking, boards start cupping, or a contractor points out soft wood during an unrelated repair. By the time cedar problems are visible, there's often already work happening underneath the surface.
Moisture Behavior and Installation Sensitivity
Cedar siding is far less forgiving of installation shortcuts than most homeowners realize. Board spacing, fastener choice, back-priming, flashing detail at every penetration, and proper ventilation behind the siding all matter enormously with wood. Get any of those wrong — which happens more often than it should, even with experienced crews — and you've built a moisture trap instead of a weather barrier.
That sensitivity is a real problem in a wet climate. A fiber cement product has a much wider margin for error because the material itself doesn't absorb and swell with moisture the way wood does. Cedar, by contrast, expands and contracts with humidity, which stresses paint and stain films, opens hairline cracks, and accelerates the exact deterioration cycle that leads to expensive repairs.
Common Failure Points We've Seen
| Location | Typical Issue |
|---|---|
| Butt joints between boards | Water intrusion at end grain, leading to soft, rotted sections |
| North and shaded elevations | Moss and algae growth holding moisture against the wood |
| Lower courses near grade or landscaping | Splashback moisture and slower drying time |
| Around window and door trim | Caulk failure exposing raw wood to weather |
| Fastener heads | Corrosion staining and loosening from salt-air exposure |
Cost Over Time: Cedar vs. Fiber Cement
The sticker price on cedar can look competitive, or even cheaper, than fiber cement at the time of installation. The real comparison has to include what it costs to keep the product performing over the life of the home. Here's the honest breakdown as we see it in this region:
| Factor | Cedar Siding | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Finish maintenance cycle | Every 3-5 years | ColorPlus factory finish, no repainting on the standard cycle |
| Moisture/rot risk | Higher, especially at joints and end grain | Non-combustible, engineered to resist moisture damage |
| Moss/algae resistance | Low without regular cleaning | Higher; smoother factory finish sheds growth more easily |
| Climate engineering | Generic to the species | HZ product lines engineered for regional moisture and temperature |
| Warranty | Typically limited to material only, if any | Strong transferable warranty on material and finish |
| Insurance/fire consideration | Combustible material | Non-combustible |
Why We Standardized on James Hardie Instead
After years of pulling moss-covered, soft-boarded cedar off homes in Fairhaven and replacing it, we made the call to only install James Hardie fiber cement siding. It isn't wood, so it doesn't absorb moisture and swell the way cedar does, and it isn't feeding a moss and algae problem the same way an organic material will in a wet, shaded climate. The ColorPlus factory-applied finish is baked on under controlled conditions, not brushed on in the field, which gives it a longer, more consistent lifespan than field-applied stain or paint on cedar.
Hardie also builds specific HZ product lines engineered for different climate zones, which matters in a place like Whatcom County where wind-driven rain and coastal humidity are a real design consideration, not an afterthought. It's non-combustible, which is worth something both for peace of mind and, in some cases, for insurance. And it carries a strong, transferable warranty — the kind of backing that reflects a manufacturer's confidence in how the product performs over decades, not just years.
We're not claiming Hardie is maintenance-free forever. No exterior product is. But the maintenance burden is dramatically lower, and the failure modes we see constantly with cedar in this climate — soft boards, moss-driven rot, finish breakdown, joint failure — are far less common with fiber cement installed to spec.
What This Means If You're Planning a Siding Project
If you're set on the look of natural wood, we'll tell you honestly what that commitment involves rather than just taking the job. If you're open to a product that gives you a similar clean, dimensional look with a fraction of the upkeep, that's the conversation worth having.
Questions Worth Asking Before You Choose a Siding Material
- Am I willing and able to commit to re-staining every 3-5 years, indefinitely?
- How much shade and moisture does my specific elevation get, especially on the north and west sides?
- What does the manufacturer's warranty actually cover — material only, or finish and labor too?
- Is the material engineered for a marine, high-rainfall climate, or is it a general-purpose product?
- What's the realistic total cost over 20 years, not just the installed price today?
We'd rather have this conversation up front than install something we know will disappoint a homeowner five years down the road. If you're weighing cedar against fiber cement, or just want an honest read on what your current siding is telling you, we're happy to walk your home with you and give you a straight, no-pressure estimate.