Anacortes Siding Two Fiber Cement Products, One Installer's Choice
If you've priced out siding in Anacortes, you've probably run into two names that look similar on paper: James Hardie and Cemplank (made by Plycem/Allura). Both are fiber cement products — a mix of Portland cement, sand, and cellulose fibers pressed into planks and panels. Both are marketed as durable, fire-resistant alternatives to wood and vinyl. And both show up on bid sheets across Skagit County.
We get asked often enough why we quote Hardie on every job and never offer Cemplank as an option. It's a fair question, and the honest answer isn't that Cemplank is a bad product. It's a reasonable fiber cement siding. The answer is about consistency, factory finish quality, and what we've found actually holds up over 20-30 years on homes exposed to Puget Sound salt air, driving winter rain, and the long moss season that comes with our marine climate. We'd rather install one product extremely well than juggle two and be mediocre at both.
What Cemplank Gets Right
Cemplank is a legitimate fiber cement siding, not a knockoff. It's non-combustible, resists rot and insect damage the way all fiber cement does, and it's been on the market long enough to have a real track record. For a homeowner comparing it against vinyl or wood, Cemplank is a clear step up in durability and fire performance.
Where it competes reasonably well with Hardie is on raw material composition — both companies use similar cement-fiber formulations, and both cut and score in the field with the same basic tools and techniques. A crew that knows fiber cement installation isn't starting from zero on either product.
Where the Two Diverge
The differences show up in the details: factory finish process, regional product engineering, plank consistency, and — critically for us — availability of local warranty support and factory-trained installation standards. Those details matter more than they sound like they should, especially in a climate that's hard on exterior finishes.
Factory Finish: The Detail That Matters Most Here
Anacortes sits right on the water, which means every board on a house here deals with salt-laden air, condensation cycles, and moss growth that most inland siding never has to survive. The factory finish on fiber cement siding is the first line of defense against all of that, and it's the area where we've seen the clearest gap between products.
James Hardie's ColorPlus finish is baked on in a controlled factory process, cured before the boards ever leave the plant, and backed by a dedicated finish warranty separate from the product warranty. Cemplank's factory-finish programs have varied by region and over time, and the color consistency and warranty structure haven't matched what we can promise a homeowner with Hardie. When we're telling a client "this paint job will outlast a typical repaint cycle," we want to be backing that claim with a finish we trust completely, not one we're hoping performs the same as it did on the last job.
Product Line Depth
Hardie builds distinct product lines engineered for different climate zones and different parts of a house — lap siding, shingle siding, soffit panels, trim boards, and their HZ5 formulation designed specifically for wetter, harsher climates like ours. That gives us one manufacturer's engineering behind every component on the exterior, all designed to work together.
Cemplank's lineup is narrower. That's not a knock on the product — it's simply a smaller catalog to design a full exterior system from. When we're specifying trim, soffit, and lap siding on the same house, we want those pieces engineered by the same company to expand and contract together through our wet winters and dry summer stretches.
| Factor | James Hardie | Cemplank |
|---|---|---|
| Factory finish process | ColorPlus, factory-cured, separate finish warranty | Varies by region and finish program |
| Climate-specific engineering | HZ5 line built for wet/coastal regions | Standard formulation, less regional differentiation |
| Product line depth | Full system: lap, shingle, panel, soffit, trim | Narrower catalog |
| Warranty structure | Long-term, transferable, well-documented claims process | Manufacturer warranty exists, less field-tested locally |
| Local installer familiarity | Deep — most Northwest fiber cement crews trained on it | Less common on regional jobs |
Warranty Is Only as Good as the Paper Trail
A 30-year warranty means very little if the claims process is slow, the manufacturer's regional support is thin, or the installer who could vouch for correct installation has moved on. Hardie's warranty program is one of the most established in the fiber cement industry, and because it's the product almost every fiber cement crew in the Pacific Northwest installs, there's a deep bench of contractors and manufacturer reps who can speak to a specific job years later if a claim comes up.
With less common products, we've seen homeowners run into a thinner support network when something needs to be addressed under warranty — not because the manufacturer is dishonest, but because the regional infrastructure of trained installers and local reps simply isn't as built out.
Why We Standardized on One Product
Running two fiber cement product lines through one crew sounds efficient on paper, but in practice it means splitting training, splitting fastener and flashing details between two spec sheets, and never building the same depth of muscle memory on either one. We chose to install Hardie exclusively so that:
- Every crew member trains on one installation spec, not two, and knows it cold
- We can speak with confidence about long-term performance because we're not guessing across product lines
- Warranty registration and manufacturer support follow one consistent, well-documented process
- Every job — from a small addition to a full re-side — pulls from the same trim, soffit, and panel system
That focus is also why installation quality matters as much as the product choice. Fiber cement, whichever brand, fails early when it's installed wrong — improper clearance from grade, wrong fastener pattern, unsealed butt joints, or missing kick-out flashing. A well-installed lesser-known product will usually outlast a poorly installed premium one. We'd rather remove the installation-quality question entirely by using the manufacturer we know best, installed to spec, every time.
How Our Climate Changes the Calculation
Skagit County's exterior siding takes a specific kind of beating: salt air pulling moisture into every seam, driving rain that finds any gap in flashing, and a moss season that runs long enough to keep north-facing walls damp for months at a stretch. That combination punishes weak points in a siding system faster than a drier inland climate would.
This is exactly why factory finish quality and climate-specific product engineering aren't marketing details to us — they're the difference between a re-side that looks good for five years and one that looks good for twenty-five. HZ5 boards, correctly flashed and fastened, are built with this exact moisture load in mind. That's a meaningful factor when you're deciding what goes on a house two blocks from the water in Anacortes versus a house fifty miles inland.
What to Ask Any Siding Contractor Before You Hire
- Which fiber cement product do you install, and why did you choose it over the alternatives?
- Are your installers factory-trained on that specific product's fastening and flashing requirements?
- What does the warranty actually cover, and who handles a claim if one comes up in ten years?
- How do you detail moisture-prone areas — kick-out flashing, butt joints, ground clearance — for our climate specifically?
- Can you walk me through the difference between the finish warranty and the product warranty?
Any contractor who's thought carefully about their product choice should have straightforward answers to all five. If the answer to "why this product" is just "it's cheaper," that's worth knowing before you sign anything.
The Bottom Line
Cemplank isn't a product we'd tell you to avoid outright — it's a real fiber cement siding with real durability advantages over vinyl or wood. But when we looked at factory finish consistency, climate-specific engineering, product line depth, and warranty support, James Hardie was the clear standard for the conditions homes face here on the water in Anacortes. Standardizing on one manufacturer also means our crews install it better, because it's the only spec they ever have to know.
If you're weighing siding options for a home in Anacortes or anywhere else in Skagit County, we're glad to walk through what we install, why, and what it would look like on your specific house. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — there's a form right below this page.