Bellingham Exterior Allura Isn't a Bad Product — It's Just Not What We Put on Your House
We get this question a lot: "Why don't you install Allura? Isn't it fiber cement too?" It's a fair question, and it deserves an honest answer instead of a sales pitch. Allura is a real fiber cement siding manufacturer, and fiber cement as a category is genuinely a good choice for a wet, coastal climate like ours. The issue isn't that Allura is junk. The issue is that after years of installing siding on homes throughout Bellingham and Whatcom County, we made a deliberate decision to standardize on one manufacturer — James Hardie — and stop installing everything else, Allura included.
What Allura Gets Right
Credit where it's due: Allura fiber cement is non-combustible, holds paint reasonably well, and resists the rot and insect damage that plague wood siding. It's manufactured to the same general ASTM fiber cement standards as other brands, and plenty of contractors install it successfully. If your only concern is "wood versus fiber cement," Allura clears that bar.
Why We Still Say No
Our reasons come down to four things we care about on every job: factory finish quality, climate-specific engineering, warranty backing, and long-term product support in this region.
Factory Finish
James Hardie's ColorPlus finish is baked on and cured at the factory in multiple coats, with a documented adhesion and fade warranty attached to the finish itself, not just the board. That matters here more than in drier climates — Bellingham's driving rain and long stretches of gray, damp weather are hard on any exterior coating. A finish that chalks, fades unevenly, or needs field touch-up within a few years turns into a maintenance headache for the homeowner, not the installer. We'd rather not put our name on a wall that needs repainting sooner than it should.
Climate-Engineered Product Lines
James Hardie builds region-specific formulations — HZ5 and HZ10 lines engineered for freeze-thaw cycling, moisture exposure, and the kind of sustained damp conditions we get in the Pacific Northwest. That's not marketing language; it changes how the board is formulated and how it performs over 20-plus years of Whatcom County weather. We're not aware of Allura offering the same level of regional engineering differentiation, and when we're installing something that has to survive salt air rolling in off the bay, months of moss season, and driving winter rain, we want a product built for exactly that.
Warranty Structure
James Hardie's warranty is transferable to a new owner if the home sells, which matters a lot in a market where houses change hands. It's also backed by a manufacturer with decades of runway and a track record of honoring claims at scale. Warranty paperwork only means something if the company behind it is still standing behind it in year 15. We'd rather sell a homeowner a warranty we're confident holds up than one we can't fully vouch for.
Local Support and Consistency
Because we install one system exclusively, our crews know it cold — every trim detail, every fastening pattern, every flashing approach for James Hardie's specific requirements. Distributors in our area stock it reliably, so repairs and color matches down the road are straightforward. Spreading our crews thin across multiple manufacturers' spec sheets, each with different install tolerances and touch-up products, is how mistakes happen. Specializing is how we avoid them.
Why This Matters More in Bellingham Than Elsewhere
Siding decisions that are marginal in a dry climate become real problems here. Whatcom County sees a genuine moss season that keeps north-facing walls damp for weeks at a time. Salt air off the water accelerates corrosion on fasteners and stresses factory finishes faster than inland installations. And our driving, wind-blown rain finds every gap in flashing and caulking that a fair-weather climate would never expose. None of that means Allura would fail on your house — it means we're not willing to bet a client's siding investment on a product where we can't personally vouch for how it performs after two decades of this specific weather.
The Bottom Line
We didn't standardize on James Hardie because it's the only fiber cement option on the market. We did it because after weighing finish durability, climate-specific formulations, warranty strength, and our own crews' expertise, it's the product we're most confident will still look and perform the way we promised ten or twenty years from now. That's the standard we hold every job to, and it's why we don't install Allura, LP SmartSide, vinyl, Cemplank, or primed wood siding either — not because those products don't exist for a reason, but because we've picked one system we know inside and out and can stand behind completely.
Have Questions About Your Siding Options?
If you're weighing siding materials for a home in Bellingham or elsewhere in Whatcom County, we're happy to walk through what we'd recommend and why. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — we'll look at your home's exposure, current siding condition, and budget, and give you a straight answer, not a sales pitch.