Orcas Island Siding A Straight Answer to a Question We Get Often
Homeowners on Orcas Island ask us about LP SmartSide fairly regularly, usually because a contractor quoted it, a neighbor has it, or a big-box store has it on display. It's a fair question, and it deserves a fair answer. LP SmartSide is not a scam product or a bad piece of engineering — it's a legitimate, widely used engineered wood siding that performs well in a lot of the country. We just don't install it here, and we think you deserve to know exactly why before you commit a siding budget to it.
This page isn't about trashing a competitor's product. It's about explaining, in plain terms, why a product that works fine in a drier inland climate is a harder sell on an island in San Juan County, where salt air, driving rain off the Strait, and a long moss season put real, sustained pressure on any siding material that has wood at its core.
What LP SmartSide Actually Is
LP SmartSide is an engineered wood siding made from strand board — wood strands bonded with resins and waxes under heat and pressure, then treated with a zinc borate solution for fungal and insect resistance, and finished with a primer coat at the factory. It's essentially a more durable, treated cousin of OSB, built specifically for exterior use. LP backs it with a warranty and has invested real engineering into making wood-based siding hold up better than the plain plywood and hardboard products that gave engineered wood a bad reputation in the 1990s.
What It Gets Right
- Lighter and easier to handle on-site than fiber cement, which can matter on smaller crews
- Accepts fasteners and cuts more like traditional wood siding, which some carpenters prefer
- Factory-applied primer gives it a head start over raw wood or field-primed products
- Zinc borate treatment genuinely improves resistance to fungal decay and insects compared to untreated wood
- Lower material cost than premium fiber cement in most markets
None of that is marketing spin — it's a reasonably engineered product, and in a climate with moderate rainfall and low humidity swings, a lot of installations perform well for years.
The Core Problem: It's Still Wood at Its Foundation
Strip away the resin treatment and factory primer, and the core of LP SmartSide is wood fiber. Wood absorbs moisture. It swells when wet and shrinks when it dries. The treatments slow that process and resist decay organisms, but they don't change the fundamental material behavior. On Orcas Island, siding doesn't get a break from moisture the way it might in a drier region — we get sustained fall and winter rain systems, marine fog that keeps surfaces damp for hours at a stretch, and salt-laden air that never fully lets a building envelope dry out the way an inland home does.
Fiber cement, by contrast, is essentially inert to moisture at the material level. It doesn't swell, it doesn't rot, and it doesn't feed fungal growth the way any wood-based product — treated or not — eventually can if water finds a way in.
Field Cuts and Edge Sealing Are Where It Breaks Down
The factory primer on LP SmartSide protects the face and the factory-cut edges. Every cut made on-site — around windows, doors, corners, and utility penetrations — exposes raw, untreated wood fiber that has to be field-sealed with the correct primer or sealant before installation, every single time, with no exceptions. Miss one cut edge, and that's the spot where moisture gets in, swells the fiber, and starts the slow process of edge failure, whether that shows up as puffing, soft spots, or eventual delamination. On a job with dozens of window and corner cuts, that's a lot of places for a single missed step to matter, and it's a labor-intensive discipline to maintain across an entire crew on every job.
This isn't a hypothetical manufacturing defect — it's a documented installation requirement in LP's own guidelines, and it's the single biggest reason engineered wood siding fails prematurely when it does fail. The product depends entirely on the installer treating every exposed edge as a moisture entry point, forever, with zero tolerance for a skipped step.
What This Looks Like Over Time on an Island Property
San Juan County's climate isn't extreme, but it is relentlessly damp. Long, low-angle winter light, dense tree cover on many lots, and marine humidity mean north- and west-facing walls in particular stay wet longer and dry out slower than the same wall would on the mainland east of the Cascades. That combination is exactly what accelerates moss and algae growth, and it's exactly the condition that stresses any moisture-sensitive siding material hardest.
The Maintenance Cycle Homeowners Should Expect
- Painted or factory-finished surfaces need periodic washing to keep moss and algae from taking hold, especially on shaded elevations
- Caulking at trim, corners, and penetrations needs regular inspection — engineered wood siding depends on that seal staying intact
- Any visible swelling, soft spots, or bubbling paint at seams should be addressed immediately, not left for the next paint cycle
- Repainting is typically needed on a shorter cycle than a factory-baked finish, adding a recurring cost most homeowners don't fully budget for upfront
None of this makes LP SmartSide unusable. It means the maintenance burden on a house exposed to constant marine moisture is real and ongoing, and it falls on the homeowner, not the manufacturer, once the installation is complete.
Installation Sensitivity We're Not Willing to Gamble On
We install siding on Orcas Island year-round, often on properties where scaffolding, material delivery, and repeat site visits mean a ferry trip and real logistics — not a quick run back to the shop for a forgotten tube of sealant. A siding product that requires perfect, repeated field-sealing discipline across every cut edge, on every wall, in every weather window, is a product where a single overlooked detail turns into a callback, or worse, a slow-developing problem a homeowner doesn't discover until years later.
We'd rather stand behind a material that doesn't ask that much of field conditions. That's a decision about risk management on our end as much as it is about the product itself.
How the Two Compare Side by Side
| Factor | LP SmartSide | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Core material | Engineered wood strand, resin-bonded | Cement, sand, and cellulose fiber |
| Moisture behavior | Resists but does not eliminate swelling/decay risk | Non-combustible, dimensionally stable, does not rot |
| Field-cut edges | Must be sealed on every cut, every time | Cut edges are not moisture-vulnerable in the same way |
| Factory finish | Primed; topcoat paint typically field- or factory-applied | ColorPlus baked-on finish available, resists fading and chipping |
| Repaint cycle | Shorter, climate-dependent | Longer, especially with ColorPlus finish |
| Warranty structure | Manufacturer warranty with standard exclusions for improper sealing | Strong transferable limited warranty backed by decades of coastal installations |
| Upfront material cost | Generally lower | Generally higher |
The upfront cost gap is real, and we won't pretend otherwise. But cost comparisons that stop at the material line miss the maintenance labor, repaint cycles, and edge-sealing discipline required to keep engineered wood performing over a 20- or 30-year window in a climate like ours.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie Instead
We made the decision to install James Hardie fiber cement exclusively, and nothing else — not LP SmartSide, not vinyl, not primed spruce or cedar. Hardie's HZ product lines are engineered specifically for climate zones like the Pacific Northwest, the material itself is non-combustible and doesn't feed moss or fungal growth the way wood fiber can, and the ColorPlus factory finish holds color and resists moisture intrusion at a level that doesn't depend on a crew getting every field-sealed edge right, every time, forever. It's backed by a strong transferable warranty and has a long track record on coastal and marine properties, which matters more here than almost anywhere else in Washington.
Standardizing on one product also means our crews get deep, repeated experience with its specific installation requirements — flashing details, fastener patterns, clearances — rather than switching methods between materials that behave differently in wet weather.
What to Ask If You're Still Considering Engineered Wood Siding
- Who is responsible for sealing every field-cut edge, and how is that verified before the wall is closed up?
- What does the warranty actually exclude if a cut edge wasn't properly sealed at installation?
- What's the realistic repaint interval for this specific product on a shaded, north-facing wall in a marine climate?
- Has the installer worked with this product on other San Juan County or Puget Sound properties, and can they explain how they handle moss and moisture exposure on those walls?
- What's the total cost picture over 20 years, including maintenance and repainting, not just the installed price today?
If a contractor can answer those clearly and confidently, that's a good sign regardless of what product they're recommending. If the answers are vague, that's worth paying attention to.
Our Honest Bottom Line
LP SmartSide isn't a bad product — it's a wood-based product asked to perform in a climate that's hard on wood-based products. On Orcas Island, where salt air, driving rain, and a long moss season are simply part of owning a home, we decided we'd rather install one material we trust completely than offer several options and hope the installation discipline holds up perfectly for decades. That's why every siding job we take on uses James Hardie fiber cement, and why we're upfront about why we don't offer the alternative.
If you're weighing siding options for a home here, we're happy to walk through what we'd actually recommend for your specific exposure, elevation, and budget. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate using the form below.