Sudden Valley Siding Cedar siding comes up a lot in conversations with Sudden Valley homeowners, and we understand why. It's a beautiful, natural material with real history in Pacific Northwest building. But after years of working on homes around Lake Whatcom and throughout Whatcom County, we made the decision to stop installing it. This page explains that decision honestly — what cedar does well, where it struggles in our specific climate, and why we put James Hardie fiber cement on homes instead.
What Cedar Gets Right
Cedar's appeal isn't a mystery. It has a warm, natural grain that no manufactured product fully replicates. It's a renewable material, it's relatively lightweight, and when it's brand new, it looks fantastic on almost any style of home. Western red cedar in particular has some natural rot resistance compared to other softwoods, and plenty of older homes in this region still have original cedar siding that's held up for decades under the right conditions.
If cedar siding were only judged on day one, it would be a strong contender. The problem is what happens over the following fifteen, twenty, thirty years — and that's the timeline that matters when we're standing behind our work.
Where Cedar Struggles in This Climate
Sudden Valley sits right on Lake Whatcom, and the broader Whatcom County exterior climate is defined by a few things that are tough on wood siding: driving rain that comes in sideways off the water, salt-laden air moving up from the Puget Sound corridor, and long stretches of gray, damp weather where surfaces simply don't get a chance to dry out. That combination is exactly what shortens the life of any wood product, cedar included.
Moisture Is the Core Issue
Wood siding needs to dry between rain events to stay healthy. In a climate with a genuine moss season lasting several months, cedar boards can stay damp far longer than they would in a drier region. Prolonged moisture exposure leads to:
- Cupping and warping as boards absorb and release water unevenly
- Splitting at fastener points and butt joints
- Moss and algae growth on north-facing and shaded elevations
- Gradual rot at the bottom edges of boards and around penetrations if finish coatings aren't kept up perfectly
The Maintenance Commitment Is Real
Cedar isn't a "finish it once and forget it" product. To get anywhere close to its potential lifespan, it needs to be re-stained or re-sealed on a recurring schedule — and in a wet, mossy climate like ours, that schedule tends to be more frequent than homeowners expect when they first choose the material. Skip a cycle or two, and moisture starts getting past the finish and into the wood itself. Once that happens, cosmetic problems become structural ones.
We've also found that a lot of cedar's real-world performance depends on details that are easy to get wrong during installation — proper back-priming, ventilation gaps, flashing details, and fastener choice all matter enormously with wood siding. Get any of those wrong and the siding's problems show up years earlier than they should, often after the original installer is long gone.
Fire and Insurance Considerations
Cedar is a combustible wood product. For some homeowners that's a minor consideration; for others, particularly with wildfire risk becoming a bigger conversation in the Pacific Northwest and insurers paying closer attention to exterior materials, it's a real factor in coverage and premiums. It's worth a homeowner's own research and a conversation with their insurance agent before committing either way.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie
We install James Hardie fiber cement siding exclusively, and cedar is a big part of why. Hardie's HZ5 product line is engineered specifically for climates like Whatcom County's — heavy moisture, freeze-thaw cycling, and the kind of sustained damp weather that defines our moss season. Fiber cement doesn't absorb water the way wood does, so it isn't prone to the cupping, splitting, and rot that come from repeated wet-dry cycling.
The factory-applied ColorPlus finish is baked on under controlled conditions and backed by its own finish warranty, which removes the recurring re-staining burden that comes with cedar. Homeowners aren't stuck watching a maintenance calendar to protect their investment. Hardie is also non-combustible, which matters both for peace of mind and for insurance conversations. And because it's a manufactured, engineered product rather than a natural one, board-to-board performance is far more consistent — there's no relying on which tree a particular piece came from.
| Factor | Cedar | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Moisture behavior | Absorbs and releases water; prone to cupping/splitting | Dimensionally stable; engineered for wet climates |
| Maintenance | Recurring re-staining/sealing required | Factory finish, minimal upkeep |
| Combustibility | Combustible | Non-combustible |
| Finish consistency | Varies board to board | Consistent, factory-applied |
None of this means cedar is a bad material in every setting — it just means that, given what this climate does to wood over time, we can't in good conscience install it and stand behind it the way we stand behind Hardie. Our reputation is built on siding that still looks and performs well fifteen and twenty years out, not just on installation day.
If you're weighing cedar against fiber cement for a home in Sudden Valley or anywhere else in Whatcom County, we're happy to walk through the specifics with you in person. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — we'll look at your home, talk through the trade-offs honestly, and help you figure out what makes sense for your budget and your house.