Burlington Two Very Different Materials, One Big Decision
If you're replacing siding in Burlington or anywhere else in Skagit County, you've almost certainly narrowed it down to two finalists: vinyl and fiber cement. They're both common, both widely available, and both get installed on homes up and down the Skagit Valley every year. But they are not close substitutes for each other once you look past the sticker price. One is a thin plastic skin. The other is a dense, engineered board that behaves more like masonry than plastic. This page is an honest look at both, including where vinyl earns its reputation and where it tends to let homeowners down in our specific climate.
We'll say up front: this company installs James Hardie fiber cement siding exclusively. We don't install vinyl. That's a professional standard, not a knock on every vinyl product ever made — plenty of vinyl siding is manufactured to a reasonable standard and performs fine in drier climates. Our reasoning is specific to what we see happen to exterior cladding here, between the marine air coming off Puget Sound, the volume of driving rain we get from fall through spring, and the long stretch of damp, low-sun months that keep north- and west-facing walls wet for days at a time.
What Vinyl Siding Gets Right
Low Upfront Cost
Vinyl is the least expensive siding material on the market by a meaningful margin, and that's a real advantage for homeowners working with a tight budget. There's no painting required at installation, and lower-end products can be installed quickly, which keeps labor costs down too.
Minimal Routine Maintenance
Vinyl doesn't need to be repainted, and it doesn't absorb water the way wood does, so it won't rot in the traditional sense. A rinse with a hose once or twice a year handles most surface grime. For a homeowner who wants to spend as little time as possible thinking about their siding, that's a legitimate selling point.
Wide Color and Style Availability
Vinyl comes in a huge range of profiles and colors, including options that mimic cedar shake or board-and-batten. It's a flexible product from a design standpoint, and manufacturers have gotten better over the years at improving the texture and depth of the panels.
Where Vinyl Struggles in Skagit County's Climate
It Moves With Temperature
Vinyl expands and contracts significantly with temperature swings — more than most homeowners expect. It has to be installed "loose" in its nailing slots to allow for that movement. Installed too tight, it buckles and waves; installed too loose, it can rattle in wind or blow off in a storm off the Sound. That installation window is narrower than most people realize, and it's one of the most common sources of vinyl siding failure we see on older homes in the area.
Moisture Gets Behind It, Not Through It
Vinyl itself doesn't absorb water, but it also isn't sealed at the seams or the bottom edges of each course. In a region with as much driving rain as Burlington gets, wind-driven moisture can work its way behind vinyl panels and sit against the wall sheathing, especially on exposed elevations. Because the panels overlap loosely by design, that moisture doesn't always find its way back out quickly. Trapped moisture behind siding is a slower, quieter problem than a visibly failing material, which is part of what makes it concerning — it can be doing damage for years before anyone notices a soft spot near a window or door.
Moss, Mildew, and the Long Wet Season
Skagit County's moss season is long, and vinyl's textured, low-gloss surfaces give algae and mildew plenty of grip, particularly on the shaded north and east sides of a house under fir and cedar canopy. It's not that vinyl "grows" moss any more than other materials, but its surface texture and the way it holds a thin film of moisture after our fall and winter rains make it a hospitable surface for it.
UV Fading and Brittleness
Vinyl color is mixed into the material rather than applied as a finish coat, which sounds durable, but the color still fades with UV exposure over the years, and the material becomes noticeably more brittle with age. A vinyl panel that flexes fine at year two can crack from a stray baseball or a ladder bump at year fifteen. Once a panel cracks, matching the original color for a patch repair gets harder every year, since manufacturers rotate their color lines.
What Fiber Cement Gets Right
It's Dense, Not Hollow
Fiber cement is a mix of cement, sand, and cellulose fibers pressed into a rigid board. It doesn't flex with temperature the way vinyl does, doesn't dent from hail or debris the way vinyl can, and it holds paint and factory finishes in a way a plastic product simply can't. That density is also why it stands up better to wind-driven rain: it doesn't rely on loose overlapping panels to manage water, and it's installed with a rigid, properly flashed and caulked system designed to shed water rather than let it migrate behind the cladding.
Non-Combustible
James Hardie siding is non-combustible, which matters more every year in Washington given the state's wildfire seasons. It won't melt or ignite from a nearby ember the way vinyl can.
Built for Wet Climates
James Hardie manufactures its HZ5 product line specifically for climates like ours — engineered to resist moisture damage and hold up under sustained wet-weather exposure. That's a meaningful difference from a one-size-fits-all product line, because a house in Burlington experiences a very different year than a house in Phoenix.
ColorPlus Factory Finish
Rather than being painted on-site, ColorPlus finishes are baked on in a factory-controlled process, which gives a harder, more UV- and moisture-resistant finish than field-applied paint and comes backed by its own finish warranty separate from the substrate warranty. It also means better color consistency and a longer stretch before the house needs to be repainted.
Side-by-Side: The Honest Breakdown
| Factor | Vinyl Siding | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront material cost | Lowest of common siding options | Higher than vinyl, comparable to quality wood or engineered wood |
| Impact resistance | Can crack or dent from debris and hail | Resists denting and cracking under normal impact |
| Fire behavior | Can melt or ignite | Non-combustible |
| Moisture handling | Relies on loose panel overlap; moisture can get trapped behind it | Rigid system with proper flashing sheds water at the surface |
| Moss and mildew resistance | Textured surface can hold moisture and support growth | Denser surface, factory finish resists staining and growth |
| Fading | Color mixed through material but fades and becomes brittle with UV exposure | ColorPlus factory finish resists fading, warrantied separately |
| Repair and patching | Can be hard to color-match years later | Boards can be cut in and finished to match |
| Typical warranty | Varies widely by manufacturer and product tier | Long-term, transferable manufacturer warranty on the substrate |
Installation Sensitivity Matters as Much as the Material
Neither product performs to its potential if it's installed wrong, but the two materials fail differently when that happens. Vinyl installed too tight buckles visibly — an obvious, if annoying, problem. Fiber cement installed wrong is quieter and more serious: boards nailed too tight without expansion gaps, insufficient clearance at the ground line, unsealed butt joints, or missing flashing at windows and doors can lead to moisture intrusion that isn't obvious until it's already caused damage. Hardie's own installation manual is detailed and specific about clearances, fastener placement, and joint treatment for exactly this reason. A big part of why fiber cement's reputation varies from house to house isn't the material — it's whether the crew followed the manufacturer's installation guide to the letter.
Cost Over the Life of the Siding, Not Just Day One
Vinyl's lower upfront cost is real, but it's worth thinking in terms of total cost over the years you'll own the house, not just the invoice at installation. Vinyl that cracks, fades, or lets moisture behind it can mean patch repairs, panel replacement, or in worse cases, sheathing repair down the road. Fiber cement costs more to install but is designed for a long service life with minimal intervention beyond normal caulking upkeep and eventual repainting if the factory finish is ever due for a refresh decades out. Which option is the better value depends on how long you plan to own the home, your tolerance for maintenance, and how exposed your particular walls are to weather — a sheltered wall under an eave faces a very different reality than an exposed west-facing wall catching Sound-driven rain.
A Practical Checklist Before You Decide
- Walk your home's elevations and note which walls take the most direct wind-driven rain and which stay shaded and damp longest — that exposure should factor into your material choice.
- Ask any contractor bidding vinyl how they handle expansion gaps and fastener spacing, since that's where most vinyl failures start.
- Ask any contractor bidding fiber cement whether they follow the manufacturer's written installation manual for clearances, flashing, and joint sealing — and ask to see it.
- Compare warranty terms in writing, not just what's said verbally, including whether the warranty is transferable if you sell the home.
- Factor in your realistic ownership timeline — five years and a resale plan is a different calculation than a forever home.
- Get bids on both materials so you're comparing real, local pricing rather than national averages.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie
We made a deliberate decision years ago to install only James Hardie fiber cement siding, and we don't install vinyl, LP SmartSide, or the other common alternatives. It comes down to what we see happen to homes in Burlington and across Skagit County over time. In a climate defined by salt air, sustained driving rain, and a moss season that runs long into the year, we want a material that sheds water at a rigid surface rather than one that manages it through loose, overlapping panels. We want a finish that's baked on in a factory rather than one that fades and grows brittle in a decade. And we want a product backed by a strong, transferable warranty that reflects genuine confidence in how it performs when installed correctly — which is exactly how we install it, every time.
If you're weighing vinyl against fiber cement for your own home, we're glad to walk your specific walls with you, point out what your exposure actually looks like, and give you a straight answer — including telling you if fiber cement isn't the right fit for your budget or timeline. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate using the form below.