Anacortes Siding Cedar Siding: A Beautiful Wood With a Real Maintenance Bill
Cedar siding has a genuine appeal. The grain, the warmth, the way it weathers — there's a reason it's been used on homes in the Pacific Northwest for well over a century. We're not going to pretend cedar is a bad product. What we will tell you, plainly, is why we stopped installing it on homes here in Anacortes and across Skagit County, and why we now install James Hardie fiber cement siding exclusively.
What Cedar Does Well
Cedar is naturally resistant to rot and insects compared to most other softwoods, thanks to oils in the wood itself. It's lightweight, easy to mill into different profiles, and it takes stain beautifully. On a well-ventilated wall, with diligent upkeep, cedar can look great for decades. None of that is in dispute.
Where It Runs Into Trouble on This Coast
The problem isn't cedar as a species of wood — it's cedar as an exterior cladding material in Anacortes' specific climate. This is a marine environment. Salt air off Fidalgo Bay and the surrounding waterways accelerates the breakdown of wood fibers and finishes faster than it would inland. Add in the long stretches of driving rain we get through fall and winter, and cedar boards are absorbing and releasing moisture constantly — swelling, shrinking, and putting stress on paint or stain film that eventually cracks and lets water in behind it.
Then there's moss. Skagit County's damp, shaded conditions — especially on north-facing walls and under mature tree cover, which is a lot of the county — create a long moss and algae season. Cedar's porous surface gives moss and mildew something to grip onto, and once it's established, it holds moisture against the wood even longer. That's a maintenance cycle that compounds on itself.
The Honest Cedar Maintenance Schedule
To keep cedar siding performing the way it's supposed to in this climate, a homeowner is generally looking at:
- Re-staining or re-sealing every 3-5 years, sometimes sooner on sun- and rain-exposed elevations
- Regular washing to keep moss, algae, and mildew from taking hold
- Prompt caulking and touch-up wherever the finish cracks or checks, before water gets behind the board
- Inspection for soft spots, cupping, or delamination at butt joints and lower courses near grade
- Occasional board replacement where moisture damage sets in despite the upkeep
None of that is a defect in the product — it's simply what wood siding requires to hold up on the water. But it's a real, recurring cost that most homeowners underestimate when they're comparing siding options up front. Skip a cycle or two, which happens easily with a busy household, and the damage from trapped moisture is often well underway before it's visible from the ground.
Installation Sensitivity
Cedar's performance also depends heavily on installation detail — back-priming every board on all six sides, proper rain-screen ventilation gaps, correct fastener spacing so boards can move with humidity swings, and flashing details that keep water from wicking into end grain. Done right, these steps add real labor and cost. Done as a shortcut, they're exactly what leads to the early rot and paint failure that gives wood siding a bad reputation it didn't have to earn. We'd rather not install a product where the margin for error is that thin on a coastal jobsite.
Why We Install James Hardie Instead
James Hardie fiber cement siding was engineered specifically to handle the conditions that wear cedar down. It's non-combustible, it doesn't swell and shrink with moisture the way wood does, and it holds its shape and joints far more consistently through our wet winters and dry summers. Hardie's HZ5 product line is formulated for climates with freeze-thaw cycles and sustained moisture exposure — a good match for Skagit County's marine weather.
The factory-applied ColorPlus finish is baked on under controlled conditions rather than brushed on in the field, which means better adhesion and a finish that resists fading, chipping, and moisture intrusion far longer than field-applied stain. That translates to a maintenance routine closer to periodic washing rather than a recurring re-staining schedule. Hardie also backs its siding with a strong transferable warranty and its ColorPlus finish with its own separate finish warranty — real, written manufacturer backing rather than something dependent on a homeowner staying on top of upkeep.
Our Bottom Line
We're not installing cedar siding because we don't think it can look good — it can. We're not installing it because, on the coast in Anacortes, keeping it looking good and performing well requires a level of ongoing maintenance that most homeowners don't sign up for and don't stay ahead of. When that maintenance lapses, moisture problems can develop behind the wall before anyone notices. James Hardie fiber cement gives us a product we can install once, to spec, and stand behind for the long haul in this exact climate.
If you're weighing cedar against fiber cement for your home, we're happy to walk through both honestly, look at your specific exposure and elevations, and give you a straight answer. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — we'll tell you what we'd actually do on your house.