Anacortes Siding Vinyl Siding Isn't a Bad Product — It's a Mismatched One for This Coastline
We get asked fairly often why our crews don't carry vinyl siding on the truck. It's a fair question. Vinyl is the most common siding material installed in the United States, it's inexpensive, and for a lot of climates it does a perfectly adequate job. We're not going to tell you vinyl siding is junk, because that wouldn't be honest. What we will tell you is that after years of tear-offs, repairs, and warranty conversations on homes throughout Anacortes and the rest of Skagit County, we made a decision to stop installing it. This page explains the reasoning, not to talk you out of a product you may already like, but so you understand the trade-offs before you commit twenty or thirty years of exterior protection to it.
What Vinyl Gets Right
Vinyl siding is lightweight, relatively easy to install quickly, and it's the lowest upfront cost option on the market. It doesn't need painting, it comes in a wide range of colors and profiles, and in a dry, moderate climate with limited direct salt exposure, it can hold up reasonably well for a couple of decades. If budget is the single overriding factor and the home isn't sitting a few miles from saltwater, vinyl isn't an irrational choice. Our objection isn't to vinyl as a category — it's to vinyl on homes in this specific location, under these specific conditions.
Why Anacortes' Marine Climate Changes the Equation
Salt Air and Coastal Corrosion
Anacortes sits surrounded by saltwater on three sides, and that salt air doesn't stay at the shoreline — wind carries it inland and it settles on every exterior surface in town, including siding, fasteners, and trim. Vinyl itself doesn't rust, but the fastener heads, the nailing flanges, and the metal trim pieces that go along with a vinyl installation are far more exposed to corrosion in a salt-air environment than they would be inland. Over time, corroded fasteners loosen, and loose fasteners are exactly what lets wind get underneath a vinyl panel.
Driving Rain and Water Behind the Panels
Vinyl siding is installed as an overlapping rain-screen system — it's designed to shed the majority of water while allowing some moisture to get behind the panels and drain out through weep holes at the bottom. That design assumes water movement is generally light to moderate. Anacortes gets a different kind of weather event: wind-driven rain coming off the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Rosario Strait, often sideways, often for days at a stretch during fall and winter storm systems. Under those conditions, more water gets pushed behind vinyl panels than the system was designed to manage, and it depends heavily on the quality of the water-resistive barrier and flashing underneath — details that are invisible once the siding goes up and that vary a lot from crew to crew.
Moss, Mildew, and the Long Growing Season
Skagit County's mild, wet climate supports a moss and algae growing season that runs most of the year, not just the rainy months. Vinyl's slightly textured, low-gloss surface and the horizontal ledges created at each panel overlap give moss and mildew spores places to take hold, especially on north-facing walls and anything shaded by trees or neighboring structures. It's a cosmetic issue more than a structural one, but on a material that's already difficult to repaint, ongoing moss and mildew staining becomes a maintenance problem homeowners didn't sign up for.
Heat, Cold, and the Physics of Vinyl Panels
Vinyl siding expands and contracts significantly with temperature swings — more than most homeowners expect. Panels are installed with slotted nail holes specifically so they can move without buckling, which means every panel is, by design, not rigidly fastened to the wall. In a region with the temperature swings we get between summer sun exposure on south and west-facing walls and cold winter mornings, that expansion and contraction cycle repeats constantly. Panels installed too tight — a common installation mistake — will buckle or warp. Panels installed correctly will still show visible waviness under direct light, especially on longer wall runs, which is simply how the material behaves.
Impact Damage and Wind Exposure
Being surrounded by water means Anacortes homes see more sustained wind events than inland Skagit County properties. Vinyl siding is rated for wind resistance, but those ratings assume proper installation, and vinyl becomes noticeably more brittle in cold temperatures — a panel that would simply flex in July can crack from an impact in January. Hail, thrown debris during a windstorm, or even an errant baseball can crack or shatter a panel, and matching an exact color years later is often impossible once a product line has been updated or discontinued by the manufacturer.
Vinyl vs. Fiber Cement: A Side-by-Side Look
| Factor | Vinyl Siding | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Behavior in salt air | Panel is inert, but fasteners/trim are corrosion-prone | Engineered for moisture and coastal exposure; corrosion-resistant fastening details |
| Wind-driven rain | Relies on drainage plane behind panels; performance varies with install quality | Rigid panel with engineered water-resistive barrier and flashing details |
| Temperature swings | Expands/contracts noticeably; can warp or buckle | Minimal expansion/contraction; dimensionally stable |
| Impact resistance | Becomes brittle in cold; cracks under impact | Dense fiber cement resists impact and denting |
| Fire exposure | Combustible; can melt or ignite near heat sources | Non-combustible material |
| Moss/algae staining | Textured surface holds spores; hard to repaint cleanly | Factory ColorPlus finish resists fading and staining, can be cleaned |
| Color/finish life | Factory color only; fades over time, not repaintable well | Baked-on factory finish backed by a separate finish warranty |
| Upfront cost | Lowest of common siding materials | Higher upfront investment |
The Installation Sensitivity Problem
A lot of vinyl siding's real-world failures trace back to installation, not the material itself. Vinyl has to be hung loose enough to allow for expansion, flashed correctly at every window, door, and penetration, and backed by a properly lapped water-resistive barrier — none of which is visible after the job is done. Because vinyl is inexpensive and fast to install, it attracts a wide range of installers with a wide range of skill levels, and a homeowner has almost no way to verify the quality of what's behind the panels without removing them. We'd rather install a product where correct installation is more forgiving and more inspectable, and where our own standards for flashing and water management aren't fighting against a material that's working against us in this climate.
What Happens Over the Life of the Product
Vinyl siding manufacturers typically offer warranties that sound long on paper, but many are prorated — meaning the payout shrinks significantly the further you are from installation, and most are not transferable to a new owner without fees or restrictions, which matters if you sell the home. Vinyl also has a real ceiling on how it ages: it doesn't rot, but it does fade, chalk, and become brittle with UV and salt exposure over the decades, and once it's damaged or discontinued, patch repairs rarely match seamlessly. None of that makes vinyl a bad product for every application. It's a durability and maintenance profile that, in our judgment, doesn't hold up as well on this particular coastline as the alternative we chose instead.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie
After weighing all of the above against what we see coming off of roofs and walls in tear-offs across Skagit County, we made James Hardie fiber cement the only siding product our crews install. It's non-combustible, it's engineered specifically for climates like this one through Hardie's HZ5 product line, it holds its factory ColorPlus finish far longer than a painted or vinyl surface, and it carries a strong, transferable warranty that isn't prorated the way many vinyl warranties are. It's a heavier, more labor-intensive product to install correctly, which is part of why it costs more upfront — but it's also why we're willing to put our name behind it on every home we side, from downtown Anacortes out toward Fidalgo Bay and the rest of the county.
A Practical Checklist Before You Choose a Siding Material
- Ask how close your home is to saltwater exposure and whether the contractor accounts for that in fastener and trim material selection
- Ask to see the water-resistive barrier and flashing details in writing, not just the visible panel product
- Ask whether the manufacturer's warranty is prorated and whether it transfers to a new owner if you sell
- Ask how the product performs in cold-weather impact situations, not just its wind rating
- Ask what the color/finish warranty covers separately from the structural warranty
- Ask how repairs are handled if a section is damaged years down the road, including color matching
If you're weighing siding options for a home in Anacortes and want a straight answer about what will actually hold up here, we're happy to walk your property with you. There's no pressure and no cost to get our honest read on your home — use the form below to request a free estimate.