Ferndale Why This Page Exists
Cedar siding comes up in almost every consultation we do in Ferndale. It's a beautiful, traditional material with real history in the Pacific Northwest, and we understand the appeal completely. But we made a decision years ago to stop installing cedar siding on homes, and we think homeowners deserve a straight answer about why — not a sales pitch, just the honest trade-offs of putting a natural wood product on a house that sits a few miles from Bellingham Bay.
This isn't about cedar being a "bad" material. Old-growth cedar has been used on buildings in this region for well over a century. The issue is what happens to cedar siding specifically, in this specific climate, over the 15-30 year window most homeowners actually care about — and what that means for your time, your wallet, and your home's structure underneath.
What Cedar Gets Right
Fair is fair. Cedar has real strengths, and any honest conversation about siding needs to start here:
- Natural appearance that many homeowners genuinely prefer over any manufactured product
- Naturally occurring oils that provide some rot and insect resistance when the wood is high quality and properly milled
- A track record of use in Western Washington going back generations
- Good insulating properties relative to some other wood species
- Renewable, biodegradable material if that's a priority for you
If cedar performed the same way in Ferndale that it does in a dry, low-humidity climate, this would be a much shorter page. It doesn't, and that's the whole story.
Whatcom County's Climate Is Genuinely Hard on Wood Siding
Ferndale sits close enough to salt water that airborne salt is a real factor on window and door hardware, fasteners, and finishes — it accelerates the breakdown of protective coatings faster than inland Whatcom County locations. Combine that with the Nooksack Valley's driving rain patterns and the long, damp stretch from October through April, and wood siding here is under near-constant moisture pressure for more than half the year.
Then there's moss. Anyone who has lived in this county for a winter knows the moss season isn't a minor cosmetic issue — it's biological growth that thrives exactly where wood siding traps and holds moisture: horizontal laps, end grain, north-facing walls that never fully dry out, and anywhere shaded by trees or a neighboring structure. Moss holds water against the wood surface, which is precisely the condition that leads to soft spots, cupping, and eventually rot underneath the paint or stain film.
The Maintenance Cycle Homeowners Don't Always See Coming
Cedar siding isn't a "paint it once and forget it" product in this climate. To actually get the lifespan cedar is capable of, it needs an ongoing maintenance cycle:
- Repainting or re-staining roughly every 3-7 years depending on exposure, sun, and finish quality
- Annual or biannual inspection and cleaning to knock back moss and algae before it takes hold
- Prompt caulking and touch-up wherever the finish cracks, checks, or peels — gaps let water behind the board
- Board-by-board replacement of individual pieces that rot, split, or cup, which rarely match the surrounding wood's weathering right away
- Careful attention to end grain at corners, butt joints, and trim intersections, where the wood absorbs water fastest
None of this is unusual for wood siding — it's simply what wood requires. The question is whether that ongoing commitment fits how most homeowners actually want to spend their weekends and their budget.
Where Cedar Actually Fails in the Field
When we've been called out to look at cedar siding problems in this area, the failure pattern is consistent. It's rarely the whole wall failing at once — it's localized:
| Failure Point | Why It Happens Here |
|---|---|
| Bottom courses near grade or decks | Splash-back moisture and reduced airflow keep wood damp longer |
| North and shaded walls | Slower drying time plus heavier moss growth from lack of sun exposure |
| Butt joints and end cuts | End grain absorbs water many times faster than the face of the board |
| Behind gutters or poor flashing | Repeated wetting cycles that a finish coat alone can't stop |
| Areas under tree cover | Constant shade and organic debris accelerate moss and mildew growth |
Once moisture gets past a failed finish and into the wood fiber, the damage is often happening behind the visible surface before a homeowner notices anything beyond a discolored patch. By the time cupping or soft spots are visible from the ground, there's usually already compromised wood underneath.
The Cost Conversation Nobody Has Upfront
Cedar siding's material and installation cost can look competitive against fiber cement on day one. What changes the math is the 20-30 year cost of ownership:
| Cost Factor | Cedar Siding | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Initial installation | Moderate to high, skilled labor required | Moderate to high, skilled labor required |
| Refinishing cycle | Every 3-7 years | ColorPlus factory finish, no repainting for many years |
| Board replacement | Ongoing, as individual boards fail | Rare when installed to spec |
| Moss/moisture remediation | Regular cleaning and vigilance required | Minimal — material doesn't feed rot the way wood does |
| Fire resistance | Combustible | Non-combustible |
| Warranty structure | Typically limited to finish, not the wood itself | Strong transferable manufacturer warranty |
Add up the refinishing labor, the board repairs, and the moss cleanup over two decades, and cedar frequently costs more than fiber cement over the life of the siding — even though the sticker price at installation can look lower.
Installation Sensitivity Is Part of the Problem
Cedar siding's real-world performance depends heavily on details that are easy to get wrong: back-priming every board on all six sides before installation, proper rain-screen gap for drainage and airflow, correct fastener spacing that allows for wood movement, and flashing details at every penetration. Skip or shortcut any of these, and you shrink cedar's already-demanding maintenance window even further. We've seen cedar installed without back-priming fail years ahead of schedule — not because the wood was bad, but because the installation didn't account for how much moisture this climate throws at a wall.
This is a big part of why we stopped installing it. Getting cedar right requires a level of installation precision and homeowner follow-through that's hard to guarantee, and when it's done wrong, the homeowner is the one who pays for it — sometimes not until a decade later, when the underlying sheathing is already compromised.
Why We Install James Hardie Instead
We standardized on James Hardie fiber cement siding because it directly addresses the failure points we just described. It's non-combustible, which matters given the wildfire smoke seasons the region has seen in recent years. The ColorPlus factory finish is baked on under controlled conditions rather than applied on-site, so it resists the fading, peeling, and cracking that a field-applied paint or stain job on cedar is prone to. Hardie's HZ5 product line is engineered specifically for wet, freeze-thaw climates like ours — built to handle the moisture load Whatcom County delivers without warping, rotting, or feeding mold and moss growth the way wood fiber does.
It also carries a strong transferable warranty that covers the product itself, not just a surface finish — which tells you something about how the manufacturer expects it to perform over time. For a Ferndale homeowner who wants siding that looks good and holds up without becoming a recurring maintenance project, that combination is why fiber cement is what we put on homes.
Before You Decide: Questions Worth Asking
If you're still weighing cedar against other siding options, these are the questions we'd encourage any Ferndale homeowner to ask themselves and any contractor bidding the job:
- Am I realistically prepared to repaint or re-stain this siding every few years, on schedule?
- Does my home have shaded, north-facing, or tree-covered walls where moss will be a persistent problem?
- Will the installer back-prime every board and detail a proper rain-screen gap?
- What does the warranty actually cover — the wood itself, or just a finish coat?
- Have I priced out 20 years of maintenance, not just the installation quote?
Let's Talk About Your Home Specifically
Every house is different — sun exposure, tree cover, proximity to water, and existing wall condition all change this calculation. If you're planning a siding project in Ferndale or anywhere in Whatcom County, we're happy to walk your property, look at your specific exposure and moisture risk factors, and give you a straight, no-pressure estimate on what we'd recommend and why. There's a free estimate form below whenever you're ready.