Blaine Why Homeowners in Blaine Ask Us About Cemplank
Every so often a homeowner in Blaine or elsewhere in Whatcom County gets two or three bids on a siding job, and one of those bids specs Cemplank fiber cement instead of James Hardie. The prices look close. The pitch sounds similar — "fiber cement siding, low maintenance, doesn't rot." So the natural question is: what's actually different, and why does our crew only show up with Hardie on the truck?
This isn't a case of one product being junk and the other being perfect. Cemplank is a real fiber cement product made by Plycem, and it has a legitimate place in the market. But after years of installing and repairing siding in this corner of the state — where salt air off the Salish Sea, driving winter rain, and a long moss season chew on exterior surfaces for most of the year — we made a call to install one product line and stand behind it fully. Here's the honest reasoning.
Fiber Cement 101: What These Products Have in Common
Before getting into differences, it's worth being fair about the overlap. Both Cemplank and James Hardie siding are fiber cement — a blend of Portland cement, sand, and cellulose fiber, cured and pressed into planks or panels. Compared to vinyl or wood, both offer:
- Non-combustible construction (fiber cement doesn't contribute fuel to a fire the way wood or vinyl siding can)
- Strong resistance to rot, insect damage, and swelling from moisture, since there's no wood fiber for pests or fungus to feed on
- Dimensional stability in freeze-thaw and wet-dry cycles, which matters a lot in a marine climate
- A heavier, more substantial feel and sound than vinyl when installed
So if a contractor tells you fiber cement in general is a smart upgrade over vinyl or bare wood for a Blaine home, they're not wrong. The disagreement isn't about the category. It's about which manufacturer's execution of that category we're willing to put our name behind.
Where the Two Products Actually Diverge
Factory Finish
This is the biggest practical difference for a homeowner. James Hardie's ColorPlus finish is a factory-applied, baked-on finish process with multiple coats cured under controlled conditions before the boards ever leave the plant. It comes with its own dedicated finish warranty, separate from the substrate warranty, and touch-up product is manufacturer-matched. Cemplank's product line has, at various points, relied more heavily on primed boards intended for field-applied paint rather than a factory finish carrying its own long-term warranty. A field-painted board is only as good as the paint job and the repaint schedule that follows — and in a climate with this much rain and salt exposure, an inconsistent field finish is exactly where premature fading, chalking, and moisture entry tend to start.
Manufacturing Consistency
Hardie has invested heavily in its own dedicated fiber cement manufacturing (HardiePanel, HardiePlank, and the engineered HZ5/HZ10 formulations) and controls that process end to end. Cemplank's boards are manufactured by Plycem, a different company, and marketed under the Cemplank brand — which means the accountability chain for a warranty claim runs through a different set of hands than the installer standing on your roof. That's not a defect in the product itself, but it's a real difference in how a claim gets resolved years down the road.
Climate-Specific Engineering
James Hardie engineers its HZ5 (and similar) product lines specifically for wet, marine climates like the Pacific Northwest, with moisture and freeze-thaw performance tuned to zones like ours. That regional engineering, backed by decades of installed track record in coastal Washington and British Columbia conditions, is a meaningful data point for a house two miles from Semiahmoo Bay.
The Whatcom County Climate Test
Blaine sits right on the water, which means the siding on a typical home here deals with a combination most inland siding never sees: airborne salt that accelerates corrosion of fasteners and finishes, near-constant winter drizzle punctuated by hard driving rain off the Strait, and long stretches of shade and dampness on north-facing walls where moss and algae get a foothold and never fully dry out. A siding product's finish and moisture-management performance aren't theoretical here — they get tested every winter.
Salt air is particularly hard on fasteners, trim flashing, and any exposed cut edge that isn't properly sealed. Moss doesn't damage fiber cement the way it can damage cedar, but it does hold moisture against the surface and can stain a weaker finish faster than a factory-cured one. Over a 20-30 year ownership horizon, the difference between a finish rated and warrantied for this specific climate and one that wasn't engineered with it in mind tends to show up as a maintenance bill.
Installation Sensitivity — The Part Most Bids Don't Mention
Fiber cement siding, regardless of brand, is unforgiving of shortcuts. Both Cemplank and Hardie require specific fastener spacing, proper clearance from grade and roof lines, correct caulking and flashing at penetrations, and cut edges sealed before installation. Where this matters most: James Hardie publishes detailed, product-specific installation instructions and runs a certified installer program (Hardie ZoneSM and Elite Preferred Contractor certifications) that we've gone through, and manufacturer warranty coverage is explicitly tied to installation meeting those published specs. That gives us — and you — a documented standard to install to and be held to.
Cemplank has installation guidelines as well, but the ecosystem of training, certification, and installer accountability built around it isn't as deep in this region. When something is installed wrong, fiber cement doesn't usually fail dramatically — it fails slowly, at the joints and cut edges, in ways that don't show up until years later. That makes the installer's training and the manufacturer's documentation just as important as the board itself.
Warranty Structure: Read Past the Headline Number
Both brands advertise long warranty terms, and on paper the numbers can look similar. What actually matters is what's covered, whether it's prorated after a certain number of years, whether the finish is warrantied separately from the substrate, and whether the warranty is transferable to a future homeowner without a lot of hoops. James Hardie's warranty structure separates the substrate warranty from the ColorPlus finish warranty, and both are backed by a manufacturer with a long, well-documented claims history in North America. We ask every manufacturer the same three questions before we'll install their product:
| Question | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Is the finish warrantied separately from the board? | A finish failure years 8-12 shouldn't require replacing the whole board if it doesn't have to |
| Is the warranty prorated, and starting when? | A "50-year" warranty that's 20% covered by year 15 isn't the same promise as it sounds |
| Does it transfer to the next owner without a service contract? | Matters for resale value, especially in a market where buyers ask about siding condition |
Cost: What You're Actually Paying For
Material cost between Cemplank and Hardie is often close on paper — sometimes Cemplank prices slightly lower per square. Where the real cost difference shows up is downstream: repaint or refinish cycles if the finish underperforms, the ease (or difficulty) of sourcing exact-match replacement boards years later if a section is damaged, and how straightforward a warranty claim actually is to file and get honored. A lower material bid up front doesn't mean lower total cost of ownership over 20-plus years on a house exposed to Blaine's weather.
Why We Standardized on One Product
We're not a lumberyard that sells whatever's cheapest that week. We're a crew that installs siding, then has to stand behind that installation for years afterward — including fielding the call if something goes wrong. Running one certified product line means our crew's training, our fastening and flashing details, our caulking specs, and our warranty conversations are all built around a single, well-documented system rather than juggling install specs and warranty terms across multiple manufacturers. For a climate as demanding as ours, that consistency is worth more to us — and to you — than a marginally lower material cost on day one.
That's the honest version: Cemplank is a legitimate fiber cement product, but we decided the factory finish warranty, the climate-specific engineering, and the installer accountability built around James Hardie were worth standardizing on for every home we side in Blaine and the surrounding county.
Questions to Ask Before You Sign Any Siding Contract
- Is the finish factory-applied and separately warrantied, or will it need field paint and a repaint schedule?
- Is the installer certified by the manufacturer, and will the warranty be voided by non-compliant installation?
- What's the manufacturer's track record specifically in wet, coastal, or marine climates like ours?
- Is the warranty prorated, and does it transfer to a future homeowner without extra cost?
- Who do you actually call if there's a claim in year 12 — the installer, a distributor, or the manufacturer directly?
If you're weighing siding options for a home in Blaine or anywhere else in Whatcom County, we're happy to walk through what we'd recommend for your specific house and why — no pressure, no hard sell. Request a free estimate using the form below and we'll take a look.