Lynden Siding Vinyl Isn't a Bad Product — It's Just Not the Right One for Whatcom County
We get asked about vinyl siding a lot, usually because it's the cheapest option on paper and it's what a lot of homes in Lynden and around Whatcom County already have. We're not going to tell you vinyl is junk — millions of homes wear it just fine. What we will tell you is why, as a company, we stopped installing it and standardized on James Hardie fiber cement instead. It comes down to how vinyl actually behaves over 15-20 years in our specific climate, not how it performs on a spec sheet.
What Vinyl Gets Right
- Low upfront cost. It's usually the least expensive siding material to buy and install.
- Minimal painting. The color is baked into the panel, so you're not repainting every decade.
- Lightweight and fast to install. Crews can move through a house quickly.
Those are real advantages, and for some budgets and some climates, vinyl is a reasonable call. Lynden's weather just isn't kind to it.
Where It Struggles Here
Vinyl is a thin plastic panel that expands and contracts with temperature swings — sometimes as much as half an inch over a long run of siding. It's installed with a hanging system that allows it to move, which means it's never truly locked down tight. In a mild, dry climate that's a minor engineering detail. In a marine climate with driving rain, wide temperature swings, and near-constant humidity, it becomes a maintenance issue over time: panels bow, buckle, or pop loose from their nailing strips, especially on south and west exposures that see the most sun and wind.
Then there's the moisture question. Vinyl siding is not a water barrier by design — it's a rain screen that's supposed to let water get behind it and drain back out over the house wrap. That works fine when everything behind it is installed perfectly and stays that way for decades. But any gap, any nail popped loose from expansion, any seam that's opened up from UV exposure lets moisture behind the panel. Between Whatcom County's driving rain off the Strait and the long moss season we get most of the year, that's a lot of chances for water to find a way in and sit there.
Salt air compounds it. Homes closer to Bellingham Bay and the coastal side of the county see faster corrosion on the metal fasteners and trim that vinyl systems depend on. Once those fasteners start failing, the whole panel system loses its grip.
The Cosmetic Side
Vinyl fades with UV exposure, and darker colors fade faster and can warp from heat absorption. If a panel cracks from an impact — a ladder, a stray branch, a cold-weather stress crack — matching the color five or ten years later is often impossible because manufacturers discontinue colors and dye lots shift. You end up with a visibly different patch on the house instead of a clean repair.
Moss and algae are also a fact of life here, and vinyl's textured surface and stacked seams give both plenty to grip onto. It's not that vinyl "grows mold" — it's that the seams, the slight flex in the panels, and the moisture that gets behind them create conditions that keep the surface damp longer than a rigid, tightly fastened material would.
Fire and Impact
Vinyl is a petroleum-based plastic, so it's combustible and can melt or deform from heat sources well before actual fire contact — a nearby grill, a fire pit too close to the house, even reflected heat from certain window glass. It's also more prone to cracking on impact in cold weather, when the material stiffens and loses flexibility.
| Factor | Vinyl Siding | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Material | PVC plastic | Cement, sand, cellulose fiber |
| Combustibility | Combustible | Non-combustible |
| Movement | Expands/contracts significantly | Minimal expansion/contraction |
| Finish | Color molded into plastic, fades with UV | ColorPlus factory finish, baked-on and warrantied against fading |
| Climate engineering | One-size-fits-most | HZ product lines engineered for specific climate zones |
Why We Install Hardie Instead
James Hardie's fiber cement panels are rigid, don't expand and contract the way vinyl does, and are non-combustible. The HZ5 product line is engineered for the moisture and temperature swings of our region rather than being a generic panel sold everywhere from Arizona to Alaska. The ColorPlus factory finish is baked on under controlled conditions and backed by a real finish warranty, so you're not repainting or watching color fade unevenly across sun-exposed walls. It's also a heavier, more impact-resistant material, which matters when driving rain and windblown debris are a regular part of the forecast.
None of this means vinyl is a scam or that everyone who has it made a mistake. It means that after years of doing exterior work in this climate, we decided we'd rather install one material well than offer several and watch the cheaper ones struggle here. If you're weighing siding options for a home in Lynden or anywhere in Whatcom County, we're happy to walk through what we see in the field and why we land where we do.
If you'd like a free, no-pressure estimate and want to talk through your options in person, fill out the form below and we'll get back to you.
