Custer Cemplank Is a Real Fiber Cement Product
We want to be upfront about something: Cemplank isn't a bad product in the way vinyl or thin composite trim can be. It's genuine fiber cement — Portland cement, sand, and cellulose fiber pressed and cured the same general way James Hardie's boards are. On paper, the two look similar: both resist fire, both hold paint better than wood, both shrug off the woodpeckers and carpenter ants that go after cedar. If you compared spec sheets side by side, you could talk yourself into thinking the choice doesn't matter much.
We install siding for a living in Custer and across Whatcom County, and we've made a deliberate call not to carry Cemplank. That decision isn't about knocking the material — it's about what happens ten and twenty years down the road, after the sales rep is long gone and it's just your house, our reputation, and whatever product is on the wall.
Where the Two Products Diverge
Factory Finish and Batch Consistency
James Hardie's ColorPlus finish is baked on in a controlled factory process, with a specific finish warranty backing it and a consistent color-matching system that stays available for years after your original install. Cemplank has changed hands and distribution multiple times over the years, and its finish and trim offerings haven't had the same continuity. When you need to replace a damaged board or add on to a wall five or ten years later, matching an inconsistent or discontinued finish is a real headache — and a mismatched patch on the street-facing side of a house is the kind of thing homeowners notice every single day.
Climate-Engineered Product Lines
Hardie builds region-specific formulations — HZ5 for cold, wet climates like ours versus HZ10 for hot, humid ones — engineered around how much moisture and freeze-thaw cycling a board will actually see. That matters here. Custer sits close enough to the water that homes take salt air off the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound, on top of the driving rain that blows in sideways during Whatcom County's wet months. A siding system engineered for a generic national spec, rather than tuned to Pacific Northwest exposure, is more likely to show its weak points over a decade or two of that kind of weather.
Warranty Structure
Hardie's product and finish warranties are transferable and are backed by a manufacturer with a long, stable track record and a large installed base in this region — which means claims get honored by people who've seen thousands of similar installs. A thinner distribution and warranty network behind a less common product means more uncertainty if something does go wrong.
Side-by-Side Snapshot
| Factor | Cemplank | James Hardie |
|---|---|---|
| Finish warranty continuity | Inconsistent across ownership changes | Stable, factory-backed ColorPlus warranty |
| Climate-specific engineering | General-purpose formulation | Region-specific HZ5 formulation for the PNW |
| Long-term color/board matching | Limited availability for repairs | Widely stocked, easier to match years later |
| Local installer familiarity | Less common in this region | Standard product for regional crews and suppliers |
What Whatcom County Homes Actually Deal With
If you've lived in Custer for more than a winter or two, you already know the pattern: salt-laden air off the water, months of driving rain, and a moss season that seems to start earlier every year under the tree cover common to this part of the county. None of that is exotic weather, but it's relentless. Siding here doesn't fail from one dramatic storm — it fails slowly, from moisture that never fully dries out, finishes that chalk and fade under damp shade, and boards that were never really matched to this climate in the first place.
That's the lens we use when we decide what goes on a customer's house. A product that performs fine in a dry inland climate doesn't automatically perform the same way forty feet from tidal water in Whatcom County.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie
We made the call years ago to install James Hardie exclusively — no Cemplank, no LP SmartSide, no vinyl, no Allura, no primed spruce or cedar. Hardie is non-combustible fiber cement with a factory-applied ColorPlus finish, product lines engineered for our specific climate zone, and a warranty structure that's been around long enough to have a real track record locally. Standardizing on one system also means our crews install it the same correct way every time — proper clearances, fastening, and flashing to the manufacturer's spec — instead of switching techniques between products.
None of this means Cemplank is a scam or that everyone who has it on their house made a mistake. It means that when we're the ones putting our name behind an install, we want a material and a manufacturer relationship built to hold up against salt air, driving rain, and moss season for the long haul — not just look good on the day it goes up.
If you're weighing your options for a Custer or Whatcom County home, we're happy to walk you through what we install and why. Reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate — we'll look at your house and give you an honest read on what it actually needs.