Lynden Siding Allura is a real fiber cement siding manufacturer, not a knockoff. It's non-combustible, holds paint well compared to wood, and resists the pests and rot that plague cedar. If a homeowner in Lynden asks us to bid an Allura job, we're not going to tell you it's a bad product. We're going to tell you why we don't put it on houses ourselves, and let you weigh that against what you're hearing from other contractors.
What Allura gets right
Fiber cement as a category is the right call for Whatcom County. It stands up to salt air rolling in off the Puget Sound and the Nooksack River valley's moisture better than wood or engineered wood siding, and it doesn't need repainting every few years the way primed spruce does. Allura's board and panel products are manufactured to the same basic fiber cement formula as the rest of the industry — Portland cement, sand, and cellulose fiber, cured and milled to a consistent profile. On a spec sheet, it competes.
Where it falls short of our standard
Factory finish system
James Hardie's ColorPlus finish is baked on in a controlled factory environment with a multi-coat process and a 15-year finish warranty backing the color and the bond. Allura's finish options vary by product line, and in our experience the factory-applied coatings don't hold up to the same standard through a full Whatcom County wet season — the kind of stretch we get from October through April where siding sits damp for days at a time. When a finish starts to chalk or fade unevenly a few years in, that's a callback we'd rather not have.
Climate-engineered product lines
Hardie builds region-specific HZ (HardieZone) formulations, and the HZ5 line used across the Pacific Northwest is engineered for our moisture cycle — freeze-thaw swings combined with long stretches of driving rain and the moss growth that comes with it. Allura doesn't offer the same level of regional engineering documentation. That might not matter in a drier climate. It matters here.
Warranty structure
Hardie's product warranty is non-prorated and transferable to a new owner if the home sells, which matters a lot in a market like Lynden where houses change hands. Some competing fiber cement warranties are prorated after the first several years or don't transfer cleanly. We install one product family so we can stand behind the warranty in plain language, not a coverage table full of exceptions.
Local track record and supply
Hardie has been on Pacific Northwest homes for decades, which means we can point to installations from the 1990s and 2000s and see how the product actually ages under our specific rain and moss conditions — not a lab test, real roofs and real walls. Allura's presence in Whatcom County is thinner. Fewer local installs means less real-world data on how it performs against our salt air and our moss season specifically, and it also means longer lead times and fewer local suppliers stocking matching trim and accessories when a repair comes up five years down the road.
Installation sensitivity
This one applies to any fiber cement brand, Allura included: correct installation is what makes fiber cement perform, and incorrect installation is what makes it fail. Clearances off the ground, proper flashing at every penetration, correct fastener pattern, and caulking that's actually rated for the joint all matter more than the brand printed on the box. We didn't want to run two separate installation standards — one for Hardie, one for Allura — across our crews. Standardizing on one manufacturer means every installer on every job follows the same spec sheet, every time, with no guessing.
Why we install Hardie instead
We settled on James Hardie because it's non-combustible, backed by a strong transferable warranty, factory-finished with ColorPlus so the color is part of the board rather than a field-applied coat, and engineered specifically for climates like ours. Whatcom County throws a lot at exterior siding — salt off the Sound, driving rain for months at a stretch, and a moss season that tests every seam and joint on a house. We wanted one product line we trust completely under those conditions, installed the same correct way on every home, rather than juggling multiple manufacturers with different specs and different long-term track records.
What this means for your project
If you're comparing bids and one contractor is offering Allura at a lower price, that's worth understanding on its own terms — it may come down to material cost, installer familiarity, or availability. We'd rather tell you plainly why we made a different choice than pretend the products are identical. For your home, that means one manufacturer, one warranty structure, one installation standard, and a product with a real track record in Lynden's climate.
If you're planning a siding project and want to talk through the options honestly, including how Hardie compares to what else is on the market, reach out for a free, no-pressure estimate. We'll walk your house with you and give you a straight answer.