King County Cedar siding comes up a lot in conversations with King County homeowners, especially on older homes in neighborhoods like Ballard, Kirkland, and Mercer Island where original cedar siding or shingles are still hanging on. There's a reason cedar has a following — it's a genuinely beautiful, natural material with a warmth that manufactured products spend a lot of marketing budget trying to imitate. But after years of tear-offs, repair calls, and honest conversations with homeowners about what cedar actually costs to maintain here, we made a decision: we don't install it anymore. This page explains why, plainly, without exaggerating cedar's downsides or pretending it's a bad product. It isn't. It's just not a good fit for how we build, and it's not a good fit for this climate if you want low-maintenance siding.
What Cedar Siding Gets Right
Before we get into why we walked away from it, cedar deserves credit for what it does well. Western red cedar is naturally rot-resistant compared to most softwoods, thanks to oils in the wood that repel insects and slow decay. It takes stain beautifully, ages with a character that some homeowners specifically want, and it's a renewable, regional material — a lot of the cedar used in the Pacific Northwest is grown not far from where it's installed. On a well-detailed, well-maintained home, cedar siding looks fantastic, and there are houses around King County wearing 30-, 40-year-old cedar that's been cared for properly. None of that is in dispute.
Why King County's Climate Is Hard on Cedar
The problem isn't cedar as a species of wood. It's what King County weather does to any wood siding over time, cedar included.
Salt Air Near the Water
Homes closer to Puget Sound, Lake Washington, and the Sound-facing bluffs deal with a steady drift of salt-laden moisture. Salt air accelerates the breakdown of exterior finishes, pulls moisture into end grain and fastener holes faster, and shortens the interval between recoats. Homeowners in these areas who choose cedar often find their maintenance schedule is tighter than what a paint or stain manufacturer's label suggests.
Driving Rain
King County doesn't just get a lot of rain — a good portion of it comes in sideways during fall and winter storms, driven by wind off the Sound. Driving rain finds every seam, lap joint, and end cut in a wood siding system. Cedar handles occasional wetting fine; it's the repeated wet-dry cycling over a wet season, year after year, that opens the door to cupping, checking, and eventually rot at the most vulnerable points — butt joints, corner boards, and anywhere caulking has started to fail.
A Long Moss Season
Between the shaded, tree-covered lots common throughout King County and our extended damp season, moss and algae growth on north-facing and shaded siding is one of the most common calls we get. Cedar's textured, absorbent surface gives moss and mildew something to grab onto, and once organic growth establishes itself, it holds moisture against the wood even longer, compounding the problem. Keeping cedar clean enough to actually shed moss requires real, recurring effort — not a one-time power wash.
The Maintenance Cedar Actually Requires
This is the part that changes most homeowners' minds once they see it laid out. Properly maintained cedar siding is not a "paint it and forget it" product — it's an ongoing commitment. Here's a realistic maintenance checklist for cedar siding in this climate:
- Recoat with stain or sealer every 2-4 years depending on sun/shade exposure and proximity to water
- Inspect and re-caulk joints, seams, and trim annually
- Wash siding at least yearly to remove moss, algae, and mildew buildup before it takes hold
- Check and touch up any exposed end grain, especially at butt joints and corners, every year
- Watch for and address any soft, spongy, or discolored boards immediately — early rot spreads if ignored
- Keep gutters, downspouts, and grade sloped away from siding to limit splash-back and standing moisture
- Trim back vegetation and tree cover that keeps siding shaded and damp
None of these tasks are unreasonable on their own. Added together, year after year, they represent a real and recurring cost — in either money paid to a painting contractor or in the homeowner's own time and labor. Skip a cycle or two, which happens more often than not, and you're not just behind on cosmetics — you're risking moisture getting into the wood itself.
Moisture, Rot, and Insects
Cedar's natural oils give it a head start against decay compared to other softwoods, but that resistance fades as the wood weathers and the outer surface wears away, especially if refinishing gets delayed. Once moisture gets past a compromised finish and into the wood, cedar rots like any other wood siding — softening, delaminating, and losing structural integrity at the affected boards. It's also still wood, which means it's a viable food source and nesting material for carpenter ants and, in some cases, termites. We've replaced cedar siding on homes where the exterior looked fine from the street but had significant hidden rot behind it, usually traced back to a failed finish that went unnoticed for a season or two too long.
A Straightforward Fire Consideration
Cedar, like any wood siding, is combustible. That's simply a property of the material, not a knock on cedar specifically — it's true of any wood-based cladding. For homeowners weighing exterior materials with wildfire exposure, ember intrusion, or insurance considerations in mind, that's a factor worth knowing plainly rather than glossing over. It's one more reason we lean toward non-combustible fiber cement across the board, not just in high-risk areas.
Cost Over Time: Cedar vs. What We Install
Homeowners often focus on installed cost and skip the maintenance math. Here's a general comparison of what ownership looks like over a typical multi-decade span. These are broad patterns, not quotes — actual costs depend on the home, the finish chosen, and labor rates at the time.
| Factor | Cedar Siding | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Refinishing interval | Every 2-4 years (stain/seal) | Factory ColorPlus finish, no refinishing for many years |
| Combustibility | Combustible (wood) | Non-combustible fiber cement |
| Moisture/rot risk | Real risk if finish lapses | Engineered to resist moisture damage when installed to spec |
| Moss/algae resistance | Absorbent surface, moss-prone in shade | Denser surface, easier to keep clean |
| Insect vulnerability | Susceptible (carpenter ants, etc.) | Not a food/nesting source |
| Typical warranty | Varies by finish product, not the wood itself | Strong transferable manufacturer warranty |
The upfront cost gap between cedar and fiber cement has narrowed over the years, but the lifetime cost gap — factoring in recoating labor, materials, and the risk of moisture-related repairs — usually favors fiber cement pretty clearly once you look past year one.
Why We Standardized on James Hardie
We made a company-wide decision to install James Hardie fiber cement siding exclusively, and cedar was one of the products we stopped offering as part of that decision. Hardie's HZ5 product line is engineered specifically for climates with heavy moisture exposure like ours, the ColorPlus factory finish is baked on rather than field-applied, and it's non-combustible by nature rather than by treatment. The warranty is transferable and backed by a large manufacturer, not dependent on how diligently a homeowner keeps up with recoating. For a region with King County's rain totals, moss season, and salt-air exposure near the water, we think it's simply the more honest recommendation to make — a product that holds up on the schedule homeowners actually keep, not the schedule the material demands.
If You're Weighing Cedar for Your Home
If you love the look of cedar, that's a legitimate reason to want it — we're not going to talk anyone out of an aesthetic preference. What we do think is fair is making sure homeowners go in with eyes open about the maintenance commitment, the climate factors specific to King County, and what the realistic cost of ownership looks like over 15 or 20 years, not just the first one. If, after that, fiber cement makes more sense for your home and your schedule, we'd be glad to walk you through what that looks like, including colors and profiles that echo a lot of the warmth cedar is known for.
If you're weighing your siding options for a King County home, we're happy to take a look and give you a straight answer — no pressure, no upsell, just a free estimate and an honest conversation about what will actually hold up on your house.