King Mountain is one of Bellingham's growth frontiers. The neighborhood rises north of East Bakerview between Hannegan Road and the Guide Meridian, mixing brand-new subdivisions with older homes and small acreage parcels that were county land until annexation caught up with them. That blend puts two very different siding customers on the same hillside: owners of 1970s-90s homes whose original cladding is failing, and owners of newer construction who want it maintained, repaired, or upgraded from builder minimums.
Older King Mountain Homes: Time for Replacement
The pre-annexation housing on and around the hill commonly wears T1-11 plywood or hardboard lap siding, and both products are past their era. On the exposed upper streets, where wind comes across open ground from the northeast in winter and carries rain in from the southwest the rest of the year, we routinely find swollen hardboard edges, delaminating panel grooves, and paint that fails within a couple of seasons no matter how carefully it is applied. Once moisture reaches the core of these materials, no coating brings them back.
Our replacement standard is fiber cement or engineered wood lap over a properly detailed weather barrier, with metal flashing at every window head and horizontal joint. On the hill's windier elevations we tighten the fastening schedule, because siding that flexes in gusts eventually loosens no matter how good the board is.