Siding Installation in Meridian, Bellingham WA

Siding Replacement Along the Guide Meridian

The Meridian district runs up Bellingham's north side along the Guide, past Bellis Fair and out toward the county line — a corridor that grew in distinct waves, and each wave wore a different skin. The ranches and split-levels of the 1960s and 70s took T1-11 plywood panels. The subdivisions of the 80s and 90s took early composite lap sidings, some from product lines whose failures later taught the whole Northwest an expensive lesson about pressed-board cladding in a forty-inch-rain climate. Walk these streets today and you can read the era of every house in how its walls are weathering.

T1-11 fails at its bottom edge, wicking water up from splash-back until the panel delaminates. The composite laps of the 80s and 90s swell at butt joints and nail heads, then crumble. Both failures share a root cause: wood-based products asked to sit in prolonged wet without a way to dry. Whatever we install in their place gets the detail those walls always lacked — a rainscreen gap that lets the cladding drain and breathe between storms.

What We Install and Why

For most Meridian-area homes the answer is fiber cement lap siding. It holds paint for years in the Pacific Northwest's freeze-and-soak cycle, ignores insects and woodpeckers, and comes in profiles that suit everything from a 1968 rambler to a 1990s two-story. On the right house we also install premium vinyl for budget-driven projects or engineered wood with modern treatment for owners who want a warmer texture, and we will tell you frankly at the free on-site estimate which of the three fits your walls and your plans.

Every job includes the unglamorous parts done properly: housewrap lapped and taped, flashing at every window head and belly band, kick-out flashings where rooflines meet walls — the single most common rot point we uncover in this neighborhood.

The Alpine Exteriors Standard

• Full tear-off and inspection — we never side over failing panels and hidden rot.
• Rainscreen or vented installation — walls that can dry, in a climate that demands it.
• Factory-finish or field paint options — color decided once, correctly.
• Sheathing and framing repairs on the spot — priced transparently before work continues.

Alpine Exteriors has been residing north Bellingham homes for 25 years, and a large share of our 2,000-plus completed projects sit within a few minutes of the Guide. That history is why we carry the profiles, colors, and trim details these specific decades of housing need — and why we can back the work with a 25-year workmanship warranty and mean it. If your panels are flaring at the bottom edge, your paint will not hold along the weather wall, or a moisture meter has already delivered bad news, replacement engineered for this corridor's housing stock will settle the problem once instead of every few years.