Siding Contractors in South Bellingham, WA

Siding for the Historic South Side

The neighborhoods south of downtown Bellingham — Fairhaven, South Hill, Edgemoor, the blocks above Padden Creek — hold some of the oldest housing in Whatcom County, and much of it still wears original cedar clapboard nailed up when Fairhaven was a boomtown betting on the railroad. These houses face the weather directly: southwesterly storms come across Bellingham Bay with nothing to slow them, and a century of that exposure shows up as cupped courses on the weather side, punky corner boards, and paint that will not hold no matter how often it is redone.

Working on the south side means respecting what makes these streets worth walking. A Victorian on South Hill with its trim proportions flattened by the wrong siding profile loses real value along with its character. When we replace cladding on a period home, we match reveal widths, rebuild water tables and belt lines, and keep the corner board and casing dimensions that give a craftsman facade its shadow lines.

Restore the Cedar or Replace It?

This is the honest fork in the road, and we lay it out plainly at the free on-site estimate. Sound old-growth cedar is worth saving — selective board replacement, back-priming, and a disciplined paint system can buy decades. But when moisture has traveled behind the siding and into sheathing, patchwork becomes false economy. In those cases, modern fiber cement in a smooth, historically proportioned lap gives the same visual language with far better paint retention and fire performance, and we install it over a rainscreen gap so the wall can finally dry between storms — the detail old walls never had and always needed.

Alpine Exteriors has spent 25 years on Northwest exteriors, and the south side's steep lots, mature landscaping, and layered remodel history are familiar ground for our crews.

What Sets Our Siding Work Apart

• Period-correct profiles — reveals, corners, and trim built to match the era of the house.
• Rainscreen installation — a drainage and drying gap behind every fiber cement job.
• Sheathing repair in scope — rot fixed and photographed while the wall is open.
• Careful sites on tight streets — protection for gardens, walks, and the neighbor's parking strip.

Somewhere past 2,000 completed projects, we learned that the difference between siding that lasts forty years and siding that fails in ten is almost entirely in flashing and preparation — the work you cannot see from the sidewalk. That is what our 25-year workmanship warranty actually covers: the invisible decisions. If your weather-side wall is shedding paint again, or you are weighing cedar restoration against replacement on a house that has stood since the Fairhaven boom, we will walk the exterior with you and give you the case for each path, priced and in writing.