Siding replacement in Seattle, done as a complete weather system

Siding replacement in Seattle is rarely about looks alone. In a climate with months of steady rain, the siding is the outer layer of a moisture system, and once that system starts failing in several places at once, patching individual boards stops being good value. A replacement lets us open the walls, fix what is underneath and put everything back with details that suit Puget Sound weather.

Signs your siding needs replacement, not repair

• Soft or rotted boards on more than one wall. Isolated damage near a downspout is a repair; rot spread across elevations usually means water is getting behind the cladding.
• Paint that fails within a couple of years. Peeling and blistering that keeps returning often points to moisture trapped in the wall.
• Swollen, delaminating or cracked panels. Common on older hardboard and some early engineered products that were never meant to be wet this often.
• Stains or damage inside. Water marks around window trim, musty rooms or damp insulation are signs to investigate right away.
• Discontinued profiles. When matching boards no longer exist, piecemeal repairs leave a patchwork.
• Loose, warped or brittle vinyl across large areas, especially on sun-exposed south and west walls.

If the problem is limited to one area, a targeted siding repair may be the smarter spend. We will tell you which one we think your home needs after the inspection.

What a full replacement includes

1. Inspection and written scope. We walk every elevation, probe suspect areas and note windows, trim and access before we quote.
2. Tear-off and disposal. Old siding comes off one wall section at a time so the house is never left exposed longer than necessary.
3. Sheathing and framing repair. Rotted sheathing, sill plates and rim boards are replaced once they can be seen. This is priced separately because nobody can see it before tear-off.
4. Weather-resistive barrier. New house wrap is lapped shingle-style so water always drains outward.
5. Window and door flashing. Openings get sill pans, flashing tape and head flashing — the details where most leaks start.
6. Rain screen where appropriate. On exposed walls and with some materials, a small drainage and drying gap behind the siding helps the wall dry between storms.
7. Trim and installation. Corners, fascia transitions and trim are installed with the siding, following the manufacturer's published instructions for fastening, clearances and joints.
8. Paint or finish, then cleanup. Pre-finished products are touched up; primed boards are painted. We clear nails and debris and walk the finished job with you.

Siding replacement cost: what moves the number

Siding replacement cost is driven by wall area, not floor area. For a two-story home, plan on roughly 1.36 sq ft of wall for every sq ft of living space. Typical installed planning ranges per sq ft of wall are $9–$15 for vinyl, $11–$18 for LP SmartSide, $13–$21 for fiber cement and $16–$28 for cedar, adjusted for local labor costs — Seattle runs about 12% above the regional baseline.

As an example, a 1,900 sq ft two-story Seattle home has roughly 2,580 sq ft of wall. In fiber cement that works out to about $37,600–$60,800 before any hidden repairs. Trim detail, the number of windows, wall height, access on steep lots and the amount of rot found behind the old siding all push a project toward one end of the range. Try your own numbers in the siding cost estimator, then compare products in our siding materials guide.

How long it takes

Most single-family replacements take one to three weeks on site. Before that, allow time for the estimate, material ordering and, in some neighborhoods, HOA review. Wet stretches do not stop the work, but we sequence it so that open walls are covered the same day.