The material you pick matters less than the person installing it. We have said that on every page of this site and we mean it. A mediocre product installed correctly will keep your house dry for thirty years. A premium product installed badly will fail in eight, and you will not know until the sheathing is gone. So this is the decision worth slowing down on.
Verify three things before anything else
License. In Washington, contractors must be registered with Labor and Industries. You can look up any company by name on the state website in about a minute. It shows their license status, how long they have been registered, their bond, and whether anyone has filed a claim or a lawsuit against them. Do this before the first appointment.
Insurance. Ask for a certificate of liability insurance and workers compensation coverage, and ask that it be sent from the insurance agent directly rather than as a photo on a phone. If an uninsured worker is hurt on your property, you can end up responsible.
Bond. The state minimum bond is small, but its presence and a clean claim history tells you the company has been operating within the rules.
A company that hesitates on any of these three has told you what you need to know.
Questions that tell you who actually does the work
Ask these in the first conversation. The answers separate a construction company from a marketing company with subcontractors.
Who will be on my house? Employees or subcontractors is not a right and wrong question, but the answer matters. If subcontractors, ask whether it is the same crew every time and who supervises them daily.
Will the person who sold me this job be on site? In a lot of companies the salesperson never appears again after the contract. Find out who your point of contact is once work starts and how to reach them.
How many houses like mine did you do last year? You want a number and some specifics. A crew that mostly does new construction is a different animal from one that specializes in taking old siding off older houses, which is a messier and more surprising job.
What do you do when you open a wall and find rot? This is the most revealing question on the list. A good answer includes stopping, photographing it, calling you, and pricing it against a rate that was in your contract from the start. A vague answer means change orders at whatever number they choose.
What weather barrier and flashing do you use? You want them to name products and explain where each flashing goes. If the answer is thin, they are thinking about the siding and not about the wall.
Read the bid, not the total
Three bids on the same house can differ by twenty thousand dollars, and it is almost never because one company is greedy. It is because they are describing different scopes. Line these up side by side:
- Wall area. If the square footage differs between bids, someone measured and someone guessed.
- Exact product. Brand, product line, thickness, profile, exposure, and finish. Not just "fiber cement."
- Tear off and disposal. Included or extra, and how many layers assumed.
- Weather barrier. New across the whole house, or reusing what is there.
- Flashing. Named at windows, doors, roof to wall joints, decks, and penetrations.
- Trim. Every corner, casing, frieze, and water table, with the material named.
- Rot allowance. A written unit price per sheet of sheathing and per foot of framing.
- Paint or factory finish. Who is doing it and how many coats.
- Permit. Who pulls it and who pays.
- Gutters, lights, hose bibs. Removed and reinstalled by whom.
A bid missing five of those is not a better price. It is a smaller promise.
Payment terms worth refusing
A deposit is normal. Washington law caps what a contractor can require before work begins in many situations, and in practice anything over a third should make you ask questions. Never pay the full amount in advance, and never pay in cash.
Healthy terms look like a modest deposit, one or two progress payments tied to real milestones such as tear off complete or siding installed, and a final payment after you have walked the house and the punch list is done. Hold the final payment until you are satisfied. It is the only leverage you have, and a good contractor expects you to use it.
Warranties in writing
There are two. The manufacturer covers the product, usually prorated and usually material only. The contractor covers the labor. The labor warranty is the one that matters, because most failures are installation failures, and most manufacturer warranties are void if the product was installed wrong.
Ask for the length in years, exactly what is covered, what voids it, whether it transfers if you sell, and how a claim is made. Get it on paper before you sign. A verbal warranty from a company that changes its name every few years is worth nothing.
Warning signs
Walk away from any of these. Pressure to sign today. A discount that expires this afternoon. A price given without measuring. Door knocking after a storm. A request for a large cash deposit. No physical address. Reluctance to provide a license number. A contract that is one page with no scope. Reviews that are all five stars, all recent, and all short.
Check the references properly
Ask for three jobs completed one to three years ago, not last month. Recent work always looks good. You want to know how it looks after two wet seasons. When you call, ask what went wrong and how the company handled it. Every job has a problem. What you are measuring is the response.
Drive by one of the houses if the owner is willing. Look at the corners, the window trim, and the transitions. That is where care shows.
What you should expect from us
We measure before we quote. We photograph what we find and send you the pictures. Our bid names the product, the barrier, the flashing, and a unit price for hidden rot so there are no surprise numbers. Our workmanship warranty is ten years and it is written down. Read exactly what it covers, or book a free walkthrough and hold us to every question on this page.