Though It Was Popular In Older Mountain Homes, Cedar Shake Siding Was Not Optimal For This Littleton Home Due To High Fire Risks Around The Roxborough State Park Area

Location: Littleton, CO
Siding Composition: James Hardie Color Plus Fiber Cement Siding Board & Batten Accents
Siding Brand & Profile: James Hardie Color Plus Fiber Cement Siding Board & Batten Accents
Siding & Trim Colors: WoodTone Rustic Lap Siding From James Hardie With Fiber Cement Board & Batten Accents and Iron Gray shade and opted for new soffits in Old Cherry to match the WoodTone finish.

Though it was popular in older mountain homes, cedar shake siding was not optimal for this Littleton home due to high fire risks around the Roxborough State Park area.

This Littleton, CO home sits on five acres just outside of Roxborough State Park, and in order to enhance the beautiful natural surroundings, the homeowners opted for a traditional cedar shake siding. The end result was a beautiful mountain rustic design—and a siding material that did not hold up in the Colorado climate without careful, regular maintenance. Due to the Rocky Mountain area elements, and specific to Littleton, CO, wide open spaces with higher winds, dry grasses, and baking sun, homes near Roxborough State Park are particularly susceptible to fire hazards during wildfire season. That this home was covered in cedar wood siding—it was even more at-risk.

The homeowners of this beautiful cedar shake home wanted to be better protected from the risk of wildfire in the area. The main reason Bellwether recommends James Hardie fiber cement siding products to Colorado homes owners is the grade-A fire rating that protects homes’ exteriors and interiors from risk of fire. Fiber cement siding is resistant to spark, flames, and damage from heat. Fiber cement siding is the optimal choice when it comes to safeguarding a mountain rustic home against fire.

Cedar siding is much higher maintenance than a durable, fire-safe product James Hardie fiber cement siding.

What’s more, these homeowners had been faithfully maintaining and treating their cedar shake siding for nearly twenty years—that’s a lot of careful work and attention to detail. Wood siding options are always higher maintenance, and especially in Colorado. With extreme temperature changes, baking sun, snow and ice and high winds, cedar wood siding can become dry and brittle, inviting splitting, moisture damage, and pests. 

Not only does fiber cement siding protect against the risk of wildfire, it is durable against other Colorado environmental hazards. A composite material with cellulose fibers, fiber cement siding is designed to resist splintering and damage from long-term exposure to weather elements. And at Bellwether, our expert installation practices ensured that this James Hardie fiber cement siding held up to that product guarantee with beautiful mounting and tight seals around all of the windows, doors, and brand new trim and soffits that we also replaced with James Hardie products.

James Hardie fiber cement siding in the WoodTone Rustic finish maintains a mountain rustic style on this Littleton, CO home and the Iron Gray board & batten upgrades with modern accents.

If you think this mountain rustic home still looks like it has cedar wood siding—that’s on purpose. James Hardie fiber cement lap siding planks are pressed in a factory-controlled setting and designed to mimic the beautiful grain of natural wood. When treated with a WoodTone Rustic Series finish, it looks exactly like a richly finished wood—with the impeccable protection and long life of fiber cement siding. On this Littleton, CO home, the homeowners opted for this WoodTone finish in Old Cherry, and the result was a near match to the warm, rich color of their old cedar shake siding. 

Our design team wanted to help them maximize the siding replacement project, and we crafted some modern upgrades to this 2005 home as well. Using James Hardie fiber cement in a board & batten style in Iron Gray, we added contrast to the rich WoodTone lap siding with a design element to draw the eye. Now the home’s exterior has depth and a modern twist, upgrading this already beautiful mountain rustic home to something spectacular. For cohesion, the homeowner replaced all of the trim in the same Iron Gray shade and opted for new soffits in Old Cherry to match the WoodTone finish.

James Hardie fiber cement siding will last these homeowners for a lifetime thanks to product and Color Plus technology warranties that promise resilient siding that remains rich and beautiful looking for years to come.

James Hardie offers a 30-year product warranty on their fiber cement siding products, doubly backed by a 15-year Color Plus technology warranty. These homeowners chose to invest in a siding replacement that will save them maintenance, time, and money in the year to come, while their home remains beautiful, protected, and resistant to all of the environmental risks of the Roxborough State Park area.

If you’d like to add James Hardie siding to your Colorado home, click here to get started today.