Walk into most siding companies in Pinellas County and you'll get a menu: vinyl, engineered wood, a couple of fiber cement options, maybe something new the sales rep is pushing this quarter. We don't do that. Alpine Exteriors installs James Hardie fiber cement siding exclusively, on every job, in every Dunedin neighborhood from the Golf Club Estates to the streets off Michigan Boulevard near downtown. That's not a marketing gimmick — it's because we've spent enough years on ladders in this climate to know which products actually hold up against Gulf humidity, salt air drifting off St. Joseph Sound, and the UV load a Florida roofline takes all summer. James Hardie is the one we trust our own name to.
This page isn't a general "here's what siding is" overview. It's specifically about the James Hardie brand — the product lineup, the ColorPlus factory finish, the warranty structure, and why that reputation matters more in a town like Dunedin than almost anywhere else in the state.
James Hardie makes several distinct product families, and part of doing this job right is matching the right one to your house rather than defaulting to whatever's easiest to install.
The workhorse. Horizontal lap boards in a range of exposures and textures — smooth, cedarmill (wood-grain), and beaded — that suit everything from the mid-century block homes near Dunedin Middle School to newer builds off Curlew Road. This is what we install on the vast majority of Dunedin projects.
Used for board-and-batten looks or as an accent on gables and porch elements, common on the craftsman and coastal-cottage styles you see around the historic downtown core.
Staggered or straight-edge panels that mimic cedar shake, often used as an accent band on a front elevation or a full treatment on a bungalow that wants that Old Florida character without the maintenance headache of real wood shake.
Fascia, corner boards, and frieze boards manufactured to the same fiber cement standard as the field siding, so the whole exterior envelope — not just the flat panels — is built from a material engineered to resist rot and moisture intrusion.
This is the single biggest reason we push clients toward ColorPlus finishes rather than field-painting standard primed Hardie boards after installation. ColorPlus is James Hardie's factory-applied color system — the pigment is baked onto the board in a controlled environment through multiple coats, cured, and backed by its own finish warranty. It isn't paint rolled on after the fact on a job site.
In a climate like Dunedin's, where boards face intense UV exposure nearly year-round plus salt-laden humidity blowing off the Sound, a factory-cured finish behaves differently than a site-applied paint job. It resists fading and chipping better, and the color consistency from board to board is tighter than what any painter can achieve by hand, even a good one. When you're looking at a house with ColorPlus siding five or ten years in, it should still look like the day it went up — not chalky, not streaked at the seams.
ColorPlus also comes in a defined palette engineered to work with the finish system — this matters, because color and substrate are tested together, not mixed and matched after the fact.
James Hardie backs its fiber cement siding with a 30-year non-prorated limited warranty on the substrate itself — the board won't crack, rot, or fail to hold its shape for three decades, full stop, not prorated down as the years pass the way a lot of building-product warranties are structured. On top of that, ColorPlus finishes carry their own separate finish warranty covering fade and chip resistance, because the paint system and the board are two different things being warrantied for two different failure modes.
| Coverage | What It Protects | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Substrate warranty | Cracking, rotting, structural failure of the board itself | 30 years, non-prorated |
| ColorPlus finish warranty | Fading, chipping, and peeling of the factory finish | Separate coverage, tied to ColorPlus specifically |
| Alpine installation warranty | Workmanship — flashing, fastening, joint sealing | Provided directly by Alpine, separate from Hardie's product coverage |
Two warranties matter here, not one: the manufacturer's product warranty and our installation warranty. A great product installed wrong — flashing skipped, fastener spacing ignored, clearance to grade too tight — will still fail early, and James Hardie's own installation guidelines are specific about all three. We follow them to the letter because it's the only way either warranty means anything if you ever need to use it.
James Hardie didn't just show up recently. The company effectively created the modern fiber cement category and has spent decades refining formulations for specific climate zones — including a Florida-specific HZ5 engineered formulation designed around the exact combination of humidity, rain volume, and temperature swing this part of the Gulf Coast sees. That's a meaningfully different product than a generic fiber cement board rated for a dry climate.
What that reputation buys you as a homeowner isn't abstract. It means the boards you're getting were engineered and tested for conditions close to what your house actually experiences, that replacement parts and matching trim will still be available in fifteen years, and that if a warranty claim ever needs to happen, you're dealing with a manufacturer that's been resolving these claims at scale for a long time rather than a newer brand still figuring out its own customer service process.
Dunedin isn't one climate zone — it's a few, packed into a small footprint. Homes closer to the Dunedin Causeway and the western edge of town near Honeymoon Island State Park take direct salt air and wind-driven rain off the Gulf. Homes further inland, up toward Curlew Road and the Ridgewood area, deal more with standing humidity, afternoon thunderstorm cycles, and the intense summer UV that bakes every west-facing elevation in Pinellas County. James Hardie's fiber cement handles both conditions without the two failure modes we see constantly on other materials: vinyl that warps or fades under sustained heat, and wood-based products that swell, delaminate, or invite pests once moisture gets behind the surface.
Storm season — June through November — is the other piece. Fiber cement doesn't become a projectile hazard in high wind the way lighter siding materials can, and it doesn't absorb wind-driven rain the way engineered wood products do at cut edges and seams. For a town that sits this close to the water and takes tropical systems seriously every summer, that's not a small detail.
Every Alpine Hardie install starts with a full inspection of the existing wall assembly — sheathing condition, existing moisture damage, and window/door flashing — before a single board goes up. James Hardie's engineering is only as good as what it's fastened to, so we don't skip that step to save a day on the schedule. From there: house wrap or weather-resistant barrier installation or repair, proper flashing at every penetration and horizontal joint, correct fastener type and spacing per Hardie's published installation guide, and factory-mitered corners and trim work rather than field-cut compromises wherever the design allows it.
We also size the job to your specific elevation exposure — a west-facing wall baking in Florida sun all afternoon and a shaded north wall under oak canopy aren't identical installs, even on the same house, and we plan clearances and ventilation accordingly.
| Factor | Why It Moves the Price |
|---|---|
| Product line chosen | HardiePlank runs differently than HardieShingle accent work or full HardiePanel treatments |
| ColorPlus vs. primed for field paint | Factory-finished ColorPlus costs more upfront but eliminates a repaint cycle for years |
| Existing wall condition | Rotted sheathing or old moisture damage found underneath adds repair scope before siding goes up |
| House complexity | Dormers, multiple gables, and cut-up elevations take more labor and trim work than a simple rectangular footprint |
| Trim and accent scope | Full HardieTrim package versus keeping existing trim changes both material and labor cost |
We give honest, itemized numbers based on what we actually find on your house — not a flat per-square-foot figure pulled off a generic price sheet, because the variables above genuinely change the job.
When you're comparing siding contractors in Dunedin, the product being installed matters as much as who's installing it. A crew that's fluent in one manufacturer's system — its flashing details, fastener requirements, expansion clearances, and warranty paperwork — tends to install it more consistently than a crew juggling three or four different product lines across their jobs. That's the case for sticking with one brand, and it's why we've built our whole siding operation around James Hardie rather than trying to be a jack-of-all-materials outfit.
If your Dunedin home's siding is showing its age, or you're planning ahead of storm season and want a real look at what James Hardie fiber cement would cost and involve for your specific house, we're glad to walk your property and give you a straight answer — no pressure, no inflated scare tactics about your current siding. Fill out the form below and we'll set up a free estimate.
ColorPlus is baked onto the board at the factory in a controlled, multi-coat process and carries its own separate finish warranty. A field-painted board relies on paint applied after installation, which is more exposed to application inconsistency and typically fades or chips sooner in direct Florida sun.
Yes — James Hardie makes a climate-specific HZ5 formulation engineered for exactly the humidity, rainfall, and temperature range found along this stretch of the Gulf Coast. It resists the wind-driven rain intrusion and moisture-related failures that cause problems for lighter or wood-based siding materials in coastal Pinellas County.
Ask for their state contractor license number and verify it directly through the Florida DBPR website, then ask specifically about their fastening pattern, flashing details, and clearance-to-grade practices — a contractor who can answer those specifics without hesitation has actually installed the product to spec before.
HardiePlank is horizontal lap siding and covers most full-house installs; HardiePanel is vertical siding used for board-and-batten looks or accents; HardieShingle mimics cedar shake and is often used as a decorative band on gables or bungalow-style homes. Which one fits depends on your home's architecture and the look you're after.
James Hardie's product warranties are generally transferable to a subsequent homeowner within the warranty period, subject to the terms in the specific warranty documentation for your installation. We keep installation records on file so a future owner or buyer's inspector has what they need to confirm coverage.