Walk a few neighborhoods in Lithia — FishHawk Ranch, Fern Hill, the older acreage properties off Lithia Pinecrest Road — and you'll see a lot of different siding on a lot of different houses. Not all of it was installed with the long term in mind. Alpine Exteriors made a decision a long time ago to install exactly one brand of siding on every home we side: James Hardie fiber cement. No vinyl, no LP SmartSide, no engineered wood alternatives. This page isn't a general "here's what siding is" overview — it's specifically about the Hardie brand itself, the product line, the finish technology, and the warranty backing it, because those details are exactly what tend to get glossed over during a sales pitch.
Our reasoning is simple. Fiber cement holds up in Central Florida's humidity and storm cycles in a way that vinyl and wood-based products don't consistently match, and James Hardie is the manufacturer with the longest track record, the broadest tested product lineup, and the clearest warranty language in that category. When we tell a homeowner in Lithia that we only work with one brand, we want them to understand exactly why — not just take our word for it.
"James Hardie siding" isn't one product — it's a family of purpose-built products, and picking the right one (or combination) is part of what a proper installer should be doing during the estimate, not just defaulting to whatever's cheapest to order.
This is the classic horizontal lap board most homeowners picture when they think "siding." It comes in multiple textures — smooth, cedarmill (wood-grain), and a beaded option for a more traditional look — and in several exposure widths, so a Craftsman bungalow near Fishhawk Boulevard and a two-story colonial off Bell Shoals Road can both get a look that fits the house rather than a one-size-fits-all board.
Used for board-and-batten style facades, accent walls, and gable ends. It's common on the farmhouse-style builds that have become popular in newer Lithia developments, and we also use it to break up large wall planes on bigger homes so the elevation doesn't read as one flat surface.
Staggered-edge or straight-edge shingle panels that mimic cedar shake without the maintenance cedar demands. It shows up well as an accent on gables, dormers, and porch fronts, paired with lap siding on the main walls.
Fascia, corner boards, window and door trim — all fiber cement to match the field siding, so you're not mixing a durable wall material with wood trim that will rot out first and undercut the rest of the job.
| Product | Best Use | Typical Application in Lithia Homes |
|---|---|---|
| HardiePlank | Main wall siding | Ranch, colonial, and two-story homes throughout FishHawk and Lithia's older lots |
| HardiePanel | Vertical/board-and-batten | Farmhouse-style new construction, gable accents |
| HardieShingle | Textured accent siding | Gables, dormers, porch fronts |
| HardieTrim | Trim, fascia, corner boards | Paired with any of the above for a matched, rot-resistant finish system |
If you take one thing away from this page, make it this: the paint is not the part of a Hardie board you should think about the same way you think about paint on wood siding. ColorPlus Technology is a factory-applied, baked-on finish process — the color is cured onto the fiber cement in a controlled environment before it ever reaches your house, using multiple coats applied and cured under conditions a job-site paint crew can't replicate.
What that means in practice for a Lithia homeowner: a factory ColorPlus finish resists fading, chipping, and cracking far better than field-applied paint standing up to our sun and humidity, and touch-up product is color-matched and available for the rare nick or scratch instead of needing a full repaint. We still offer primed Hardie board for homeowners who want a custom color painted after install, but for most projects we steer people toward ColorPlus specifically because it removes "repaint the siding" from your maintenance list for years at a stretch.
James Hardie doesn't manufacture one formulation and ship it everywhere. The company engineers its fiber cement mix by climate zone through what it calls the HardieZone system, accounting for regional humidity, freeze-thaw cycles, and moisture exposure. Homes in our part of Florida get product engineered for a high-humidity, high-UV, storm-prone Gulf Coast climate — not a formulation designed for a dry Southwest state or a Northeast freeze-thaw cycle. That distinction matters more in Hillsborough County than in a lot of the country, because our siding spends the better part of the year dealing with heat, humidity swings, and heavy rain rather than freezing weather.
Fiber cement doesn't absorb moisture and swell the way engineered wood products can, it doesn't get brittle in UV exposure the way some vinyl does after a few Florida summers, and it holds paint and factory finish without the constant expansion-and-contraction cycle wood siding goes through as humidity rises and falls through a Lithia summer thunderstorm season.
James Hardie backs its siding products with a 30-year non-prorated limited warranty — meaning the coverage doesn't shrink in value as the years pass the way some prorated warranties do. The ColorPlus finish carries its own separate long-term warranty covering the factory finish itself against fading, chipping, and cracking. We go over both warranty documents with homeowners during the estimate, not after the contract's signed, because a warranty you don't understand isn't worth much. Our own workmanship warranty on the installation sits alongside Hardie's product warranty, so you're covered on both the material and the labor.
We get asked this regularly, so we'll be direct about it as a matter of our professional standard rather than a knock on any specific manufacturer.
Rather than install multiple product lines and manage different maintenance expectations for different customers, we standardized on the one material we're confident holds up best in this specific climate, and we tell every homeowner that reasoning up front.
Lithia sits inland in Hillsborough County, southeast of Brandon, and that inland position matters for siding decisions even though we're not on the coast. Inland doesn't mean sheltered — tropical systems that track through the Tampa Bay area still bring sustained wind and heavy rain well inland, as Hillsborough County saw with storms in recent hurricane seasons, and the same summer thunderstorm pattern that builds nearly every afternoon June through September puts every exterior material through a real wet-dry, heat-humidity cycle for months at a time.
The neighborhood mix here also plays into the siding conversation. FishHawk Ranch and similar newer developments run heavily toward Hardie-friendly architectural styles — farmhouse, Craftsman, transitional — where board-and-batten accents and varied trim details actually show off what fiber cement can do. Meanwhile the older acreage homes scattered around Lithia Pinecrest Road and Fort Lonesome Road often have original wood or aging vinyl siding that's due for a real upgrade rather than another patch job. Either way, the climate demands are the same: heat, humidity, hurricane season, and a lot of direct sun.
A proper Hardie installation involves more than nailing boards to a wall. Correct fastener spacing, proper clearance from grade and roofline, house wrap and flashing detail at every window and door penetration, and correct joint treatment all affect how the siding performs over its lifespan — and a poor installation can void portions of the manufacturer warranty regardless of how good the product itself is. Before we start, we walk the exterior with you and cover:
| Factor | How It Affects Your Estimate |
|---|---|
| Product mix | Straight HardiePlank runs different than a job combining plank, panel, and shingle accents |
| Home size and stories | More wall area and second-story access both add labor time |
| Existing siding removal | Tear-off and disposal of old vinyl or wood adds a labor step vs. new construction |
| Sheathing repair | Rot or water damage found underneath old siding needs fixing before new siding goes up |
| Trim scope | Full HardieTrim package versus field siding only changes total board footage |
| ColorPlus vs. primed | Factory-finished ColorPlus and primed-for-paint carry different material pricing |
We won't quote a number without seeing the actual house — the variables above shift too much from property to property for a flat per-square-foot figure to mean anything real.
If you're weighing siding options for a home in Lithia and want a straight answer on what James Hardie would actually look like and cost on your specific house, we're glad to walk the property with you and put together a free, no-pressure estimate — no obligation, just an honest look at what your home needs.
For most Central Florida homes, yes — the upfront cost is higher than vinyl, but fiber cement's resistance to heat warping, its 30-year manufacturer warranty, and the reduced repainting frequency with ColorPlus finish tend to even out or beat vinyl's lifetime cost. It comes down to how long you plan to own the home and how much ongoing maintenance you want to deal with.
Ask whether they're a factory-certified installer for the specific product they're quoting, ask to see their state license number and current insurance, and ask what warranty covers the labor separately from the manufacturer's product warranty. Also ask how they handle sheathing repair if they find water damage during tear-off — that answer tells you a lot about how they handle surprises.
Primed siding comes ready for a homeowner or painter to apply a custom paint color after installation, while ColorPlus siding arrives with a factory-baked finish already cured onto the board in one of Hardie's standard color options. ColorPlus generally holds color longer under UV and humidity exposure since it's cured in a controlled factory environment rather than applied on-site.
Yes — Hardie engineers its fiber cement through what it calls the HardieZone system, tailoring the formulation to regional climate conditions like humidity and storm exposure rather than shipping one universal product nationwide. Homes in our part of Florida get product built around the demands of a hot, humid, storm-prone Gulf climate.
Inland location reduces storm surge risk, but it doesn't remove wind and heavy rain exposure — tropical systems tracking through the Tampa Bay region regularly bring sustained wind and flooding rain well inland into Hillsborough County. Exterior materials in Lithia still need to hold up to real storm conditions most years, not just coastal ones.