Phinney Ridge, Seattle Craftsman Siding: Hardie Shingle + LP SmartSide Lap, Cedar Soffits & Backband Trim

This new craftsman on Seattle’s Phinney Ridge — two stories over a garage, with a modern DADU in the backyard — came to us as bare ZIP System walls. Phinney Ridge’s streets are lined with early-1900s craftsman houses, so a new one has to hold its own next to the originals, and our job was everything that makes that happen from the sheathing out: a 1/2-inch furring-strip rainscreen over the ZIP System, James Hardie HardieShingle in the gables, LP SmartSide lap siding on the walls, clear cedar ceilings on the front porch and back deck, custom-built window and door casings with a backband, knee braces under every gable, and paint — plus the backyard DADU in James Hardie lap siding with a weathering-steel accent panel, on the same rainscreen wall.

New construction over ZIP System: a 1/2-inch furring strip rainscreen

Huber ZIP System is a structural sheathing panel with the water-resistive barrier built into its face. With the panel seams and window openings taped, the sheathing itself becomes the drainage plane and air barrier — no separate house wrap. What ZIP System does not give you on its own is a gap. Siding nailed straight to the panel sits tight against it, so water that works in behind a lap or a butt joint lingers against the sheathing, and the back of the siding dries slowly.

So before any siding went up, 1/2-inch furring strips went on vertically over the ZIP System on the house and the DADU. The strips hold the cladding off the sheathing and open a continuous rainscreen gap: water that gets past the siding runs down the taped ZIP face and out at the bottom, and air moving through the gap dries the back of every board. That drying matters most behind engineered wood like LP SmartSide through a Seattle winter, and it is simple to build in while the walls are still open. We used the same sheathing on our Sunset Hill ADU, with Rockwool insulation outside it.

Why mix Hardie shingle siding with LP SmartSide lap?

Seattle’s craftsman houses were rarely one material. The classic recipe is lap siding on the body and shingles up in the gables, with a trim band or a roof line where one gives way to the other — and that is how this house is dressed: James Hardie HardieShingle in the gables and LP SmartSide lap siding on the walls.

Each product is doing what it does best. HardieShingle is fiber cement made to read as individual shingle courses: noncombustible, dimensionally stable, and far faster to run straight up a tall gable than hand-laid cedar shingles, without cedar’s restaining. LP SmartSide lap is treated engineered wood that comes in 16-foot boards, so the long side walls go up with very few butt joints, and it shrugs off impacts. Both went on primed and our crew painted them on site, so from the street the change you notice is texture — lap below, shingles above — not a change in quality.

Choosing between the two for a whole house instead? Our LP SmartSide vs James Hardie comparison walks through moisture, warranty and cost side by side.

Custom craftsman window trim with backband

What makes the original houses on Phinney Ridge look substantial usually is not the siding — it is the trim. Craftsman casings were wide, flat boards finished with a backband: a narrow, thicker molding wrapped around the outside edge that gives the casing a stepped profile and a real shadow line. Stock trim packages leave it off, and a new house with thin, flat casings looks new from the sidewalk.

So the trim here was built the old way. Every window and door on the main house got a flat casing with a mitered backband around its outer edge and a sill with a projecting nose, assembled on the ZIP System before the rainscreen and siding went on. On a furred-out wall the backband earns its keep twice: the siding sits a half inch farther out, and the backband’s extra depth keeps the casing standing proud of the lap, so every course dies into a crisp, shadowed edge instead of finishing flush with the trim. The knee braces under every gable are ours too — installed with the trim and painted out white to match.

It is the same casing-and-backband profile we matched on our Wallingford craftsman addition — there to blend with a century-old house, here to give a new one the same historic depth.

Clear cedar soffits and porch ceilings

Against all that painted siding and trim, the one natural material on the house is overhead. The front porch ceiling and soffit and the covered back deck are finished in clear cedar boards left in their natural color, so the warm wood shows every time you climb the porch steps or sit out back — the look a craftsman porch is known for.

Cedar earns that spot in a way it would not on a Seattle wall. Under a roof, a soffit or porch ceiling is out of the direct rain and sun that break down a finish on cedar siding, so the wood holds its color and needs far less upkeep. If you want cedar on the walls themselves, our cedar siding installation page covers species, finishes and the rainscreen it needs.

The backyard DADU: the same rainscreen wall, modern lines

Behind the house sits a two-story backyard cottage (DADU) with shed roofs, black windows and deep, clean-edged eaves — a modern building sharing a lot with a traditional one. It got the same wall as the main house, ZIP System sheathing and the 1/2-inch furring-strip rainscreen, but in James Hardie lap siding, painted a cooler gray and broken up by dark horizontal bands and a weathering-steel accent panel we installed between the upper windows — the same kind of architectural metal we use as siding and accents elsewhere.

In the progress photo the furring strips are already on the ZIP System inside the recessed band where the steel panel went, so the drainage gap runs behind the accent too. Two buildings, two styles, one wall system.

The takeaway: new construction with a historic craftsman feel

New construction does not have to look it. Build the wall right — taped ZIP System, a real drainage gap, the right siding for each part of the house — then put back the details that made Seattle’s craftsman houses worth copying: shingled gables, wide casings with a backband, knee braces and warm cedar overhead.

If you are building new on Phinney Ridge, adding a DADU, or re-siding a craftsman anywhere in North Seattle and want it done this way, that is exactly what we do as a siding contractor for Phinney Ridge and North Seattle. Send us plans or photos and we will walk the job and write you an honest, fixed-price proposal.