James Hardie Siding Replacement on Gay Circle in Longmont, CO - Two Years, Three Projects, One Trusted Team

Brand: WestPro
Rating: 5 (64 reviews)

Problem solving, no matter the scale

Brian found WestPro through a Google search in November 2022 with a simple problem. The gutters on his and Molly's Longmont home were leaky and dented in places. The couple knew their siding would need to be addressed in the near future but that they didn't have it in the budget yet, and flagged this to their Project Consultant, Natalie. This first small job eventually turned into a much longer relationship. In the coming years, the couple repeatedly turned to WestPro Home Exteriors as their trusted contractor for their exterior remodeling needs.

Less than a year after we replaced the gutters, the same home was hit with a hail storm that caused functional damage to the roof (impact dents, granule loss, cracked tabs). Because the damage was caused by hail, the couple was able to file an insurance claim with our support to get the full replacement covered, minus their deductible. Not only that, but they got an upgrade to GAF Armorshield II Class 4 impact-resistant shingles as well as a ridge vent upgrade, chimney reflashing, and code-required ventilation exhaust work, all beyond a simple like-for-like shingle swap, covered through the claim.

In 2024, Molly and Brian came back to WestPro for a third time. This time, they came back on their own, finally ready to move forward with the full re-side they had been dreaming of since our first visit in 2022. By this point, it was clear the home needed it. Though it was originally built in 1984, it had never had a complete siding update. The existing composite wood siding had aged unevenly across multiple elevations, with significant deterioration along the back two walls where there was visible rot as well as heavy dirt staining that could no longer be cleaned away. The rest of the exterior was simply old and worn. The garage area had been finished in an entirely different siding material than the rest of the home, leading to a disjointed appearance on an otherwise beautiful corner lot. Taking the same "spot repair" approach that had been done by the previous owners to address the siding this time around would have only exacerbated the patchwork appearance of the home without addressing the underlying material failure.

That's why, when they reached out to us this time, they wanted to do it all. The couple asked for a quote on residing the entire home in James Hardie fiber cement siding. Unlike composite wood, James Hardie fiber cement is dimensionally stable and non-combustible, and the product itself is backed by a 30-year substrate warranty. After years of neglect, they felt this approach was finally the long-term solution the home had been needing.

Why they called us

The gutters they first called us out for in 2022 were a straightforward retail repair: Brian knew that their gutters were leaky and dented, and wanted them replaced entirely. In 2023, they called us out again to inspect their roof after a hailstorm. We found what the couple had suspected: functional damage in need of a full replacement. WestPro worked with the couple's insurance over the course of several months to ensure they were fairly compensated for the replacement. By 2024, they were finally ready to replace their siding, and knew they wanted WestPro to do it. Like the gutters, the siding wasn't eligible to be billed through insurance, but it was definitely time. The original composite siding on the back walls had trapped moisture and rotted, the siding elsewhere on the home was simply reaching the end of its service life, and the garage's mismatched siding meant the exterior had never read as one consistent look to begin with. Molly and Brian wanted pricing for the whole home rather than a partial repair, since a partial match against three different existing conditions wasn't going to solve the underlying problem, and they wanted a unified finished look for their corner-lot home.

What we did

Gutters, 2022. WestPro inspected the home November 21, 2022, and recommended replacing the gutters immediately. The homeowners chose a 5" seamless aluminum gutter in Royal Brown with matching 2"x3" downspouts, whole home, along with a drip edge retrofit since the roof didn't have one at the time. The job was installed in December 2022. Interestingly, at that same November visit, Molly and Brian also mentioned they were thinking about doing their siding sometime in the following year, and were looking at a full lap profile in a specific green they weren't able to find at the time. They weren't ready yet, but said they were budgeting for it in a few years. Even so, their Project Consultant at the time, Natalie, made sure she completed a full inspection on their home, so they understood what needed to be done and wouldn't be caught off guard by any big siding surprises. Knowing Molly and Brian weren't ready to move forward yet, Natalie still wrote them a full quote and walked them through their siding options. It was time spent without any desire to sell them on a project they weren't ready for yet, but it meant Molly and Brian understood their options and could start planning their next steps whenever they were ready.

Roof, 2023. WestPro inspected the roof on July 10, 2023, and found hail damage. Brian and Molly filed a claim with their carrier and signed a contract for a full tear-off and replacement with GAF Armorshield II Class 4 impact-resistant shingles in Charcoal, new drip edge and flashing throughout, chimney reflashing, a ridge vent upgrade, and code-required ventilation exhaust work. The existing gutters, installed less than a year earlier, were detached and reset rather than replaced. The roof was installed in a single day in October 2023, with Bennett working as their project manager. The crew had most of the tear-off done by 9am, worked around a late material delivery, and had the job finished by 4pm.

The insurance claim was a different story: when Molly and Brian's roof claim ran into a slow patch with their insurance carrier, WestPro's insurance specialist, Eric, stayed on it. He'd already flagged early on that the carrier had undervalued their nearly-new gutters (done just eight months prior). After the roof was finished, he submitted the completed paperwork and then followed up twice over the next two months when the carrier was slow to respond, making sure the code-required work and the gutter issue both got properly credited. It's a good example of WestPro staying involved with a customer through the insurance process rather than handing off once the physical work is done. The claim was fully settled with their carrier by January 2024.

Siding, 2024. We tore off the existing composite siding down to the studs across the entire home, including the garage, and fully re-sheathed the walls with new OSB.

After this, came the fun part. We installed James Hardie ColorPlus 8.25" HardiePlank Lap Siding in Arctic White across the entire home, tying the previously mismatched garage into the same visual system as the rest of the home. They had a specific black and white look they had been dreaming of. At the time, James Hardie didn't yet have a true black trim color available in the Colorado market, so instead they opted for a primed version of James Hardie Cedarmill for the trim. Primed Hardie can be painted any color, and in this case, black to match their front door. This trim was added around the windows, doors, and outside corners, along with new fascia to tie the color scheme all the way into the roofline. Today, this same design could be done using James Hardie's newer Midnight Black trim option, which would also make the trim eligible for the 15-year limited finish warranty on James Hardie ColorPlus, covering peeling, cracking, and chipping, something a field-painted primed finish isn't eligible for.

The same Royal Brown gutters from the 2022 job were detached by the siding crew so the new soffit and fascia could go on cleanly, then reset once the walls were finished, the second time these gutters had come off and gone back on for a WestPro project on this house. When the gutter crew came back out to reattach them, the drip edge had gotten bent in the process and didn't look quite right. The same project manager who had run the roofing installation for the hail damage, Bennett, caught it and sent the crew back out to retrofit five sections of drip edge before the job was called done.

The crew opened the job in August 2024, and substantial work wrapped up in early September, with painters pressure washing and finishing the primed trim before the gutters could go back on. Working around the painters' schedule, we finished the job in October 2024.

The facts

This home on Gay Circle in Longmont, built in 1984, has now gone through three WestPro projects in under two years: a full gutter replacement in December 2022, a hail-damage roof replacement in October 2023, and a full siding replacement completed October 2, 2024 across roughly 1,700 sq ft of siding and trim area, covering 12 window and door openings, 12 inside corners, and 11 outside corners, including the garage.

Materials

Price Context: Gutters and Roof (2022, 2023)

The 2022 gutter replacement was completed at approximately $12 per linear foot installed across gutters and downspouts combined, right in line with the typical range for a Colorado gutter project. Homeowners considering a similar gutter replacement today should generally expect pricing between $9.20 and $13.55 per linear foot installed, depending on gutter size, downspout count, and whether leaf guards are added.

The 2023 roof replacement, including the GAF Armorshield II Class 4 shingle upgrade, ran higher than the typical range for that shingle tier alone, at approximately $8.35 per sq ft installed against a typical $7.10 to $7.50 per sq ft for Armorshield II on its own. That's explained by the code-required upgrades and insurance-driven items bundled into this specific job: chimney reflashing, exhaust cap replacement, a ridge vent upgrade, and step flashing re-interlacement required by the City of Longmont building code at the time of re-roofing, on top of the shingle upgrade itself. Despite this higher-than-average cost, our insurance claims specialist worked to get the couple the maximum payout they were owed; they only paid their deductible.

Price Context: Siding (2024)

This project was completed at approximately $34 per sq ft installed, which runs above the typical range for a ColorPlus siding job. That's explained by several real factors on this specific job rather than the siding material alone. First, the price includes fascia and soffit replacement bundled into one project, not siding by itself. Second, the full re-sheath added a layer of OSB across the whole home before siding could go on, which a straightforward re-side over sound sheathing wouldn't require. Third, the garage's mismatched siding meant extra panels and trim to bring that section into the same system as the rest of the house, rather than simply refacing one continuous wall plane. Fourth, this home has more corners than a typical single-story house, along with several bay windows, both of which add cutting, trim work, and flashing detail that a simpler rectangular footprint wouldn't require. The home's brick sections were left in place and were not part of the siding scope or its cost.

Homeowners considering a similar James Hardie ColorPlus 8.25" HardiePlank Lap project in Colorado should generally expect pricing between $20.00 and $22.50 per sq ft installed for the siding material and labor alone. Pricing reflects WestPro project data and current Colorado Front Range supplier costs.
Pricing on a project like this varies based on how much of the wall sheathing needs replacing once the old siding comes off, whether the job also includes fascia and soffit rather than siding alone, the number of stories and site access, the complexity of the home's footprint including corner count and features like bay windows, and current material and labor costs.
For an exact price on your home, the best next step is a free, no-obligation inspection.
Outcomes matter
Three projects and just under two years later, Molly and Brian's home now reads as one consistent exterior for the first time since it was built, with James Hardie ColorPlus Lap Siding in Arctic White running from the main walls straight through to the garage that never used to match, the same Royal Brown gutters carried through all three projects, and a hail-resistant roof overhead. The couple, who kept coming back to WestPro as their trusted contractor, have left WestPro two separate 5-star Google reviews over the course of these projects.
In the end? Curb appeal
Before the home's final transformation, it was a home that told visibly different siding stories: composite lap siding with moisture staining and separating boards around the trim near the main house, and a garage addition finished in its own tan composite lap siding with brown trim, distinct from the main structure. Nothing about the exterior read as one connected design.
Now, the lot tells an entirely different story. The single biggest change is that the garage no longer looks like an afterthought. With James Hardie ColorPlus Lap Siding in Arctic White running across the entire home, including the garage, the roofline and wall planes now read as one continuous structure instead of a main house with a mismatched outbuilding attached to it. Cedarmill trim, unified in the same finish throughout, ties the windows, doors, and corners together the same way on every elevation.
The color itself tells its own small story. Back in November 2022, when Molly and Brian first mentioned wanting to redo their siding, they were looking at a specific green they couldn't find at the time. Two years later, when they were ready to move forward, they landed on Arctic White instead, a cleaner, more versatile choice that reads well against the Royal Brown gutters and downspouts that have been part of this home since that very first WestPro visit.
A story like this one isn't the result of a quick exterior fix, turned around and then forgotten about, and it isn't about a single project either. It's about a team a homeowner trusted enough to call three times over two years, and one that's willing to solve the problem in front of it, according to the phases and steps the homeowner actually needed.