If you're searching for wood siding for a home on Davis Islands, you're probably drawn to the warmth and character that real wood gives a house — the deep shadow lines of lap boards, the crisp texture of shingle siding, the classic look that suits the island's older Mediterranean Revival and bungalow-style homes. We get it. Wood siding has a look nothing else quite matches, and it's a natural instinct for anyone renovating a home in a neighborhood with this much architectural character.
Here's the honest answer up front: Alpine Exteriors does not install real wood siding, on Davis Islands or anywhere else we work in the Tampa Bay area. We install James Hardie fiber cement siding exclusively, and on a barrier island like Davis Islands — surrounded by water, sitting low, and squarely in the path of every tropical system that tracks up Tampa Bay — that's not a marketing preference. It's a decision built around what actually holds up here. This page walks through why, and what you get instead.
Davis Islands isn't a subdivision — it's two man-made islands connected to downtown Tampa by a causeway, built up out of Tampa Bay in the 1920s. That history matters for siding decisions in a few concrete ways:
Put those four factors together and you get a climate that is genuinely tough on any exterior material, and especially tough on wood.
Wood siding fails for one basic reason in this climate: it absorbs and releases moisture constantly, and that cycle never really stops on Davis Islands. Gulf humidity keeps ambient moisture high most of the year, salt air accelerates the breakdown of protective coatings, and afternoon storms during summer keep boards wet longer than they'd stay wet 20 miles inland. Wood that stays damp swells, and wood that swells and dries repeatedly checks, cups, and eventually rots — usually starting at butt joints, corners, and anywhere caulking has failed.
Real wood siding needs repainting or restaining roughly every 3-5 years in a humid coastal climate — sometimes sooner on south- and west-facing walls that take the most sun and wind-driven rain. Between those cycles it needs caulk inspections, spot priming on any exposed grain, and prompt repair of any board that starts to soften. Skip a cycle in a climate like this and the damage compounds fast, because rot doesn't stay contained to one board once moisture gets behind the cladding.
Florida's subterranean and drywood termites, along with wood-boring beetles, are active throughout Hillsborough County, and wood siding gives them a food source directly on the building envelope. Combine that risk with the moisture issues above and you have two compounding threats working on the same material at the same time.
Wind-driven rain during tropical storms and hurricanes finds every gap in wood siding's joints and fastener holes. Even well-maintained wood siding is more vulnerable to wind-driven water intrusion than a properly installed fiber cement system, and after a storm, wood siding often needs a full inspection for hidden moisture damage behind the boards — damage that isn't always visible from the outside until rot has already set in.
None of this means wood siding is a bad product everywhere. It just means that a barrier island in Tampa Bay, with salt air and hurricane exposure on top of Florida's baseline humidity, is close to the hardest environment in the country to keep it performing well long-term.
This is why we install James Hardie fiber cement siding exclusively — not vinyl, not engineered wood products like LP SmartSide, and not real wood. Hardie siding is manufactured from cement, sand, and cellulose fibers, which gives it a fundamentally different relationship with moisture than any wood-based product. It doesn't absorb water the way wood does, it doesn't feed termites, and it holds paint far longer because the substrate itself isn't expanding and contracting with humidity swings the way wood does.
Just as important for a neighborhood like Davis Islands: Hardie's lap, shingle, and board-and-batten profiles are designed to replicate the exact look that draws people to wood siding in the first place — the same shadow lines, the same board widths, the same shingle texture — without the maintenance liability underneath. James Hardie also engineers its products by climate zone, and the HardieZone 5 formulation used throughout Florida is specifically built for high-humidity, high-moisture-exposure regions like Tampa Bay.
| Hardie Profile | Look It Replicates | Where It Fits on Davis Islands |
|---|---|---|
| HardiePlank Lap Siding | Traditional wood clapboard | Bungalow and Craftsman-influenced homes throughout the island's interior streets |
| HardieShingle | Cedar shingle siding | Accent gables and dormers on homes with a coastal cottage feel |
| HardiePanel Board & Batten | Vertical wood board siding | Porches, garage elevations, and modern updates on renovated island homes |
| HardieTrim | Painted wood trim and fascia | Window and door surrounds on Mediterranean Revival and stucco-and-siding combination homes |
Upfront, real wood siding materials can sometimes look competitive with fiber cement. The real comparison, though, is total cost over the life of the siding — and on Davis Islands, that gap widens fast.
| Cost Factor | Real Wood Siding | James Hardie Fiber Cement |
|---|---|---|
| Repainting/restaining interval | Every 3-5 years in this climate | Typically 10-15 years with quality paint |
| Storm/moisture repair risk | High — hidden rot common after storm seasons | Low — resists moisture intrusion and doesn't rot |
| Pest treatment needs | Ongoing termite monitoring recommended | Not a food source for termites |
| Manufacturer warranty | Varies by installer, often shorter | James Hardie's non-prorated limited warranty |
| Insurance/wind mitigation | Rarely qualifies for wind mitigation credits | Can support wind mitigation credits when properly installed |
Actual project cost depends on your home's square footage, the number of stories, how much trim and detail work is involved, whether we're doing a full tear-off of existing siding, and which Hardie profile you choose. We'll walk through exact numbers for your home during a free estimate rather than quoting a number that doesn't reflect your actual house.
Working on the island comes with its own logistics — narrow streets, causeway access, mature landscaping close to homes, and in some cases HOA or historic character guidelines that homeowners want respected. Our process accounts for that:
One of the most practical differences homeowners notice after switching from wood to fiber cement is how little upkeep the siding demands. A realistic annual maintenance list for Hardie siding on Davis Islands looks like this:
Compare that to the sanding, priming, repainting, and moisture inspections real wood siding demands on the same schedule, and the difference in homeowner time and expense over 10-15 years is substantial.
If you came to this page looking into wood siding, the good news is you can still get the look you had in mind — just built out of a material that's actually suited to living a few blocks from Tampa Bay. We'd be glad to walk your property, talk through profile and color options that fit your home's style, and give you a straightforward, no-pressure estimate. There's a form right below this page whenever you're ready.
No. We install James Hardie fiber cement siding exclusively because it holds up far better than real wood against the humidity, salt air, and storm exposure typical of a barrier island like Davis Islands. It gives you the same lap, shingle, or board-and-batten look wood provides without the moisture and pest vulnerabilities.
In Florida you can verify any contractor's license status directly through the Florida DBPR license lookup using their license number. Alpine Exteriors is licensed under Florida license RB29003900 — always confirm active licensing and current insurance before signing a contract, especially for exterior work on a coastal property.
Fiber cement is made from cement, sand, and cellulose fibers, while engineered wood products use wood strands bonded with resins, which still leaves them more susceptible to moisture absorption than fiber cement. We install Hardie specifically because its composition performs more consistently in humid, storm-prone climates like Tampa Bay.
Hardie siding is available with a factory-applied ColorPlus finish, which is baked on and typically holds up 10-15 years before repainting is needed. That's a significant advantage over field-painted wood siding, which needs recoating far more often in coastal humidity.
Yes — much of Davis Islands sits at low elevation and is included in storm surge evacuation planning for Hillsborough County during hurricane season. While siding choice doesn't prevent surge damage to a home's structure, fiber cement is far less prone to the wind-driven rain intrusion and post-storm rot that real wood siding experiences after tropical systems move through.