Corte Madera Wood Siding

Nothing quite matches real wood on the right house, and Corte Madera has a lot of those houses — the Victorian-era cottages of Christmas Tree Hill, the shingled and board-clad homes tucked into redwood groves, the custom homes where the owner wants a material with genuine depth and warmth. Bay Area Siding Company installs and replaces natural wood siding across town: cedar and redwood clapboard, shingle and shake, and board-and-batten. We're based just up the road in Larkspur, so we can come see how your home sits and talk frankly about what wood will ask of you before you commit to it.

Talk through a wood re-side. Call (415) 619-5167 or request a bid.

The appeal — and it's real

Wood is the material the substitutes are all imitating. Its advantages are genuine:

• A natural look with real dimension that molded and engineered products approximate but don't fully replicate — a particular fit for the town's older cottages and its wooded, redwood-heavy setting.
• Repairability. A damaged board or shingle can be replaced individually, and the surface can be refinished rather than wholesale replaced.
• Renewable and time-honored — cedar and redwood have clad Marin homes for well over a century.

Profiles give you room to match the house: horizontal clapboard for a traditional cottage, shingle or shake for a First Bay Tradition feel, board-and-batten for a vertical, rustic line.

The upkeep is the honest catch

Wood's beauty comes with the highest maintenance of any siding we install, and in Corte Madera's marine climate that's not a footnote. Fog, salt air, and wet winters work steadily on a wood exterior, so it needs:

• Regular paint or stain on a cycle to keep water out — the coating is the whole defense.
• Vigilance against rot at the sills, bottom courses, and any spot where water sits or splashes.
• Attention to pests, which find untreated or failing wood.

None of this is a reason to avoid wood — it's a reason to go in clear-eyed. A homeowner who wants the look and will keep up the finishing gets a beautiful, long-serving exterior. A homeowner who wants to paint once and forget it is usually happier with fiber cement or LP SmartSide, and we'll say so.

The fire consideration on the hill

There's a second, more serious caveat for part of Corte Madera. Wood is combustible, and much of the town's most wood-friendly architecture sits exactly where fire exposure is highest — Christmas Tree Hill and the wooded upper streets of Chapman Park, among redwood, bay, and eucalyptus. That terrain is reflected in CAL FIRE's updated 2025 Fire Hazard Severity Zone and Wildland-Urban Interface maps and served by Central Marin Fire Department. Where a parcel falls inside a designated hazard zone or the WUI, California Building Code Chapter 7A governs the exterior wall covering and generally favors noncombustible or ignition-resistant assemblies — which can limit or rule out ordinary solid-wood siding on those homes. Whether 7A applies to your parcel and scope depends on the designation, the product, and the work, so we confirm it with the Town of Corte Madera and the fire authority before speccing. On a fire-exposed hillside lot, we'll usually point you toward noncombustible fiber cement, even where the wood look is what you love — and there are fiber cement and engineered-wood profiles that get close to it.

Where wood is a great fit

On the level, non-fire-designated neighborhoods down toward Corte Madera Creek and Tamalpais Drive, and on homes whose owners genuinely want to maintain a natural finish, wood remains a wonderful choice. That's the setting where its trade-offs are most manageable and its rewards most fully yours.

How the job goes

We assess your walls and your appetite for maintenance, measure, and pull the Town of Corte Madera building permit — the town is on the 2025 California codes as of January 1, 2026. The old cladding comes off down to the sheathing so we can inspect the substrate, water-resistive barrier, and flashing and repair concealed rot. We renew the WRB and flashing, install the wood siding to spec with proper clearances and detailing at every opening, then finish — including the critical coating — with trim, caulk, cleanup, and a walkthrough.

Cost drivers

We price after measuring. The drivers: species and profile (redwood, cedar, clapboard versus shingle versus board-and-batten all differ); the home's size and complexity; concealed rot or sheathing repair found at tear-off; stories and hillside access; the finishing scope; and window and trim integration. Wood also carries an ongoing maintenance cost worth budgeting for beyond the install.

Comparing materials? See fiber cement, LP SmartSide, vinyl, and the siding replacement hub. We also install windows in Corte Madera, serve the Marin service area, and share finished jobs in the projects gallery.

Frequently asked questions

Is wood siding a good idea on a Corte Madera hillside home? Often not, because wood is combustible and the hillside neighborhoods are where fire exposure is greatest. On a designated hazard-zone or WUI parcel, Chapter 7A favors noncombustible cladding, so we typically recommend fiber cement there. We confirm your parcel's designation with the Town and Central Marin Fire.

How much maintenance does wood really need here? More than any other siding we install. In the marine climate, plan on repainting or restaining on a regular cycle and staying ahead of rot at the sills and bottom courses. The coating is what keeps the wall sound.

Can I get the wood look without the upkeep? To a large degree, yes — LP SmartSide engineered wood keeps a real wood texture with far better rot resistance, and fiber cement offers wood-grain profiles noncombustibly. We can show you both against real wood.

Do you need a permit for a wood re-side in Corte Madera? Yes. It's permitted through the Town of Corte Madera Building Division, and we pull it as part of the project.

Get a wood siding bid

Call (415) 619-5167 or request a bid. We'll assess your home, be straight about the maintenance and any fire-zone limits, and lay out the scope.