--- title: "Best Siding for South Dakota: SmartSide vs Hardie vs Vinyl" description: "Hail, wind and a 152-degree swing between the record high and low. Here's how SmartSide, vinyl, Hardie and steel actually hold up out here, cons included." url: https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/why-lp-smartside-is-a-top-choice-for-midwest-homes/ --- Updated October 11, 2026 · 8 min read # What's the best siding for South Dakota? Why we keep landing on LP SmartSide Hail, wind and a 152-degree swing between the record high and low. Here's how SmartSide, vinyl, Hardie and steel actually hold up out here, cons included. [South? Call Matt 605.496.9595 Sioux Falls · Tea · Omaha\ & surrounding areas ](tel:+16054969595)[North? Call Gunner 605.203.1805 Watertown · Aberdeen · Redfield\ & surrounding areas](tel:+16052031805) ![A family with their golden retriever admiring the new slate-blue lap siding on their two-story home, which held up to the South Dakota weather that fall.](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/assets/blog/best-siding-for-south-dakota.webp) What's the best siding for South Dakota weather? For most South Dakota homes it's LP SmartSide engineered wood. It handles hail better than vinyl or fiber cement in impact testing, it's light enough to install right, and it carries a 5/50-year limited warranty. James Hardie fiber cement is the pick if fire resistance matters most, insulated vinyl if budget does, and steel if you never want to paint again and can live with the odd dent. The short version - South Dakota logged 232 major hail events in 2025, seventh in the country, so impact resistance comes first. - In LP's own lab test, SmartSide took 1.75-inch hail at 81 mph without a mark. Vinyl cracked at 1.25 inches. - SmartSide's real weak spot is water at unsealed cut ends. That's an install problem, and it's preventable. - Hardie is heavier and can chip in the cold, but it won't burn. Vinyl is the cheapest and the most fragile. - The crew matters more than the brand. Ask how they seal cuts and what gap they leave at the roofline. In this article 1. [What South Dakota does to siding](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/why-lp-smartside-is-a-top-choice-for-midwest-homes/#what-south-dakota-does-to-siding) 2. [The four real options, side by side](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/why-lp-smartside-is-a-top-choice-for-midwest-homes/#the-four-real-options-side-by-side) 3. [Why SmartSide usually comes out on top here](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/why-lp-smartside-is-a-top-choice-for-midwest-homes/#why-smartside-usually-comes-out-on-top-here) 4. [SmartSide’s honest weak spot](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/why-lp-smartside-is-a-top-choice-for-midwest-homes/#smartsides-honest-weak-spot) 5. [When we’d steer you somewhere else](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/why-lp-smartside-is-a-top-choice-for-midwest-homes/#when-wed-steer-you-somewhere-else) 6. [What it comes down to](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/why-lp-smartside-is-a-top-choice-for-midwest-homes/#what-it-comes-down-to) Somebody on the [Sioux Falls subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/SiouxFalls/comments/w3ngxa/siding_company_recommendation/) put it about as plainly as it gets: *“Any local siding companies that do LP siding? I feel like everyone I find only does vinyl.”* That’s the conversation in a lot of driveways around here. Vinyl’s what most of the houses on the block have, it’s what the first quote comes back with, and it’s fine right up until a June storm rolls through and the west wall looks like somebody went at it with a ball-peen hammer. So here’s the straight version of what holds up in South Dakota and what doesn’t. We install all four of the common options (SmartSide, Hardie, vinyl and steel), so we don’t need you to pick any one of them. ## What South Dakota does to siding Siding out here doesn’t wear out the way it does in a brochure. It gets **hit**, it gets **frozen**, and it gets **baked**, sometimes in the same week. 232major hail events (1 inch or bigger) in South Dakota in 2025, seventh in the U.S. 110°FSioux Falls record high, set in 1936 and tied in 1988 −42°FSioux Falls record low, February 1899 That’s a 152-degree spread between the records at a single weather station. Siding expands and shrinks with every swing, water gets into any gap it can find, and then it freezes and makes the gap bigger. And hail is the big one. South Dakota isn’t Texas, but it’s not far behind the states people think of as hail country: Major hail events by state, 2025 Hailstones 1 inch or larger, top 10 states | State | Events | | ------------ | ------ | | Texas | 902 | | Kansas | 375 | | Oklahoma | 369 | | Nebraska | 315 | | Missouri | 253 | | Colorado | 244 | | South Dakota | 232 | | Tennessee | 216 | | Illinois | 167 | | Arkansas | 154 | Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center via the [Insurance Information Institute](https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-hail). U.S. total: 5,432. Put those together and the question isn’t really “what looks nicest.” It’s **what takes a hit, shrugs off a freeze and still looks decent in fifteen years.** ## The four real options, side by side | | LP SmartSide | James Hardie | Insulated vinyl | Steel | | -------------------------- | -------------------------------- | ------------------------- | ------------------------- | -------------------- | | **What it is** | Engineered wood | Fiber cement | PVC with foam backing | Galvanized steel | | **Hail** | Best of the four in impact tests | Can chip or dent | Most likely to crack | Dents, rarely cracks | | **Cold** | Doesn’t care | Brittle when handled cold | Brittle when hit cold | Doesn’t care | | **Weight** | Light (16-ft boards) | Heavy (12-ft boards) | Very light | Light | | **Paint** | Repaint \~15–25 yrs | Repaint \~15–25 yrs | Never | Never | | **Warranty** | 5/50-yr limited | 30-yr non-prorated | Lifetime limited, usually | Varies by maker | | **Installed cost / sq ft** | $4–9 | $5–13.50 | $3–12 | $4–8 | Cost ranges are national figures from [Fixr](https://www.fixr.com/costs/wood-siding-installation) and [HomeAdvisor](https://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/siding/), so treat them as a starting point. Your house, your trim and how much of the old stuff has to come off move the number more than the material does. Our [siding page](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/siding/) has more on what goes into a quote. ## Why SmartSide usually comes out on top here ![A homeowner running her hand along the cedar-grain texture of new LP SmartSide siding on a Sioux Falls-area home while the installer holds a sample board.](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/assets/blog/lp-smartside-siding-sioux-falls.webp) SmartSide's grain is pressed in deep enough to read as wood from the sidewalk. **It takes a hit.** In 2017 LP paid Texas Tech’s wind and debris lab to fire hail at siding. SmartSide showed **no sign of impact from 1.75-inch hail at 81 mph**. Fiber cement dented at the same size and a slower speed, and vinyl **fractured at 1.25 inches**, smaller than a golf ball. That’s the manufacturer’s test, so take it with a grain of salt. But it lines up with what you see on the west side of houses after a storm, and LP backs it with a hail warranty ([LP, 2017](https://www.lpcorp.com/about-lp/media-resources/news-releases/lp-now-warrants-its-engineered-wood-siding-for-hail-damage)). **It’s treated all the way through.** LP’s SmartGuard process soaks the wood strands in resins, waxes and zinc borate, which is what keeps out moisture, rot and termites ([LP](https://lpcorp.com/products/siding-trim/homeowners)). **It’s light enough to put on right.** The boards run 16 feet, so you get fewer seams, and LP rates them up to 39% lighter than fiber cement per square foot. Lighter boards mean fewer cracked pieces and a crew that isn’t fighting the material on a ladder in a 30 mph wind. **The warranty’s real.** Primed SmartSide carries a **5/50-year limited warranty**. That’s five years of full labor and materials, then prorated coverage on the board out to 50. ExpertFinish prefinished boards add **15 years on the finish** ([LP](https://www.lpcorp.com/project-resources/blog/introducing-lp-smartside-expertfinish-trim-siding)). We’re a certified LP SmartSide installer, and that’s not just a badge for the truck. It’s the reason we’d tell you about the next part. ## SmartSide’s honest weak spot You’ll find people online who hate it. One carpenter on Reddit summed up the complaint: *“Every end swells… sure, they’ve reformulated, but it’s still OSB.”* Here’s what’s actually going on. SmartSide doesn’t swell on the face. It swells at **cut ends that weren’t sealed**, and at boards that sit too close to a roof or the ground, where they soak up snowmelt all winter. LP’s own instructions spell it out ([LP install guide](https://lpcorp.com/resources/product-literature/smartside/installation-instructions/lp-smartside-nickel-gap-siding)): - **Seal every exposed cut.** LP says to seal *all* of them and doesn’t recommend a quick spray-on coat. - **Keep a 1-inch gap** above any roofline, like where a wall meets the garage roof. - **Keep it 6 inches above finished grade**, which in South Dakota means above where the snow piles up against the house. - **Leave a 3/16-inch gap** at trim and butt joints, then seal it. Skip those and you’ll get the swollen, wavy boards people post pictures of. Do them and SmartSide is about as low-drama as siding gets. > Quick test when you get quotes: ask the crew what they do with cut ends and what gap they leave at the roof. If they hesitate, keep shopping. And about that old class action: it was over LP’s **Inner-Seal** siding, installed before 1996. That’s a different product made a different way. It’s fair to know about, but it’s not today’s SmartSide. ## When we’d steer you somewhere else **James Hardie, if fire’s your worry or you love the look.** Fiber cement won’t burn, and some insurers like that. Hardie sells an **HZ5** line built for “freezing temperatures, extreme seasonal temperature variations, and snow and ice” ([James Hardie](https://jameshardie.com/hardie-zone-system)), which is the line to use out here. It carries a **30-year non-prorated** warranty, plus 15 years on the ColorPlus finish ([Hardie FAQ](https://www.jameshardie.com/faq/)). The trade-offs: it’s heavy, it’s brittle when handled in the cold, and a rushed crew will chip it. **Insulated vinyl, if the budget’s tight or you never want to paint.** Get the thick stuff. Builder-grade vinyl runs about 0.040 inch thick, and premium panels around 0.046 to 0.048 ([NerdWallet via KING 5](https://king5.com/article/money/nerdwallet/vinyl-siding-costs-and-how-to-bring-savings-home/606-7dfdba89-15fb-4162-8253-dda589e33862)). Foam-backed panels feel solid and add a little R-value. They’ll still crack in a bad hailstorm, but replacing a few panels isn’t a big job. **Steel, if you’re done painting forever.** One Midwest homeowner on Reddit said it well: *“we get a ton of hail that shreds the neighbors’ vinyl.”* Steel won’t crack. It can dent, though, and dents are permanent. ## What it comes down to For most houses in Sioux Falls, Watertown, Aberdeen and the towns in between, SmartSide is the best mix of hail resistance, price and looks. But the material is maybe half the result. The other half is whether the crew seals the cuts, flashes the windows and leaves the gaps. If you’re weighing this against what it’s worth at resale, read [the real ROI of new siding](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/the-real-roi-of-new-siding-is-it-worth-the-investment/). If you’re already picking colors, [here’s what’s going up on houses this year](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/top-siding-color-trends-for-2025-boost-curb-appeal-this-year/). And if a storm already got to the siding, [what hail damage looks like](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/what-hail-damage-looks-like-on-a-roof/) walks through what to check first. We’ll bring SmartSide, Hardie and vinyl samples out to the house, price whichever ones you want, and tell you which we’d put on our own. ## Questions we get about this ### Is LP SmartSide just OSB? It starts as wood strands like OSB, but it's treated all the way through with LP's SmartGuard process (resins, waxes and zinc borate) and has a resin-saturated overlay on the face. The 1990s LP siding that ended in a class action was a different product. The real-world failures you'll read about today are almost always unsealed cut ends or boards that sit too close to the roof or the ground. ### Does hail damage LP SmartSide? LP warrants SmartSide against hail damage. In a 2017 test LP commissioned at Texas Tech, it showed no sign of impact from 1.75-inch hail at 81 mph. Bigger stones can still dent it, and no siding is hail-proof. But it's the most impact-tolerant of the common options. ### Is vinyl siding OK in South Dakota? Yes, if you buy a thick or insulated panel and accept that it's the most likely to crack in a hailstorm, especially on a cold day. It's the cheapest to put on and never needs paint. Thin builder-grade vinyl (around 0.040 inch) is what gives vinyl its bad name out here. ### How long does LP SmartSide last? The substrate carries a 50-year limited warranty, with full labor and materials coverage for the first five years. Prefinished ExpertFinish boards add a 15-year finish warranty. Plan on a repaint somewhere in the 15-to-25-year range, sooner on the south and west walls. ### Do woodpeckers go after SmartSide? Sometimes, and it comes up a lot online, mostly from shed owners. Woodpeckers will peck at more than one kind of siding. If you already have a woodpecker problem on the house, tell us at the estimate and we'll talk through Hardie or steel for that wall. ### Want someone to actually look at it? Free estimate, usually same day across South Dakota and the states around it. No pressure and no call center — and if it has five more years in it, we'll tell you that instead. Or read more about [siding in South Dakota](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/siding/). ## Sources 1. [Insurance Information Institute: Facts + Statistics, Hail (NOAA Storm Prediction Center data, 2025)](https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-hail) 2. [National Weather Service Sioux Falls: Climate quick reference (record high and low)](https://www.weather.gov/fsd/quickref) 3. [LP Building Solutions: LP now warrants its engineered wood siding for hail damage (May 11, 2017)](https://www.lpcorp.com/about-lp/media-resources/news-releases/lp-now-warrants-its-engineered-wood-siding-for-hail-damage) 4. [LP Building Solutions: Introducing LP SmartSide ExpertFinish (warranty terms)](https://www.lpcorp.com/project-resources/blog/introducing-lp-smartside-expertfinish-trim-siding) 5. [LP Building Solutions: LP SmartSide for homeowners (SmartGuard process)](https://lpcorp.com/products/siding-trim/homeowners) 6. [LP Building Solutions: SmartSide Nickel Gap installation instructions](https://lpcorp.com/resources/product-literature/smartside/installation-instructions/lp-smartside-nickel-gap-siding) 7. [James Hardie: The HardieZone system (HZ5 for freeze-thaw climates)](https://jameshardie.com/hardie-zone-system) 8. [James Hardie: Frequently asked questions (30-year and ColorPlus warranties)](https://www.jameshardie.com/faq/) 9. [Fixr: Engineered wood siding installation cost (updated March 2026)](https://www.fixr.com/costs/wood-siding-installation) 10. [HomeAdvisor: Siding installation cost by material](https://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/siding/) 11. [KING 5 / NerdWallet: Vinyl siding costs and thickness grades](https://king5.com/article/money/nerdwallet/vinyl-siding-costs-and-how-to-bring-savings-home/606-7dfdba89-15fb-4162-8253-dda589e33862) ### What we do - [Residential Roofing](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/roofing/) Most roofs done in 1–2 days - [Storm & Hail Repair](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/storm-hail-repair/) Same-day inspections in most towns - [Gutters](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/gutters/) Installed with every roof, or on their own - [Where we work](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/service-area/) Ten offices across SD, ND, NE, IA and MN ### Keep reading - [Siding colors for 2025 and 2026: what's going up on South Dakota houses](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/top-siding-color-trends-for-2025-boost-curb-appeal-this-year/) Dark grays, warm khakis and the whites that never left. The siding colors going up this year, what people really pick, and what dark siding does in July. - [Is new siding worth it? The real return on a siding job in South Dakota](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/the-real-roi-of-new-siding-is-it-worth-the-investment/) National articles say siding pays for itself. Around here the numbers come in lower. Here's what you actually get back, and when it's still the right call. - [How long a roof lasts in South Dakota](https://radiantroofingsiding.com/blog/how-long-a-roof-lasts-in-south-dakota/) The national number is 20 to 25 years. On the northern plains it's usually less, and the reasons have more to do with your attic than with the shingles. Word travels fast out here ## Your neighbors already called us. ★★★★★ > I highly recommend these guys! They did two complete exterior remodels for me (siding, roof, soffit, gutters) on a couple of older houses and made them look brand new. They were available to start within a reasonable timeframe and got these big jobs done within a week. Gunner is great to work with and keeps you in the loop along the way. They’re now my first call for our exterior house projects. Ashley Weisser Aberdeen, SD ★★★★★ > Troy did an excellent job during our roof and siding inspection. He was punctual, knowledgeable, and very easy to work with. We truly appreciated his help as new home owners. What stood out most was how communicative he was throughout the process and how well everything was organized and explained. We’re very happy with the experience we had with Radiant Roofing & Solutions. Hadleigh Olson Omaha, NE ★★★★★ > Everyone at Radiant is professional and answered and addressed my concerns for siding and soffit work. Thank you all! Mandy, Gunner, Matt, Allen, Grant, Brent, Gary, Troy and Matt. Truly! TERA SCHAFER Sioux Falls, SD 4.9 average across Google · reviews from real projects across the region ## Storm’s coming. Your quote shouldn’t take longer than it does. Free estimate, same-day in most towns. No pressure, no call center — just Gunner, Matt and crews that show up. or call Matt on [605.496.9595](tel:+16054969595)