Arlington sits in the middle of one of the most siding-unfriendly climates in the country, and most of that has nothing to do with rain or cold. It's hail, heat, and shifting soil. If you've lived in Tarrant County for more than a couple of storm seasons, you already know what a spring hail cell can do to a roof and a west-facing wall in about four minutes. This guide walks through which siding materials actually hold up under those conditions, which ones look good in the showroom but disappoint here, and what to weigh before you sign a contract.
For most Arlington homes, fiber cement siding (James Hardie and similar products) is the strongest all-around choice. It resists hail denting far better than vinyl or aluminum, it doesn't warp or sag in triple-digit summer heat, and it holds paint and caulk lines through the wide temperature swings that come with our thermal cycling. It costs more up front than vinyl and it's heavier to install, but for a house that's going to sit through another twenty North Texas summers and however many hailstorms come with them, it's the material most local contractors, including our crews at Alpine Exteriors, install most often on full re-sides.
That said, fiber cement isn't automatically right for every house or every budget. Engineered wood siding (LP SmartSide) is a reasonable middle-ground option for homeowners who want a fiber-cement-like look at a lower material cost, and steel siding is worth a serious look on homes where hail resistance is the single biggest priority. Vinyl still has a place, mainly on budget-driven projects or rental properties, but it's the material most likely to disappoint an Arlington homeowner after one bad hailstorm. We'll get into the honest trade-offs for each below.
Ranking siding for a national audience is easy and mostly useless, because the things that matter in Seattle or coastal Florida aren't the things that matter here. Arlington doesn't get hurricanes and it doesn't get salt air. What it gets, almost every year, is some combination of the following, and that's what we weighted:
We're not scoring appearance or resale value here, though we'll mention them where they're genuinely relevant to a decision.
Fiber cement is a blend of cement, sand, and cellulose fibers pressed into planks or panels, then factory-finished with paint or a baked-on color coat. It's the material we install most often on full re-sides in Arlington, and for the conditions this region throws at a house, it's hard to beat.
Pros: It's dense and rigid enough to shrug off small-to-medium hail far better than vinyl, aluminum, or wood — it can still dent or crack under a severe enough hit, but the threshold is meaningfully higher. It doesn't soften or warp in extreme heat the way some plastics do, and it holds a factory finish through years of UV exposure with far less fading than vinyl. It's also non-combustible, which some Arlington homeowners value given how dry late-summer conditions can get. Properly installed with the right fastening pattern, it handles straight-line wind well.
Cons: It's heavy, which means installation is more labor-intensive and slower than vinyl — expect a longer project timeline and a higher labor cost as part of the total price. It's also genuinely brittle in a different way than vinyl: a hard enough hail impact or an accidental strike during installation can crack a plank rather than dent it, and a cracked plank needs to be replaced rather than left alone. If your home has experienced foundation movement (common enough on Arlington's clay soils), you can occasionally see stress cracking at panel joints that traces back to framing shift rather than a defect in the siding itself. Material and installed cost run noticeably higher than vinyl — plan for that up front rather than being surprised by a quote.
Engineered wood siding uses wood strands bonded with resins and treated with a zinc-borate additive for moisture and insect resistance, then finished at the factory. It reads as a warmer, more traditional look than fiber cement while costing somewhat less to install.
Pros: It's lighter than fiber cement and easier to work with, which can shorten install time and reduce labor cost. It holds paint reasonably well and takes hail impacts better than vinyl, since the material has some give rather than shattering outright. It performs decently through our heat and thermal swings when properly primed and sealed at cut edges.
Cons: Because it's wood-based, any breach in the factory coating — from a hail nick, a scuff during a windstorm, or just an unsealed cut edge at a corner — opens the door to moisture intrusion, and moisture plus North Texas humidity swings is where engineered wood eventually loses to fiber cement. It's not as hail-resistant as fiber cement in a genuinely severe storm. It also needs more diligent caulk and paint maintenance over the years than fiber cement does, which matters in a climate where a maintenance window can get squeezed between heat waves and storm season.
Vinyl is the most common siding material nationally because it's inexpensive and low-maintenance, and it still gets installed on a fair number of Arlington homes, particularly on rental properties and budget-conscious remodels.
Pros: Lowest material and installation cost of the mainstream options, by a meaningful margin. Never needs painting, doesn't rot, and installs quickly. Modern thicker-gauge vinyl (look for panels rated for higher wind speeds and, ideally, an impact-resistance rating) has improved substantially over what was on the market a couple decades ago.
Cons: This is the material most likely to disappoint an Arlington homeowner specifically because of our climate. Standard-gauge vinyl cracks and shatters under hail impacts that fiber cement would shrug off — we see this every hail season, panels with starburst cracks radiating from a single impact point. It also softens in sustained extreme heat; south- and west-facing walls that bake all summer can develop visible waviness or buckling over time, especially with darker colors that absorb more heat. Thin, older vinyl is also vulnerable to straight-line wind, sometimes popping loose from the J-channel in a strong gust. If you go vinyl in this market, spend the extra money on a heavier gauge and an impact-rated product rather than the cheapest option on the shelf — the price difference is smaller than the difference in how it performs during a bad storm.
Steel siding, typically a formed steel panel with a factory paint or stone-coated finish, is a smaller share of the residential siding market but worth a serious look for homeowners who rank hail resistance above everything else.
Pros: Steel is genuinely the toughest option against hail — it can take impacts that would crack fiber cement or shatter vinyl and come away with, at worst, a small dent rather than a breach. It's also strong against straight-line wind and doesn't degrade from UV or heat the way plastics can. Some steel siding products qualify for Class 4 impact ratings, which is the category insurers most often recognize for premium discounts.
Cons: Cost is the main barrier — steel typically runs at or above fiber cement, and installers experienced with it aren't as widespread as fiber cement or vinyl installers, which can narrow your contractor options. It can dent under a severe enough impact even if it rarely cracks, and dents are more visually obvious on a flat steel panel than a small crack tucked into a fiber cement plank's texture. It also conducts heat differently than fiber cement, so proper insulation and underlayment matter more to keep summer heat gain in check.
A large share of Arlington's housing stock, particularly homes built from the 1960s through the 1990s, uses brick veneer on some or all exterior walls, often paired with wood, aluminum, or vinyl siding on gables and second stories. Brick isn't a "siding replacement" product in the traditional sense, but it's worth addressing because so many re-siding projects here involve matching new material to existing brick.
Pros: Brick veneer is extremely hail- and wind-resistant and essentially immune to the heat and UV issues that affect other materials. It's also often the reason a re-siding quote comes in lower than expected — you may only be replacing the non-brick portions of the exterior.
Cons: Brick veneer isn't immune to Arlington's expansive clay soil. As foundations shift, brick can develop stair-step cracking along mortar joints, and that's a foundation and masonry issue, not something new siding fixes. If you're replacing surrounding siding, matching the color and texture of aging brick with new fiber cement or engineered wood trim takes a more careful material and color match than most homeowners expect going in.
A few materials and shortcuts show up in Arlington bids that we'd steer most homeowners away from, specifically because of our local conditions:
We'd also gently push back on any contractor who promises a siding material is "hail-proof." Nothing sold for residential exteriors is immune to a severe enough hail event — the honest conversation is about relative resistance and what a given product typically survives, not absolute guarantees.
It can. Texas homeowners policies commonly include a separate wind/hail deductible, often calculated as a percentage of your dwelling coverage rather than a flat amount, and that deductible applies regardless of siding material. Where siding choice can matter is on the premium side: some insurers offer discounts for impact-resistant (Class 4) roofing and siding products. Ask your insurance agent directly whether a specific product qualifies before you assume a discount applies — carriers and their criteria vary.
North Texas sees hail ranging from pea-size to, in the more severe storms, golf-ball or baseball-size stones, and Tarrant County has had its share of damaging hail events. There's no siding material that's guaranteed to survive the largest hail this region has produced, but the practical difference between materials shows up at the more common range of hail sizes — that's where fiber cement, steel, and quality vinyl start to separate from thin vinyl, aluminum, and unmaintained wood.
Not exactly, but you do want the new material and color to read as intentional next to the existing brick rather than mismatched. Fiber cement in particular takes paint and factory color-matching well, which makes it easier to coordinate with brick tones common in Arlington's older neighborhoods. A contractor who can show you color and texture samples against your actual brick, in your actual light, is worth more than one who just hands you a swatch book.
For a typical single-family home, a full re-side runs from several days to a couple of weeks depending on square footage, material, and how much of the existing sheathing needs repair underneath. Vinyl generally installs fastest; fiber cement takes longer because of its weight and the cut, fit, and caulk work involved. Reputable crews plan around exterior wall sections so your home isn't fully open to the elements at once, but if you're scheduling around peak summer heat, ask your contractor how they sequence the work to minimize how long any given wall (and the AC behind it) is exposed.
Every one of these trade-offs looks different once you're standing in front of an actual wall with actual hail damage, actual sun exposure, and an actual budget. Alpine Exteriors serves Arlington and the rest of Tarrant County, along with Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco, Irving, McKinney, and Denton, and our crews size up siding recommendations against what your specific home has already been through — not a generic national list. If you're weighing a repair against a full re-side, or you just want an honest read on whether your current siding is holding up the way it should, reach out to Alpine Exteriors for an inspection and a straight answer about what your home actually needs.