Pick the color once. Keep it for thirty years.
Prefinished LP SmartSide with a baked-on finish and a 30-year no-fade warranty, installed by certified hands.
Diamond Kote is LP SmartSide wearing a factory finish that never asks for a paint crew: color applied and cured in controlled conditions, bonded to the engineered wood beneath it, and backed by a thirty-year no-fade warranty. You choose the color once, and the wall holds it through three decades of Michigan sun, salt air off the road, and freeze-thaw whiplash that peels field paint in five.
Installing a prefinished wall is its own discipline. There’s no paint day at the end to hide handling scuffs and raw cuts, so the finish has to survive the whole job: boards stored and carried right, cuts sealed and touched up with the factory system, fastening set clean, and trim and accessories from the same color line so the wall reads as one piece. Our crew is LP certified and installs Diamond Kote as a system, not as boards with color on them.
We install Diamond Kote across Lansing, East Lansing, Okemos, St. Johns, Grand Ledge, Owosso, and the rest of our nine-county area. Licensed, insured, never subcontracted, and straight in the material talk: prefinished costs more than primed on day one and usually wins by year ten. We’ll show you both numbers and let the math talk.
What our Diamond Kote installation covers.
- The full color systemLap, panel, trim, and touch-up from one color line
- Moisture barrierA real weather-resistive layer behind every wall
- Finish-safe handlingBoards stored, cut, and carried so the factory coat survives
- Sealed and touched cutsEvery field cut sealed and factory touch-up applied
- Spec fastening and gappingLP’s manual followed, warranty kept enforceable
- Flashing throughoutWindows, doors, and penetrations detailed watertight
A prefinished wall is only as good as its handling.
Factory finish solves the biggest long-term problem with wood-look siding, which is paint. But it moves the pressure onto the install week. A field-painted job forgives clumsy handling because the painter covers it at the end. Diamond Kote doesn’t. Every scuff, raw cut, and careless fastener would live on the wall for thirty years.
So the discipline is procedural. Boards stay in their protection until they’re needed and get carried on edge, not dragged. Cuts happen on a station, get sealed, and get factory touch-up before hanging. Fasteners go in clean and flush. The color line’s own trim and accessories close out corners and openings so nothing on the wall came from a different system.
There’s no paint day to cover mistakes on a prefinished wall. The install has to be clean the first time.
Layout gets the same care, because a prefinished wall shows its planning forever. We map each elevation so butt joints fall away from sight lines, long factory lengths run the visible walls, and the pattern reads calm from the street.
At the end there’s no paint day, just a walk-around with the touch-up kit, the warranty paperwork completed correctly, and leftover matched materials labeled and left with you for the years ahead.
Done the honest way.
One color line
Boards, trim, and touch-up all from the Diamond Kote system, so the wall matches itself corner to corner, forever.
Certified installation
LP trains and audits our crew. The fastening, gapping, and sealing that keep the warranties whole are the job, not extras.
No paint, ever
No paint at install, no repaint cycle after. The thirty-year no-fade warranty is the whole point, and the install protects it.
Is prefinished worth it over primed and painted?
Run the honest math. Primed SmartSide costs less on install day, then owns a repaint cycle for as long as you own the house, and every repaint costs real money and a week of ladders. Diamond Kote costs more once, then does nothing but stand there holding its color for thirty warranted years.
If you’re staying past five to seven years, prefinished usually wins on money alone. It also wins on consistency: factory-cured color is more even than any field paint job, doesn’t depend on the weather the week it was applied, and fades so slowly the warranty puts a number on it.
Field paint keeps two real advantages: a lower first check, and an unlimited color deck. If you want a custom color no prefinished line carries, primed is your lane and we’ll hang it well. Diamond Kote’s palette is wide and built around colors that work on real houses, and darks that would chalk as field paint hold beautifully as factory finish.
The free siding look settles it with samples against your actual brick and roofline, both paths priced on your square footage, and our honest read for how long you plan to be in the house.
From recent jobs.
Real Anchor work across mid-Michigan, the standard your Diamond Kote project gets. More in the gallery.
Diamond Kote installs across mid-Michigan.
Prefinished siding has been winning converts across our nine counties for a plain local reason: Michigan is hard on paint. Lake-effect moisture, road salt spray, freeze-thaw swings, and high summer UV chew through field-applied color on a schedule every homeowner here already knows. Factory-cured finish opts out of that schedule entirely.
The style range covers our whole map. Deep navy and forest board-and-batten looks are carrying the new builds around DeWitt and Grand Ledge, warm neutrals keep Okemos and Haslett subdivisions composed, and crisp farmhouse whites and taupes look correct on the century homes out through St. Johns and Owosso.
Anywhere in the area, the free siding look brings the palette to your actual house, prices prefinished against primed on your real square footage, and puts a certified crew and a written start date behind whichever you choose.
Straight answers about Diamond Kote installation.
Short, honest answers to the common questions. To see what the finished job looks like, visit our gallery.
What exactly is Diamond Kote?
A factory-applied finish system on LP SmartSide engineered wood: color applied and cured in controlled conditions and warranted against fading for thirty years. You get SmartSide’s impact resistance and wood looks with the paint question answered permanently.
Does Diamond Kote really never need painting?
That’s the design. The finish is warranted no-fade for thirty years and doesn’t run a repaint cycle. Touch-up after the odd scuff or repair uses the factory color system, not a paint brush and a guess.
What colors does it come in?
A wide palette built for real houses, from soft neutrals through deep navies, greens, and near-blacks, with matching trim and accessories in the same line. Darks are a particular strength, because factory curing holds shades that chalk quickly as field paint. We bring samples to the free look.
What warranties come with a Diamond Kote wall?
Three layers: the thirty-year no-fade finish warranty, LP’s five-year full labor and materials coverage, and the fifty-year prorated substrate warranty on the SmartSide itself. Our certified install to LP’s manual is what keeps all three enforceable.
Is Diamond Kote worth the extra cost over primed SmartSide?
If you’re staying in the house past a handful of years, usually yes. Primed plus a repaint cycle costs more over a decade than most people expect, and prefinished deletes that line item entirely. We’ll put both numbers on your actual house and let you do the deciding.
How long does installation take?
About a week for most homes, tear-off through cleanup, same as our other full siding installs. Prefinished adds handling care, not calendar time, because the discipline is built into how the crew works rather than bolted on at the end.
Can Diamond Kote be repaired if a board gets damaged?
Yes, cleanly. Because the color line stays in production, a damaged board gets replaced with a factory-matched one and the cut edges get the factory touch-up treatment. It’s one of the best repair stories in siding, and we handle those too.
Is Diamond Kote a different product from LP SmartSide?
Same substrate, different finish path. Diamond Kote is a factory finish system applied to LP SmartSide engineered wood, so you’re choosing between SmartSide primed for field paint and SmartSide already wearing its thirty-year color. The wall structure and LP warranties underneath are the same.
Other things we do.
Serving Lansing, East Lansing, St. Johns and the surrounding counties. See our service area → · Questions? Contact us or call (989) 900-0018.
Ready to retire the paintbrush for thirty years?
Call for a free siding look. Samples in real daylight, both paths priced, and a certified crew when you’re ready.
(989) 900-0018