Cedar Shake Shingle House, My First, Any Tips?

[fireandrain 39]

Same client with the garage door. They want me to get their home's exterior (cedar shake) all cleaned up now. If you refer to the picture I posted of the garage door strip job, you'll see the surrounding shingles around the door that I worked over at the same time. Since I was working on the door with F-18 and RS MEd Red, I treated them at the same time. Now, they want the whole house done!

Due to all of the landscaping beneath the houses exterior, Im thinking about seeing what I can do to get that old shingle stain released with a sod. percarb approach first. Make sense? Might consider doing a small area 1st to gauge the extra time working without a SH stripper. Obviously, dont want to get to much pressure on these old shingles, figure they'll furr pretty easy, dont want that.

Frankly, my big concern has to do with access (sloped dirt surface below working area) and al the windows. I have additional concerns with respect to any of the old wet stripped stain bleeding into the house via those windows. I'll have access in and out of the house (hardwood floors, no worries there) so I figure Ill be doing a bit of peekin' in there to make sure Im not getting any runs inside through the seams of those windows. Dont want that AT ALL as the interior side of the windows are trimmed out in real nice clear fir with a clear finish!

Like I said, I don't have too much experience working with Cedar Shake Exteriors, or really house exteriors at all. Any input or pre-game advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

[nick_nite 14]

What is on the shakes now? We do quite a few of those, most times if finish on shakes is old will come right off with pwashing..... Start at bottom and work up, we never had a problem with windows leaking ...

[fireandrain 39]

What is on the shakes now? We do quite a few of those, most times if finish on shakes is old will come right off with pwashing..... Start at bottom and work up, we never had a problem with windows leaking ...

Nopt sure whats on there right now. I agree, I think the old finish is pretty beat up by the UV's, should come right off (HOPEFULLy!)

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Talk to James (Jim Foley) he does tons of that style of wood home.

John Tornabene (John t) does a good number of them also.

Beth

[fireandrain 39]

Thanks Beth, appreciate it.

[MMI Enterprises 289]

Stripper or not they could fur...some do some don't.

I describe it as fingers sticking up that have not grayed out. Can't really expect wood to always degrade internally at even rate and give up the ghost to present a perfectly flat surface..Once the surface gives up the old stain and gray you never know how much you gonna have underneith. I would think if its bad you may have to plan on a real good dry out time and then mild defurring with a rough pole mounted brush done vertically only of course. Either that or a real lite touch by mechanical machinery.

[RPetry 564]

Matt,

We generally don't do homes (hate ladders), but have run into cedar shakes from time to time, usually gazebo roofs. Here are a few pics of a particularly bad one.

Straight sodium percarbonate heavily applied and quite high pressure wash twice, to remove all the years of mildew, mold, and dirt. The shakes did not fir up much. Soaked up the RS, good old med. red.

These shakes were old. 3 times the remaining thickness on the shaded side of the roof. Amazing how sunlight and time degrades wood.

[fireandrain 39]

Nice job Rick, wow, what a transformation! Yeah, I don't do many of these exteriors either, but ended up as a nice little ad-on to that garage restore. Im pretty comfortable up on a ladder, actually thats my winter business, rain gutters. Gonna try and let that percarb do most of the work for me so I can do a rinse at a greater distance... planning on testing the lower areas with this appraoch first. Im guessing its gonna be a wet one though! :)

[RPetry 564]

Matt,

You may want to follow up with Beth's suggestion to talk to Diamond Jim Foley. I'm a percarb kind of guy, especially on bare wood, but Jim is a self taught master at using bleach solutions on cedar to prep. I know first hand that he does some truly remarkable work.

[James 625]

A house like that you have to do test spots to see what will work best. The area below each shake might be a pita. So do test spots!!

[MMI Enterprises 289]

I concur and suggested maybe relying more on ox for the ends...that seem to help James?