Cedar siding

[RSuds 24]

How would you clean this house?

What sealant would you use?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Strip it. Have you done much cedar? It can be a real pain in the rear to get staining/bleeding out of. Sometimes even with stripping you need a second process to even it up.

Jim Foley and John Tornabene both do lots of shingle/shake houses. Around here they are mainly clapboard or siding....

Beth

[Celeste 341]

Here's our latest shake project:

Cleaned with EFC-38 and finished with TWP Cedartone (101 I think) This one qualified as more of a maintenance since it had the TWP put on it previously....years ago - point being it did not need to be completely stripped.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Nice....sweet maintenance job.

Some of Brian's sides have nothing to maintain and have pretty severe degradation. I'll stand by my stripping opinion. :groovy3:

Beth

[Adrian 155]

Brian when you ask what "sealant" to use.

You don't mean just clear seal, correct? I would definately lean the customer towards "pigment".

The shakes would seem way to bright after neutralizating and applying clear seal.

[James 624]

Some times jobs like that are difficult. The extractive bleed and tannins have bled out of the wood and have caused a crust on top of the shake. The older the shake is the more difficult it is to remedy. You have to do some test spots.Make sure it's never been sealed ? If that's the case the areas that are the blackest and the brownest will be the most difficult to remove and in some areas can't be removed( to thick and hard). If you try to remove it you will screw up the surrounding wood. Shoot for 90% removal of dead wood. If your sealing you can buff or wire brush off the remaining crust.

If the shakes are over 25 years old might be time to replace. I have cleaned 35 year old cedar in very good condition.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

See? I knew James would have the solution. You 'da man Jimbo!

Beth

[RSuds 24]

Thanks for the reply, we have done them before and I was looking for some new ways of stripping. We are looking at using Ready seal because it is easy to use, any other suggestions on sealant.

[James 624]

Stick with RS on shakes.

[weathershield 14]

I agree with Beth in reference to the need to strip and also with Jim in reference to the possibility of residual staining.

You may very well have to strip more than once, and carefully, due to the delicate nature of the shakes.

The photographs below are of 20+ year old siding on a garage located at 5500' elevation in the Arizona mountains.

The side with the garage doors faces almost due East and the other side faces Southwest and is fully exposed to the sun. We also restored the oak garage doors.

There was some residual staining remaining after stripping, so we decided to go with a blend of 2 parts A/C Cedar-Semi and one part A/C Cedar tone.

The renovation was completed almost 2 1/2 years ago.

Edited March 18, 2010 by weathershield

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Hi Mark,

Welcome to posting on TGS! Glad you did! There is much the members could learn from you.

Please go to your Settings and add your signature. And again, welcome! :sunshine: :dancing:

Beth

[weathershield 14]

Thank you

[Greg R 82]

Here's some shakes! This house had 3/4 hand split shakes on the entire side and back and board and batton on the front. Trying to dig up the other pics of it - it's from 2006.

[John T 744]

We strip and Brighten all Cedar Shake houses that we do. Some of the houses afterwords we have Brushed on a stain that is along the lines from Semi Transparent to Solid(I hate to stain there shakes solid but if they pay for it then we'll do it. One Coat Primer 2 coats stain. Our biggest paying Cedar jobs but still hate that anyway)/

When they want the Cedar shake house Sealed we always spray and use brushes to catch drips if thats needed. The Sealer of choice for us here is Cabots Natural which is an oil base sealer. We used to like the Benjamin Moore Sealer but they have since changed over hear to a water base sealer. Soon all sealers will probably go to water base sealers due to VOC's (Environmental Concerns) and I always like the oil bases better.

So IMHO go with the strip and brighten method then a few dry days later come back and spray on the sealer..$$$$$$ then gone. These Customers a few years later will pay to have it done again.

[RSuds 24]

Thanks I will get after pictures