Redwood and Red Cedar Siding and Shakes are a great way to sheath the exterior of your home. These natural wood products can last for decades if installedand caredfor properly. One of the most important parts is applying your primer and stain correctly. Although Stain is a preferred coating you can also use paint. Latex paints have improved to the point that they can provide a very close life expectancy to stain.
Rough or Smooth Side To the weather?
When dealing with the harshness of rain and weather it is often preferred to have a smooth surface to allow the water to shed quicker but in the case of siding or roofing materials that will be stained the rough unplaned side will hold coatings better. For this reason when possible it is always preferred to place the rough side out towards the weather.
Preparing for Stain
Even though Redwood and Cedar look beautiful in their natural state it is important that you stain your siding to give it extra longevity. Although it can be a pretty tedious task it is important that you coat all edges of the boards to reduce moisture penetration.
If you were to only apply primer to the outside you will find that moisture will eventually penetrate from the backside of the board causing a moisture level difference across the board. When one side is wetter then the other you end up with cracking, checking and other physical problems. You also increase the chance that water in the wood will lift the stain causing it to flake, crack and fail long before it should.
Spot Sealer
Since you will probably order a pallet of materials and you won’t be picking each board you are bound to find a few boards with knots it is important to use a special spot sealer on the knots. Knots are where a branch attaches to the trunk of the tree and at that point there is a high level of resins that can cause paint failure. While priming your boards you should use a spot primer to seal the knot. Kills makes a good alcohol primer sealer that drys fast. Simply hit the knot with the sealer then put it aside until it drys and then prime the board as you normally would. This is more important for Pine then it is for other woods but all knots will end up causing problems a few years down the road if you don’t seal them.
Applying the Primer
Painting front and back sides of your wood will be like you are painting your house twice but it has to be done. One trick is to use a roller to apply the primer and then go over it with a brush to smooth it out and hit the edges. A 4 or 6 inch brush should let you take one pass all the way down the board to provide even results.
Using saw horses to support the boards paint the back side of the board first. By the time you have painted 5 or 10 you can go back and flip the boards over and prime the good side.
One coat of primer is all that you need. When you are done you can apply the board to the home and then apply your top coats.
Top Coats
You should apply two thin but even top coats of stain or paint to your siding. Before you apply your topcoats you should finish any caulking that needs to be done and remove any dirt that may have accumulated while you were installing the siding.
Just like when you were applying the primer you can use a roller to coat the board with product and then back brush the siding to remove any drips. You can also use a professional paint sprayer but you should work in areas small enough to allow you to back brush unless you have someone helping that will follow you as you paint.
Cedar Shingles
Applying Primer to Cedar Shakes is best done by dipping. If you tried to paint each shingle with a brush you would probably go insane before you finished. Simply pour out about a gallon from your 5 gallon bucket and hold the shingle by the thin edge while you dip it. You can then throw the shingle onto a plastic painters tarp to let it dry.
Buying Pre-Primed Product
Your time is also money and you need to evaluate how much time you can save by buying preprimed wood vs doing it yourself. You can expect to add 60% more time to your project if you need to prime your wood yourself. This means a 3 or 4 day project could end up well into 2 weeks by doing the priming yourself. You also need to decide whether the primer that you get from the factory will hide the imperfections of the wood. You could end up with a slightly lower grade wood that is hidden by the primer.
The decision is yours but for most projects your life will be a lot easier if you buy the preprimed product.
Remember you will still need primer to seal cut ends and do touch-ups.
Final Note
Siding your home yourself is a pretty large project especially if you have never done it before. With good tools and materials most people can perform the work themselves. In other HowTos we will show you how to install wood siding but you might also want to take a look at Vinyl siding as an alternative. Although Vinyl does give that plastic feel it is extremely easy to care for with no need for painting. It is also very easy to install. A single story home can be sided by one or 2 people in just a few days with much less skill vs a few weeks that wood will require. You should also remember to always use stainless steel fasteners when installing siding it costs a little more but it is well worth the extra money.
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