Restoring Painted Cedar Siding

What you get is a very uniform opaque color.

Restoring painted cedar siding.

Uncoated weathered cedar can often be restored to its original color by applying commercial products called cleaners brighteners or restorers. Cedar shingles can also grow moss and algae or develop iron staining which requires periodic cleaning. Solid color stains have solid particles but not nearly as many as paint. Over time cedar siding can become discolored and the surface degraded due to weather dirt and various other wear and tear.

The upside is that solid color stains will block most damaging ultraviolet light. Test results from the forest products testing lab run by the usda for the forest service show that after 12 weeks of exposure to sunlight cedar siding has lost half of its ability to hold a film forming coating system like primer and paint. Allowing fresh siding to weather for as little as two weeks negatively affects coating adhesion. Cover cedar siding with primer to keep any tannic acid or natural red coloring from surfacing and use an exterior latex paint.

How to restore your western red cedar siding prime time. Although intended primarily for restoring horizontal wood surfaces they generally work almost as well on vertical surfaces. 6 start painting your cedar siding. You can use a regular paintbrush to get the cedar shake siding painted.

Choose a color that resembles fresh cedar or that blends nicely with. Cedar siding though durable and able to maintain a good finish for a long period of time does sometimes get damaged and it is certainly not completely immune to rot no matter how well it has been treated and maintained. Staining cedar with a solid color stain. Some products are formulated with thickening agents to help the liquid cling better to vertical surfaces.

You will probably need at least two coats of high quality paint to do the job. Department of agriculture s forest services laboratory recommends cleaning cedar shingles with an oxidizing bleach as opposed to a household bleach to avoid damaging the wood while you can use household bleach to kill mold and algae it tends to make the cedar shingle s surface. Watch this quick tutorial on what you need to do to prepare wood house siding for refinishing. If you don t properly prep your siding surface before applying finish you may end up dealing with poor adhesion and inconsistent coloration.

Thus solid color stains let some of the cedar s grain show through but none of the color.