Painting Old Cedar Siding

Paint or stain dimensional cedar wood siding having cedar lumber wood siding such as 1 x 6 1 x 8 1 x 12 or two inch thickness can be painted with a solid paint stain not requiring primer but still not recommended painting cedar if you can help it.

Painting old cedar siding.

Sunlight degrades the unfinished wood surface thus it will never hold paint as well as fresh wood. Cedar siding can be one of the most resilient beautiful materials that you can put on your home. Reach the high areas or apply cleaner to the less dirty areas using a roller with an extension pole which doesn t allow you to apply as much pressure or elbow grease as a paint brush. Loosened photodegraded surface fibers and any loosened remaining finish must be removed prior to re finishing.

If you do it right painting cedar siding can last for a long time. Basic maintenance repair and painting of cedar wood siding using gardner flex n fill and behr premium plus exterior paint. Be careful when painting very old cedar siding. The first application of primer was absorbed immediately into the wood but the second application of primer did a fantastic job of covering the weathered siding.

While extremely old cedar can be painted it requires heavy preparation. No matter which paint or sealer product you are leaning towards using working with seasoned older cedar wood and siding it is imperative to remove all the old flaking paint or if stained removing all the old dried top layer of wood off by power washing. Exterior western red cedar surfaces only need to be refinished when the old coating has worn thin and no longer affords the wood protection. The problem is many painting contractors do not approach painting cedar siding the right way.

Here are the do s and don ts of painting cedar siding. Remove old paints and caulking. Unfinished siding exposed to several weeks of sunlight before painting needs to be sanded. Use a paint scraper to remove any peelings or coatings so that the paint will adhere to the surface of the cedar more easily.

Surface preparation is the key to success when dealing with weathered wood. If your siding is already stained painted or treated with a water repellent you must scrape off any of the coatings before you can paint over it. Learn how to paint your cedar siding with this guide. This is necessary if for example the old finish is severely cracked or is peeling.

The siding must be free from mold mildew and dirt. The two applications of primer were followed with two coats of high quality exterior latex paint for a clean smooth finish. Apply the wood cleaner to the cedar siding using a paint brush or roller. Step 4 let the cleaner sit on the cedar siding for 15 to 30 minutes.

Cedar siding painting will only be successful if you have a clean slate. If the unfinished wood was exposed more than 3 to 4 weeks lightly sand the surface to remove the thin layer of degraded wood before applying paint.