Painting Old Cedar Plank Siding

It allows the paint to be worked into the siding s imperfections more effectively than a roller or spray.

Painting old cedar plank siding.

Loosened photodegraded surface fibers and any loosened remaining finish must be removed prior to re finishing. Use a brush when painting old siding. While extremely old cedar can be painted it requires heavy preparation. We like to use sherwin williams or porter oil primers.

Do not use water borne primers over exposed cedar siding. What you get is a very uniform opaque color. 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. Solid color stains have solid particles but not nearly as many as paint.

Remove pollutants and remove failing paint. Basic maintenance repair and painting of cedar wood siding using gardner flex n fill and behr premium plus exterior paint. Siding nails should not be caulked another item that needs room to play is siding boards themselves. 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.

If the underlying stain is dark have the primer tinted to match your paint color. Staining cedar with a solid color stain. Be careful when painting very old cedar siding. The upside is that solid color stains will block most damaging ultraviolet light.

Do remove all failing paint off of previously painted cedar siding. Cedar contains extractives that can discolor paint so it is necessary to prime the siding prior to painting it. A diyer or a novice painter might attempt to achieve a cleaner look by caulking the siding nails but the nail is guaranteed to push the caulking material out within a few months. Don t prime or paint in direct sunshine when it is dry and breezy or is very hot over 90 degrees f.

The nails holding up the siding should not be caulked. Do not allow peeling paint to remain on the cedar siding before painting. Surface preparation is the key to success when dealing with weathered wood. Cover cedar siding with primer to keep any tannic acid or natural red coloring from surfacing and use an exterior latex paint.

Soap like compounds can form on oil primers in as little as two weeks. Water borne primers cannot. Do prime the exposed wood whether new or previously painted with oil primer. Choose a color that resembles fresh cedar or that blends nicely with.

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