The Staining of Cedar Siding
Cedar sided homes that are stained have a beauty all of their own. That beauty has a lot to do with the stain's ability to reveal the detail of the wood's grain, while functioning as a protective coating. The siding is one of the most expensive parts of your home, and to replace sections of it can be tremendously expensive. That's why it makes sense to maintain and care for it. Unlike paint, stain is slightly less protective, and therefore needs to be done more frequently, however, employing the correct application technique can substantially extend the longevity of your job. Here's ours:
1. Covering unstained or unpainted surfaces: Areas of the house that don't get stained or painted (such as windows, roofs, doors, foundations, decks, etc.) will be covered with plastic sheeting and tarps to protect from unwanted overspray.
2. The Birds and the Bees: As you may well know, the Carpenter Bee loves to burrow into nice,delicious, cedar, creating horrible damage. Woodpeckers love Carpenter Bee larvae and will do anything for them.Therein lies a big problem because one of the easiest places for the Woodpecker to find Carpenter Bee larvae is right out of the burrows that the Carpenter Bees have made into your house, creating further and sometimes severe damage. We repair all bird and bee damage.
3. Caulking: Proper caulking around windows and doors and wherever necessary assures that no moisture will seep in and help to reduce heating and cooling energy loss.
4 Surface preparation:. pressure washing is done if necessary. There is normally little surface preparation other than damage from wildlife. However, there commonly are window and other trim including doors and shutters that have been painted. These surfaces,if necessary, will be scraped of loose, flaking, or blistered paint and sanded in an effort to reduce the appearance of scarring caused by scraping. However, it is important to note that the results of this process depend on the age, condition, and number of layers of paint on the wood, and it is possible that surfaces will not have a totally smooth finish after scraping. Bare wood or metal will be primed using an ultra premium Zinsser brand primer that is a high build formula designed to minimize the appearance of scarring caused by scraping and glue down the edges of scraped areas to prevent further peeling.
5. Staining: Once preparation is done, stained surfaces are sprayed with two (2) coats of premium stain such as Sherwin Williams Woodscapes. Many companies will use a less expensive lower product line that lasts less years and cost you more to do more frequently. Also, many companies only spray one thin coat and call it a day. Unlike others, we not only spray two uniform coats of stain but we backbrush and / or backroll (The process of using brushes and rollers to force the stain into the grain, thus filling the grain nicely to give a uniform appearance) while spraying.
6. Painting: Scraped, sanded, and primed areas will be painted with premium paint such as Sherwin Williams Superpaint. Shutters are also painted.
7.Clean-up. After everything is stained and painted, a thorough clean up of the job site is done leaving the homeowner nothing to do except enjoy their newly rejuvenated home!!
