It’s hard to believe it’s been 6 years since we put up our cedar siding! Wood is beautiful, but there is also maintenance involved, and this is a maintenance year for us. We have been picking away at restoring and staining our cedar- which includes washing all of the natural wood shakes. It’s a job Matt and I were both dreading, but once we got started it actually started to go pretty quickly!!
I picked up a bristle brush and hand pump pressure sprayer from Home Depot, as well as some wood cleaner from our local Benjamin Moore paint store. The photo above is mid wash- you can see a lot of the tannins/weathering on the upper lefthand side. Some people love that look on cedar- but we just prefer a less weathered look.
The cleaner and scrubbing really did the trick for removing midew and tannins from the cedar! It was much worse on the back side, and one side that gets very little sunlight… Once it was clean it took me about 3.5 hours (during naps) to get the backside stained. There was a lot of up and down and moving the scaffolding, so I think if I didn’t have kids to watch, it would go quicker for sure.
I’m thankful Matt purchased scaffolding way back when we built our addition, because this is most definitely not a “DIY” job without it. One day we might hire it out, but for now it’s manageable for us. We are just the crazy people that do all the things.
I didn’t realized how much the blue had faded (it’s wet here so looks especially bright!) but, everything looks so fresh and awake now! We’ve gotten the entire backside finished with both the cedar, blue, and white trim. We’ve also finished the cedar on the front, and 1/2 of the gable side… with one more gable side to go. Then I’ll touch up the blue and white trim.
I also stained the back deck on the weekend (this photo is pre-stain!) – and I can’t wait to tell you about a little tool that kind of changed my life.
Hope you are enjoying August! It’s been flying by for me- but am I ever enjoying the flowers, my kiddos, and sandal season.
-Miss Ash
A big job …I love the colour of the blue it’s fantastic and it looks great against the stained cedar, really nice selection mizzzz ash 🤗✨✨✨
Thanks Mizz Deborah. xo
That is a pretty blue… what is the color?
Thank you! It’s a Behr Color called “Arrowhead lake”
Love what you’ve done with the exterior! We are also living in a cedar sided home and about to paint for the first time. Did you do all the painting with a brush or what other tools did you use? I read something about a hand pump above but wasn’t sure what that meant and if it was just something you used for the cleaning portion?
Hi Di,
We did do the staining with a brush! You are correct, pump sprayer was just for cleaning. Though, I do have friends who spray their cedar siding using a paint sprayer if it is not oil based stain. Good luck!
Thanks very much!