Too expensive to get cedar shakes painted?

[Sherry Norman]

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of purchasing a house on short sale.  It is sided with natural cedar shakes.  Here in the damp-ish climate of NJ, the shakes turn an unattractive kind of black after years of weather exposure.  Also, in the back of the house, there are missing shakes.

I had intended to get the exterior painted in order to brighten up the appearance and blend in the new shakes I need to add in the rear.  However, a fellow flipper who has had this done in the past has informed me that getting cedar shakes painted ends up costing the same amount of money as re-siding the house.  (I assume this is b/c of all the texture in the shakes, maybe it takes a long time to get it all coated.)  Upshot is, in other words, I might as well spend the money and end up with a newly a re-sided house.

Either way, it's an expense I'd like to reduce.  So I'm asking if anyone out there has any experience with having cedar shakes painted, or any advice or clever ideas to avoid spending so much money to make the house presentable.

Thanks for the help.

[Peter Crisp]

Hi Sherry,

I'm in BC where we have a lot of wood shakes and shingles, and I own a couple of properties with wood siding. I've also got a background in Materials Engineering, which doesn't make me an expert, but it helps.

First, before I'd consider paint, I'd investigate where the black is from. Is it mould, dirt or mildew? The first thing I'd do is try some gentle cleaner, like a deck cleaner. I'd avoid bleach as it tends to soften wood, but you may want to research oxygen bleach as it probably won't do any damage. I'd avoid pressure washing unless you are forced into it - gentle does it (learned this the hard way!). Once you do a cleaning, you can see what you are dealing with and a cleaning and some cedar renewal products may be all you need. You need to remove dirt and mould anyway before you paint or stain. You don't mention whether or not the siding was ever treated with linseed oil. Linseed oil, and some stains based on it, can often turn into a sticky mouldy mess. In that case, careful power washing followed by a very good primer and paint may be your only solution.

I've done a lot of reading on stains (particularly opaque stains) vs. paint and tried both. Both can work, but, particularly with paint, it's very hard to ever go back to natural again. My preference is an acrylic primer and paint, the best you can afford (mid-range is probably fine for a flip), but an oil-based primer can work just fine also. Oil based primers are proven, but the new acrylic primers work well also (you may not have a choice if you have tight VOC laws). Also agree that two coats spray painted and back-brushed gives you nice even surface and a long coating life. I'd get advice from a paint store you trust on specifics. If there are a lot of knots and oil, they may suggest spot-priming but newer-growth cedar has less oil in it than old-growth cedar and it may not be an issue.

There is another route. If insulation grants are available, you may find it cheaper to tear off the siding, insulate and re-side with something from vinyl siding to shakes or fiber-cement boards. But I personally like the look of shakes and I hate seeing vinyl going up if the shakes can be preserved.