Whether you stain your cedar or allow it to weather naturally basic maintenance applies.
Does cedar siding need to be painted.
If you do not intend on priming brand new cedar or redwood for that matter a high quality stain paint should be used as 50 of volume soaks into the wood other 50 is left on top as a dried paint mil.
In refinishing painted or solid color stained siding and trim removal of the old coating may be required.
It will not turn out good.
In only a matter of a year or two maybe 3 max.
Consider a painting company that will not take shortcuts to get the job fast.
Cedar is known to age gracefully to a soft silver grey patina but it s wise to keep the rich tones of your cedar siding lasting longer.
You will find in almost 100 of the times the cedar siding is not painted.
Even then the paint is not expected to last long.
This is something to consider when choosing cedar shingles or siding.
This stain covers all wood grain completely and gives the wood an appearance of being painted.
Take a look at any old house building that is 75 years old and has original cedar siding still on it.
Exterior western red cedar surfaces only need to be refinished when the old coating has worn thin and no longer affords the wood protection.
This is necessary if for example the old finish is severely cracked or is peeling.
Once the paint starts to peel costs can quickly grow as sanding out walls is not cheap let alone replacing warped twisted and cracked siding panels.
Loosened photodegraded surface fibers and any loosened remaining finish must be removed prior to re finishing.
Once cedar is painted you are now preventing the cedar from naturally drying and your siding will rot very quickly.
To preserve the style as it is installed and first stained you will need to re stain or re paint on a semi annual basis.
Be careful when painting very old cedar siding.
The siding must be free from mold mildew and dirt.
While extremely old cedar can be painted it requires heavy preparation.
Surface preparation is the key to success when dealing with weathered wood.
Transparent stains contain no pigment but have water repellent features that will help to retain natural tones and slow down the natural colour change process.