We are using cedar lap siding and staining it a very dark green. Paint, imo, is just too much maintenance. We had painted trim on our last house and stained siding. The trim needed constant touch ups and really to do it right, the paint needs to be scrapped then reapplied. There are solid color stains that look like paint, so you will get a very black look. However, over time the color will fade, but you would then just need to restain right over top, no scrapping. We are priming the siding and trim with a tinted primer at the job site then putting on the house. It will get a final coat while on the house. In our much more mild climate we are probably not going to get to the final coat until Spring unless we get a string of nice warm days. I believe the manufacturers, we are using Ben Moore and cabot, recommend not applying if less then 50 degrees temps. You should also post this in the paint forum, there are folks there that can help. I think I may have a picture of what our green siding looks like with a final coat (they have completed one side of the house) if you'd like me to post.

I would apply an acrylic or elastomeric topcoat. It is trowled on and wet brushed in tight areas. It comes in 5 gallon buckets similar to paints and you add the color of choice to the mix. If the existing topcoat is heavy textured, you will want to scrape or grind that down fairly flat for a workable surface. The acrylic or elastomeric topcoats you cant texture heavily, but you can light texture such as an "old world". It remains flexible and gives throughout the year with temperature changes and is bullet proof with little or no cracking. It's like having a rubber membrane on your walls! Here's a few links, we have STO on our build and are happy with it so far. Here is a link that might be useful: Coatings

Thanks. My fence was put in my Mike Bigham with BHT Fence in Charlotte. I opted for the design you can see without any additional horizontal crossrails. There was some debate about what 'officially' was up to pool safety codes in Union County, so out an abundance of caution I went with the one that was for sure up to code. Code believed to mean that there is 48' between crossrails. Either way, I liked the less obstructive view of fewer crossrails. The fence manufacturer is APG Meridian and is called Swedge Lock. It has no screws and no welds and is made in America. I guess there's been a big increase in Chinese aluminum and steel with other manufacturers and its likely to be inferior to the American made stuff. I put the fence fully surrounding my pool, then added the adjacent dog run area (that we sodded in the pictures). All told it came out to 240 linear feet of fence, three self-closing gates and one double gate so I can mow the dog run. All told around $5500. I'm not sure if big brother cared that much in my corner of Union County - but I felt better having it fenced in for the dog and any other random animal wandering through the back yard. So far, only a few small frogs and your standard assortment of bugs have made it into the pool. Here is a link that might be useful: Swedge Lock website

You will have bad results trying to paint wooden pilings. They will wick moisture up the pilings and will assure that the paint fails by peeling. If you insist on putting a color coat on wooden pilings, you would have better results using a solid hide acrylic based ( non-oil ) house stain.