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Replacing or repairing cedar shingles or shakes

17 years ago

I once read how to do it but have forgotten. Hoping to have my home repainted before winter (I want to keep the cedar and not install siding), I want to know how it is done even if I probably won't be doing all the work.

Can anyone give a detailed explanation or steer me to a book or link, please?

Somewhere on another thread we discussed cedar shingle siding but not in this context, and I have made the unfortunate mistake of having the people I hired (college kids) use paint over the existing stain which was an ugly (to me) forest green so I will have to use paint again. That was over 20 years ago, maybe 30.

Actually since I was covering green with brown, I don't know if restaining would have worked anyway. Now I want a taupe or cream color, maybe even yellow. Yellow even though I like it and have seen houses with cedar painted that color may not be too good for home value as a lot of people wouldn't like it. Also once considered kind of a colonial blue (greyish, medium blue), don't know what I'll end up with. I had the taupe paint chips all picked out and a teal accent color (not for window trim, just doors, thresholds, etc.), and darned if my next door neighbor didn't side his house in the exact same color.

He said he doesn't care if I use the same color and that is the only color he sides his houses with (he's a contractor), but I don't know if I like the idea of two houses together the same color or not. I guess there are plenty of white houses neighboring one another, so maybe that isn't such a big deal.

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Comments (2)

mikie_gw
17 years ago
Why not ask your contractor neighbor what you need to do to clean, seal and repaint. Sounds like those college kids paint job held up super well. Remember what they did and what brand paint?
aliska12000
Original Author
17 years ago
Darn, I don't. I don't know how well it has held up except for the trim paint. It has started flaking off on some of the window trim, but it's amazing how well it has held up on the molded masonry block exposed foundation which made it look nicer. They got some powerful, thick white latex paint that had an odor of ammonia about it, and I believe they only applied one coat. IIRC, they scraped it pretty well (trim not masonry) which helped on the trim. The trim held up better actually, although there is flaking on some of it now. The house paint never flaked, just weathered down.

As to the house paint, I got it at a True Value (hope I remember right about that as I had to pick it out, don't think it was their store brand, one of the big name brands, suitable to cover shingles in one coat. It's flaked, no weathered, no flaking ever of that, bonded well, off for years now, so I don't know if I could say that held up so well or not, but then brown over green with one coat you can't expect a whole lot there, and there was no power washing back then that I knew about anyway.

Maybe the kids just picked out the white paint for me, I paid. Their father was supervising.

In any case, I would choose a different house paint as this gave it a thicker, smoother, piled on look which detracts from the natural beauty of shingles, the wood texture. Maybe any paint will do that. It is going to be a difficult choice, and it probably doesn't pay to cut corners on exterior paint.

Sorry I couldn't be more help about that. They may not even carry or manfacture those two particular paints any more.
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