Painting Wood Shingle Siding

Some sections of old unpainted shingles and siding may look darker than others.

Painting wood shingle siding.

Painting cedar however calls for some preparation. Preparing wood siding for painting cleaning the siding scraping and sanding loose or peeling paint. One problem with using pine for your wood siding is that it can be very difficult to find longer lengths of pine that is free of knots. Wash down the shingles.

Start at the top of the house and work your way down aiming the nozzle downward and keeping it moving constantly. If you would like to paint shingle siding consider some critical points. Sunlight degrades the unfinished wood surface thus it will never hold paint as well as fresh wood. Unfinished siding exposed to several weeks of sunlight before painting needs to be sanded.

If you are going to be staining or painting horizontal siding then pine is a good wood to consider as it is easy to finish and will look great. Cedar siding shingles provide beauty for any home but they must be properly coated to ensure a long life. Whether it is composed of wood or asphalt your shingle siding is ill suited for adhesion. To determine how much you ll need overall measure the space to be painted and calculate the area in square feet.

Divide the area by 400 to get the number of gallons per coat. Cedar shingles contain extractives that bleed to the surface when the wood becomes wet and then darken as the wood dries. For old paint in good condition or primed bare wood you ll need about one gallon of paint per each 400 square feet. Powerwash the siding to remove any excess dirt or paint with a low pressure pressure washer.

The best way to prevent extractive bleed is to select a paint or stain that forms a seal over the cedar. You must be careful not to damage the wood while doing so as the water pressure is strong. You ll have to remove the mildew and prime the wood with a stain blocking primer. Sand off any extreme protrusions from the shingles using a sanding block but do not sand the shingles to.

Use an acrylic latex paint. This discoloration is most likely caused by a combination of excessive tannins leeching from the wood and mildew growth. Spread canvas drop cloths over any shrubbery pavement lawn furniture or decking. If the unfinished wood was exposed more than 3 to 4 weeks lightly sand the surface to remove the thin layer of degraded wood before applying paint.