Using Western Red Cedar Siding on Your House

If you are considering re-siding your house or even building a new one and are looking for the best options for the job, you really should consider cedar. Cedar is one of the world's premier quality woods noted for its appearance, light weight, insulation value and dimensional stability. It may not be the easiest to take care of over the years but it is one of the most beautiful sidings you can use if you take care if it properly. There are also a few things to know about installing cedar siding that you should know along with how to take care of it for the future beauty of your home.

The first thing you need to do is figure out if you want to have it stained by the factory or of you want to do it yourself. The best thing to do is to have if factory finished and professionally stained. If you choose to do it yourself, you need to acclimate the cedar. Cedar can swell or shrink as it gains or loses moisture to reach its proper moisture content. You need to stack and sticker your siding in a covered area for between 3-10 days depending on what type of siding you are using. By doing this you will avoid movement of the siding once it is installed.

If you choose to stain it yourself with either a natural or transparent stain or a solid color or paint you need to coat the product on all sides. This is important because it can affect the way the wood will perform once it's installed. If you just paint or stain the face of the product the moisture will want to escape and enter the wood creating it to cup or warp in some cases. It may seem like a waste of time and stain but you really want to take this step seriously and do it right. The more steps you take in the beginning to prep the product the fewer problems you will have down the road. It is much easier to do this when the product in on the ground and easily accessible rather than attached to a house.

The fasteners you want to use are hot-dipped galvanized stainless steel fasteners. Other types of fasteners are not good and can rust or disintegrate and react adversely with the natural preservative present in cedar; this can cause stains and streaks. You don't want to have a beautiful cedar product on your house that has a bunch of black or rust spots from the fasteners. The best type are splitless siding nails, they have thin shanks and blunt points to reduce splitting. You want to take it easy when nailing up this product; if you overdrive the nails you could split the product. When you get to the ends of the boards you need to pre-drill your holes to not split out the wood. The length of the nail will depend on the thickness of the product. The main rule is to penetrate 1-1/2 inches into solid wood, in other words take the thickness of the product and add 1-1/2 inches and you have the length you need.

Now there are several different western red cedar products out there so you will need to find the nailing pattern for the exact product you are using. It is not hard to find nailing patterns, just go online and type in "western red cedar siding" or "nailing patterns" this should point you in the proper direction. With all the different products out there you need to do a little research on what type of look you want, look at pictures, read up on cedar and pick what fits you best. The number one thing you need to remember about cedar siding is that it does need to be taken care of. If you see that it is starting to look poor after several years you will need to refinish it. This is not a product you can put up and never do anything to it. This may be a deterrent for some but when you see the beauty of this product you will be thankful you have done it. I hope this helps....