How To Properly Paint a Cedar Sided Home

This cedar sided home, built in 1990, had been painted three times before Lake Area Painting and Decorating was hired, for the first time, to paint the home. The home had been painted very badly, to put it mildly, which is why it had to be painted again and again. Because of the past inadequate prep and paint jobs, we found numerous areas that had been impacted by water damage. In fact, the home had started to fail just three years after it was last painted.

The steps we take to properly painting cedar-sided homes…

Our team started by pressure washing the exterior cedar siding with hot water, instead of cold water, which is more successful at removing old paint from homes. Next, we used a mild acidic cleaner on all surfaces. We found that on much of the house, the cedar siding was not properly prepared, which resulted in many problems. What a lot of painters who don’t really know how to paint don’t realize is that hard-grain wood like cedar needs careful preparation for paint to hold to it.

After we pressure washed the house, we used 40-grit sandpaper. This allowed for a nice base to apply a quality bonding primer. Next, we applied not one, but two coats of quality latex paint. We used brushes, not sprayers, to make sure the paint absorbed into the wood, instead of just resting on top. We also repaired quite a few areas that had been damaged by water.

The result? A beautiful cedar sided home that has been properly prepped and painted, meaning that there will not be water damage from failing paint and that it wont’ have to be painted again for 15 or 20 years.

Cedar-sided house professionally painted by Lake Area Painting

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