colonial house shingle sidings stain color?

11 years ago

We just moved into our new house this summer. We were told that the house is colonial style with white cedar shingle sidings. Typical house you would see in new england. As a matter of factor, we are not far from Newport, RI. We want to stain the house with either solid color or just apply bleaching oil to get the Cap Cod gray nature aging color. It is hard to decide because we saw most houses with bleaching oil ended up with an uneven gray color (looks like has been take care of for a long time. (Maybe we did not look at the real bleaching oil coated sidings? they might just let the sidings aging without put anything on?). I know our house is not an old house, but been lack of the history of these architecture styles, I wanted to ask what are the colors that we can choose to put on the sidings if we go with solid stain? The trims are white. We actually like the current nature wood color, but it won't last very long. Picture is attached.

Thanks a lot

Comments (3)

renovator8
11 years ago
Your house looks more like red cedar which can be left to age without a stain.

White cedar shingles are normally stained at the factory so all sides are protected.

What is often used in New England to make white cedar shingles turn a pale gray is Cabot's Bleaching Oil, a mixture of a bleaching chemical and a semi-transparent grey stain.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cabot's Bleaching Oil
greendale
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for the reply, Renovator8. I have been doing research on the web and read about bleaching oil actually "bleach" the surface of the wood - which short its lifespan? From the wood perspective, what product is better to pretect the wood? Oil based semi-transparent stain, water-based (we have no oil based here) solid stain or bleaching oil?

Thanks a lot
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renovator8
11 years ago
A higher solids stain (solid or semi-solid) will protect the shingle from cupping & splitting much better than more transparent coatings.

The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association recommends oil based stains and primers. If water based stain is used, you should use two coats because oil stains penetrate much better than water based stains.