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Topic starter
14/05/2013 2:18 am
I have a siding stain dilemma. We have a house with cedar siding, plus a detached garage with a new addition (also with cedar siding – all rough side out). The house is 23 years old, and was stained with semi-transparent stain (Benjamin Moore I think) at installation, and again then after 3 years. In 2004, we switched to Cabot semi-solid (New Redwood) and have been very happy with the results. After 9 years, it still looks fresh.
In 2007, we put an addition on the house, and used the reformulated Cabot semi-solid stain. It looks terrible now - the red has completely faded out, and the surface is a chalky brown color. We need to re-stain the addition, but do not want to have to re-stain the rest of house. Obviously, matching the color is important, but from what I've read (and with my experience) I do not want to use Cabot.
In addition, we need to stain new wood on the garage addition and also need to re-stain the original garage, some of which hasn't been stained since 1992 (also BM semi-transparent). Matching color to the house is not as important, but I do want to use the same stain on all garage surfaces. We will be hiring the same person who did the 2004 job, so I know that he will prepare the surface well.
My questions are - what product do you recommend as a replacement to the (old and good) Cabot New Redwood Semi-solid? What needs to be done to the already stained surfaces? And how can we match the color of the portion of the house that still looks good? (It will cost us significantly more to stain that portion of the house).
We are located in southeastern PA. The house is in the woods, with shade on the north and west sides, but sun on the south and east sides. The garage is not in the woods, so only the north side remains in shade. On the house, we have not had any mold issues on the north side, but the south side has faded and dried out faster due to the sun exposure. No issues on the garage, other than fading.
Thanks for any help you can give – I’ve been searching everywhere for what to do. All I know is that I need to avoid the big box stores…..and it would seem my favorite interior paint source – Benjamin Moore.
I can post pictures if it helps.
Topic starter
20/05/2013 9:17 pm
Here are some photos. I'll need to upload them in several posts, and I'll try to explain each one
In this post, I show pictures of the addition to the house. This was stained with the reformulated Cabot stain, custom blended in 2007 to try to match the original house (re-stained with Cabot semi-solid New Redwood in 2004). In the first two pictures, you can see the dulling of the stain - all the red is washed out, and the color that remains is a chalky brown. These photos are from the northeast corner of the house.
In the third picture, you can see the old and new side by side. This is on the north side of the house; the addition is to the left, and the original is on the right.
Peggy
Topic starter
20/05/2013 9:22 pm
These two photos show the original portion of the house, which was stained three times - at installation in 1990 and again in 1993, both with Benjamin Moore semi-transparent stain, and again in 2004 with Cabot semi-solid New Redwood. The first is of the south side of the house, which gets significant summer sun. (The rest of the house is shaded).
The second photo shows the contrasting colors the best - from the east side of the house. Up high is the original house, and down lower is the addition. The stain on the original is very close to what it looked like when it was applied 9 years ago, and is what we really would like to repeat elsewhere.
Two more posts to go.
Peggy
Topic starter
20/05/2013 9:30 pm
Here are photos of the garage and addition. The garage was originally stained in 1992, again with BM semi-transparent stain. All sides except the east side were stained again in 2006 with the Cabot custom mixed reformulated stain. The addition was just added to the east side of the garage, and has not yet been stained (all boards are rough side out).
The first picture shows the heavily faded east side (up high), along with the north side (by the bushes) and the unstained addition.
The second shows how the addition is feathered into the original boards on the south side of the garage (I'm very concerned here about how to match the colors/make it look good).
For completeness, I have included the west side of the garage, which will also need to be stained.
Thanks in advance for your help.....
Peggy
Topic starter
02/06/2013 11:03 am
Update....I ordered stain samples from TWP and will try them out today. I'm not feeling optimistic that any of the three colors I ordered (Redwood, California Redwood and Cedartone) will be close to the old Cabot color. I decided that TWP might be the way to go, based on some of the other comments, but it would be nice to get that confirmed. Also, any suggestions as to how to get a custom mix to get the right color? I'm sort of on good terms with my local paint store, but they may not be really happy to mix up a competitors stain.
Topic starter
02/06/2013 4:35 pm
No, just power washing. I'm also okay with variations in the stain - we live in the woods, so depending on the exposure, the stain can look very different from one part of the house to another. I just don't want a huge clash...
Topic starter
12/06/2013 6:05 pm
is there anything close? I can live with close. Also, when I tested the TWP on a couple pieces of wood, it soaked into the new wood very nicely, giving me a clear differentiation of the colors, but on the old wood, they all looked terrible - just sort of darkened the already muddy color. This was WITHOUT preparing the surface in any way - I just took a piece that had broken off and started working with it. I'm hoping that the pressure washing will allow the stain to soak in better. Is that a good assumption?
thanks...
Topic starter
12/06/2013 6:12 pm
Also, I was wondering what I should expect when I stain new/old wood right next to each other. Will I get a striping effect on the addition where they feathered the old wood in next to the new? Is there any way to prepare either surface to achieve a better result?' I'm kind of resigned to having to restain the entire house if the new stain is a poor match.
Is TWP 1500 the best product for this application?
Topic starter
18/06/2013 2:22 am
So how does one remove the old (oil based) stain? And how do you do it so that it doesn't damage any surrounding surfaces? (like the concrete/paint covered foundation, plants, etc.) This just seems like it's getting more expensive and difficult - makes me think I should paint instead of stain, which I'd rather not do, since it's irreversible....
thanks again!
