# Forum Home Renovation Painting  western red cedar weather boards

## Julie

The exterior of our house has WRC weather-boards, which need to be re-finished.  We have owned the house for 3 years, and do not know what it has previously been treated with.Several painters have come to give quotes, and have all given conflicting advice.  The boards are not painted, and appear to have some sort of stain.  The areas exposed to the sun are cracking, and the wood appears dry/ grey, some areas with black ? mould.  The current finish is flaking off, and almost gone from the exposed walls.  The protected areas still look good, and are dark brown.  I don't really mind whether we have to paint, or use some sort of stain or oil.  The priority is just to protect the wood and prevent further degradation. Because the wood is very textured, with lots of knots, I don't know whether painting would look very good anyway. The house is exposed to alot of sun.   If we were to continue with the current "natural" look, do we need to know what is now on the wood? How would we find out?  ( prevous owners unable to help).  Can the boards be sanded, or is just using a brush better?  Any advice would be very appreciated, because we really don't know how to proceed.

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## echnidna

sounds like it mighta been painted with aquatrol

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## bitingmidge

I have had terrific results on WRC weather boards using Cabots Stains, strangely enough, the colour was Dark Cedar.  I don't know if they still make it, but we got nearly ten years out of the last lot. 
Try to stay away from the "paint" types, but you may have to get a bit of advice from a Cabots rep regarding preparation. 
The dark stain gives a great "chocolaty" sort of colour, and is pretty good at keeping the UV out, although you will have to give the southern walls a bit of a clean every now and then (five years in our case  :Shock:  ). 
We sold our house prior to that after eight years, also WRC weatherboards, same treatment, no recoating, so I've had plenty of experience with it, all good! 
Cheers, 
P

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## viking

well id start again .either way you need to decide on the finish and then the system.ie  on tin or product work flow sheets.
 then get back to a sound base wich means heat gun and scraper 80# paper by machine and sand to an even surface[ hard with cedar cause hard and soft grain dont worry about the uneven ripples is just how cedar is.] realy this is the only way to get something that will last for 10 years or so .
but you have to keep the paint on the wood wich means paint before you get mould & flaking cause the stains go deep into wr cedar if you want to find out how it will look with an oil finish after sanding wipe some turps on it and in my experince quality paint elbow grease and folowing the manufacurers instructions and you will end up with a great job do a wall at a time and have fun and good luck
 graham

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## Riley_McRiley

I have recently bought my first house and it is a western red cedar too.  My house suffers from the same drama as this.  It looks to have been painted with a laquer or paint and not stained with an oil.  The areas exposed to the sun and all flaking back to bare timber.  I want to stain it to preserve the wood and to make it looks heaps nicer.  
I am certain the previous owners had no idea what they were doing as all the window sills, decking gaurd rails, door jams and gutters were once painted a nice green but they painted over all that in a brown (it looks YUK).  On top of that they have used this werid stuff on the weather boards. 
I have uploaded some pics and would love some advice on how to remove the old covering and treat the wood before staining it properly.  I am guessing i will need to scrape off any of it that i can and anything that can't be easily removed i will need to sand back to the wood. 
Anyway, any ideas would be muchly appreciated. 
THE FINNISH WHERE IT ISN'T PEELING 
WHERE IT IS PEELING 
MORE PEEL 
AND MORE PEEL

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## rod1949

The comments "to preserve / protect the wood".  It is my understanding the WRC is one of the most enduring timbers avalible and doesn't need any protection and with time it goes the grey/silver colour. 
Going by the pictures above it appears the timber may be doing its own rejection of painted finishes and as such it would be an on going problem.  Me I'd let the finishes peel off - eventhough it dosen't look nice - and let the RWC go grey.  If it ain't broke don't fix it.

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## Abh

Riley_Miley it looks like an Itergrain product called DWD that is falling off your weatherboards

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## Riley_McRiley

Rod, the main reason i want it gone is because some of the wood in the areas is warping and rotting, so i'd like to remove the old paint type stuff and stain it a nice colour.   I have decided to just test sand it in a small place and see how hard it is going to be.

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## Red of Romsey

We built our house in the mid 1980s, the WRC weather boards were oiled with Sikkens, undercoat and finish coat (Cetol THB). It was a great way to go as all we have had to do is wash the walls down with a hose and broom every 10 or so years and then brush the overcoat on again. 
The colour is great.  The walls facing west get a deal more sun and weather so we have to do the odd spot of re-undercoating there and we usually give them a second coat of the THB. 
Total cost of a whole house re"paint" would be around
$100 for 4 litres of undercoat
$650 for 25 litres of the THB 
If you have WRC then I strongly urge you to stain the new work so as to keep the wonderful colour of the timber.  Once you paint it you will have to sand back etc before repainting.  A stack more work that just a quick wash down and then repainting the stain

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## eddyc02

i agree with Abh that the product used on your house riley miley is Intergrain dwd.
Go to bunnings and read the tin on how to remove .
u will need to use Intergrain Reviva as well on the grey weathered boards.
then recoat as per instructions, another Intergrain product is required to be put on before the dwd.

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## Andy T

You are right. The previous owners had no idea. It is intergrain DWD but not applied correctly. The correct method is to apply "reviva" which is really an oxalic acid product to fully get rid of any oil, loose material, dirt, mould etc. Before applying DWD, intergrain Dimension 4 needs to be applied and then 3 coats of intergrain DWD. It looks like the previous owner slapped some DWD on the boards with no preparation - guaranteed to fail. I have WRC weatherboards which were really bad (never been touched for 20 years and had some grotty linseed oil finish which was black and mouldy. and went down the intergrain path. Looks good if done properly and maintained. Some people prefer an oil finish which also comes up well. Intergrain DWD is a surface coat which adheres to the Dimension 4 but can peel if incorrect preparation is done. Skipping on the preparation is a recepie for more work later. 
All the dwd will need to be completely removed probably by scraping - you could try heat but be careful.Reviva will not remove this by itself. The lazy way would be to leave it to weather further and hope in time most will come off by itself :Sneaktongue:

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## HammerGoggles

Hi all, 
This is my first post and looking for Cedar treatments is what has brought me here. Iam re-cladding an old WA asbestos clad veranda which encloses the front of an old stone cottage. 
I have a magazine featuring a home where the cedar has been limed. It gives the boards a lovely lighter beachy look. The boards colours look inconsistant, but i like it. 
Does anyone know anything about lime washing timber? The liming products I see are for masonry etc. I wonder how liming would last on an exterior and if it ptoects the timber. 
At this stage I am avoiding paint for the cladding boards as the timber people I know (sawmiller, benchtop maker) say you are not adding any life to the timber with such products and once you go that way you are committed to maintenance when a wash or oil may be more frequently applied, but at least it is really adding protection and life to the timber. 
Cheers

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