Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Protecting Your Wooden Shed

By Tony Page


It's important for you to safeguard your new wood sided shed with stain or paint straight away after you have assembled it, or after you had it built using a shed company. Three of the most widespread types of wood siding for sheds are pine, cedar, and Texture 111.

So many people are under the impression that cedar siding, no matter whether tongue & groove boards or clapboards, doesn't have to be protected. This is certainly hardly true! While cedar is far more rot-tolerant than pine or Texture 111, and is going to endure somewhat longer if allowed to remain unprotected, it's still wood and will definitely degrade soon enough. Cedar is typically used when insects for example carpenter ants or termites are present or likely, as it does have a natural repellent throughout the wood the bugs will stay away from.

The alternative two kinds of siding: pine and Texture 111, will rot very fast if left unstained or unpainted. These forms of siding are normally kiln dried from the lumber mill but, if allowed to remain unprotected, the wood will start to turn a dull grey color because the dry wood soaks up moisture into the pours. Inevitably, the moisture will continue to work its way deep inside the boards, turn them a black color, and will rot them from the internally. Areas of your shed most at risk of this challenge are areas that are very near the earth, since rain falling via the sky or running off the roof will splash up in the ground and really soak the wood. This is really typically substantially more of a problem around the sides on the shed that do not receive much sunshine because it takes much longer for it to dry.

So, what exactly is the best method to protect your shed? There are basically two trains of thought in this area. A veteran "house painter" is probably going to inform you to purchase a high-quality primer, and apply at least 1 coat, and possible two, particularly on the knots. Then apply a coat of a high quality exterior paint. For the most part, with paint, you get what you pay for. It will be definitely worth a couple extra dollars per gallon of paint to get a better quality product. There is one major downside of paint, however. Inevitably it'll begin to peel and flake off and will require extensive sanding and scraping to ready it for another coat of primer and/or paint.

One other option may be advice you would most likely get from a veteran "wood worker", which may well be a high-quality stain. The major distinction between paint and stain would be the fact paint simply coats the outer layer of the wood, which is an easy way to maintain it. However, stain actually takes up into the pores of the wood, also providing good protection. The primary benefit of utilizing a stain is the fact that there exists very little preparation required, including priming, and simply because the stain ages, it will eventually not peel or flake like paint. It may well start to take on a dull or chalky appearance however when that occurs, you just need to just wash the shed and apply another coat of stain...no sanding or scraping required. And, since 1 gallon of stain will cover about the same as two gallons of primer & paint you may well have to get, there should be a large cost savings as well.




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