[roobinsteen]

I'm about to reshingle two sides of a craftsman column/pillar on the front of my house. The pillar had significant termite damage-I've reframed/re-sheathed most of it, and it's ready for shingles. I've never worked with cedar shingles before-what is the best practice for painting? The old shingles were painted, so I will be repainting them the same color. Is it recommended to paint them before installation, or after? Any recommended primers? Thanks.

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

Cedar, just like Redwood, Southern Yellow Pine and red oak are woods that have a lot of tannins in them, which give them their distinctive colour. Tannins are soluble in water, so if you prime over cedar with a latex primer, there's a good chance the primer will dry discoloured as the tannins in the cedar dissolve in the latex primer and discolour it.

Better to prime with a shellac based primer (like Zinsser's "BIN" primer) or any exterior alkyd primer first. Then, once the primer dries and you see there's no discolouration of the primer from the tannins in the wood, you can paint over the primer with any exterior latex paint of your choice.

If you can still buy alkyd paints where you live, I would recommend using an exterior alkyd over wood outdoors just because exterior alkyd paints, in my experience, last longer on wood outdoors than exterior latex paints.

 

[joecaption]

Use two coats of solid stain instead of paint and not have to deal with peeling paint again.

 

[roobinsteen]

Use two coats of solid stain instead of paint and not have to deal with peeling paint again.

There are 3 pillars on my front porch. If I were reshingling all of them, I would definitely go this route. However, they are all painted a gray color, not something I think I could match with a stain. I was planning to repaint the new shingles the same color as the other two pillars.

 

[blackjack]

Take one in to a local sw store and have it matched in a solid stain.

 

[ToolSeeker]

Are you sure it's paint? Just asking.

 

[joecaption]

Solid stain can be color matched to any color.

 

[roobinsteen]

Are you sure it's paint? Just asking.

What's on the shingles now is paint for sure. It's definitely possible, and likely that they were originally stained. I like the idea to match the paint color in a solid stain though!