Just finishing off builing a cedar porch. The neighbour who paints professionally told me I should wait a year before staining it to let the wood dry out.
Is there any advange to waiting a full year, or can I wait a couple of months and have at it?
I will be using a clear stain, and am located in eastern Ontario.
Thanks
Replies
I think the answer will depend on how wet the cedar was when you built the porch. I do a lot of redwood decks and have used boards that were literally saturated with moisture.
Read the instructions for your finish and see what they recommend
If it's dry, you can stain. Friend must be passing on the old saw about PT lumber needing to dry out for a year and was applying it to cedar. I suppose you're using a semi-transparent oil based stain and not a paraffin based product?
Unless you want to wait for the cedar to turn grey, stain it as soon it appears dry. You can always stain again next year. I would use something with some color in it to block UV rays.
You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv