Refinishing Channel Cedar Siding w Penofin
Hi,
I purchased a home in 2010 with Channel Cedar siding. This siding was put on in 1977 and is holding up pretty well.
Today I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and hit the siding with some Penofin Red Label.
For the most part I sprayed it on and backbrushed. There were a couple of hard to reach spots I did not backbrush.
I put on a pretty thick coat (despite warnings on label to “not over apply”).
I have 3 questions.
1) For the most part (whether i backbrushed or not) the siding sopped up the Penofin like a sponge. How does one know if they have over-applied? And how dangerous is it really?
2) There are a few spots that have a light sheen now. Except for the aestheitc, is this a problem? If so, what should I do? Guy at Hardware store says light sanding. Penofin says to buy more Penofin products. (lol).
3) The newly treated wood is a bit darker than the stuff I have not hit yet. Stands to reason, right? However, as I was searching about for info on Penofin I found lots of complaints about this product turning wood black. (??!!??). This is a bit alarming. Can anyone help reassure me that I didn’t just ruin my house.
Thanks,
Matty N
Replies
Well
the sheen thing happens when the drying time is messed up-commonly when you stain in cold weather.
There will be no problem and in a couple yrs the sheen blends out.
As to the rest of the question on penofin.............
?
Oils turning WRC black
Here in the Pacific Northwest we used a lot of cedar siding up until Hardi siding came along maybe 20 years ago.
Here's how it often went -
Homeowner wants that natural cedar look so we oiled the siding. There were lots of good looking oil products on the market (still are a few, like Penofin) but the reality is, these products never skinned over like paint, right? That's part of the deal with oils on pourous wood like cedar.
Well, anyways, we'd oil cedar, put it up, and it would look great for a few years.
But over time most of these homes would start to darken, eventually to almost black if left alone.
Then the homeowner would paint over the siding, frustrated that that fresh oiled cedar look only lasst a few years.
This was pretty much common knowledge and also widely accepted as part of the deal with cedar siding.
Here's what I think - for an oil finish to be effective repelling water it needs to stay ever so slightly oily to the touch. As soon as it feels dry, it's ability to repel water is lessened. The problem with that is, as long as it stays oily, or "tacky" it acts like a magnet for airborne dust particles...thus slowly turning the siding ever so slowly towards black as more and more dust and dirt collects over time.
I think THAT'S why people associate blackened siding with overapplication of oil.
By the way. If you ever run into that blackened cedar siding? Try rinsing it gently with a garden hose. I continue to be amazed at how well that works for removing that dust and dirt. Of course, you'll still be flushing oils onto the ground and eventually into our aquafir...have to collect as much of that run off from the siding as possible when you do it. We only have so much water.