I am building a cedar home. I want to use one of the clear sealer products to seal and protect the siding. We like the natural finish and are considering one of the products that has a slight cedar tint and had uv and mildew protection. I have heard that one of the best products is the Behr No. 500 Premium Weatherproffing Wood Sealer & Finish. It is available through our Lowes for about $30/gallon. I noticed at WalMart the other day that they have another brand(forgot to get the name) that has essentially the same ingredients but sells for only $9/gallon.
I would really appreciate any advice about the best product for us to use to preserve the finish on this siding. Thanks for any help.
Consumer Reports has an ongoing test of stains and sealers, go online a good read. Look into what log cabin manufacturers recommend. Wall Mart demands cheaper prices of suppliers. It is just found out Ilford is suplying an inferior copy paper product packaged the same to walmart. The thread is in alt rec digital photography. For needing the longest lasting product on my house, 9$ a gallon would not be my first choise. Clear last the least long time, Semi transparent stain would be my choise. Yes my house is Cedar shake, Now it has darkend so much solid color is all I use. Clear finish is a pain in the A , as cedar darkens. Research your options.
I'm getting ready to side a house I'm building in Washington State. We're using Clear VG Western Red Cedar for both the 8in bevel siding and the exterior trim. For the siding I'm having Cabot semi-transparent oil applied by a pre-stainer. I worked with my local Cabot dealer to arrive at a custom sage green color that I had in mind. For the trim, I'll be applying my own stain, and like you I wanted a fairly natural-looking finish here. I chose Superdeck brand oil-based transparent stain. The wood absoulutely glows with this finish. This product line came on the recomendation of my local cedar supplier who has twenty plus years in the business. His opinion is that Cabot and Superdeck are two of the best choices out there. Keep in mind, that a transparent stain lacks much of the pigment that helps block UV rays. In other words, a good semi-trans is going last longer than a good transparent (and a good paint will last even longer...). Nonetheless, I just didn't like the muddy look that you get with a semi-trans. Look into Superdeck - it's good stuff. Cabot has some other products (Australian Timber Oil, etc) that may be worth checking out as well. Cabot products have consistently come out on top in Consumer Reports testing. Unfortunately, their marketing dept does an awful job of putting out decent technical info. It's hard to tell from their literature and website what half their products are supposed to do. They do however have a top notch tech dept. I'd give them a call and tell them what you're trying to achieve. They can suggest some products and even overnight small sample cans for a nominal fee. Great service! As a final note, test whatever you're going to use on samples of your actual siding and trim. Don't choose from a color chip! The results can vary dramatically. You're going to look at that house for a long time, so put in some up front effort to get the color right. Likewise, unless you like staining every couple years, don't skimp on materials. A good stain is going to run $30-40 a gallon.
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