Cedar Wood Siding Refinishing: Technique for Maintenance
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Good morning, it’s Tim Gilliam with Teak Master, and we’re in South Pasadena, California. We’re doing a maintenance on some cedar siding. It’s actually clear cedar, and it’s been about two, two and a half years since we were last out. As you can see, the natural color of the cedar has changed due to exposure from the elements such as sun, rain, moisture, and all of nature’s contaminants. So, we could come in, we could just wash it, slap some sealer on it, call it a day, and get a good color change—but we’re taking the extra step to actually sand.
We’ll take off the old coating, we’re going to clean it, and then we’re going to reapply the oil penetrating sealer. We’ll go ahead and show you a little bit about what we do.
I just wanted to point out the attention to detail. We have this gutter that is coming down ceilings, and we’re getting in between the gutter and the wood to make sure that we can get the maximum coverage refinishing we could possibly get to. Because if you don’t, you’re going to see a definitive line where we didn’t sand.
This is the extra step that we do—the hard part, the handwork that takes a really long time. This is why people hire us: the attention to detail.
We use small foam sanders to ensure that we’re able to refinish all the uneven surfaces of the siding.
Okay guys, so check it out—the wood has been sanded and it’s all down to bare wood. The previous coating has been removed, and we’ve blown off the surfaces to get it out of the cracks and crevices. Now we’re going to put on the wood brightener. The reason why we’re wiping on the wood brightener is to ensure that no excess is running off onto other areas. Wood brightener promotes color, eliminates mold, mildew, and nature’s contaminants, and you could kind of think of it as sort of like a teeth whitening for wood—it takes out impurities and makes it look absolutely beautiful.
After the brightener is applied, we then wipe it clean with water to neutralize. So all of the prep has now been completed—we sanded, we brightened, and now it’s ready for the sealer. The reason why we brush on our sealers is because we want to make sure that the maximum penetration is occurring and that we get every crack and crevice of the wood to not only enhance it but to make sure it’s protected.
On this project, we decided to use Mesmer’s Cedar, which will highlight the natural grain and color with a very light yellow undertone. It magnifies the natural grain and color of the wood, and it looks amazing.
And here we have the before photo—and now the after. Absolutely amazing transformation, and we can do this for you as well.
Thank you guys so much for tuning in to our cedar siding maintenance video. If you like what you saw, go ahead and give us a thumbs up. If you guys have any comments or questions about our process or what we do, leave them in the comment section below. Also, we’d love to hear your process—what you think we could possibly do better—leave that in the comment section below. Go ahead and click on the notification so you can follow us when we drop more videos, and please check out teakmaster.com. Take a look at our website; it’s stocked full of a wealth of knowledge about exterior wood refinishing. We hope to hear from you—thank you for tuning in.