Painting cedar windows

Because of cedar's large pores, it is necessary to prime the wood before painting it. Red cedar dust can cause breathing problems or exacerbate the condition in people who already suffer from asthma. Volatile compounds within the wood have been identified with this condition. When sawing, sanding, planing, or undertaking other activities with western red cedar, be sure to use a twin cartridge respirator, not a paper mask. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

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Learnt the hard way - barely 5 years. Thankyou for all your comments guys. Attached Thumbnails. Emmyjay, I think the problem goes back to the initial coating you applied. Nothing wrong with DWD system, but chances are the window manufacturer had pre coated the windows with a solvent based preservative or oil,and if not removed before applying DWD or other acrylic system it may cause drama.

If you intend to re-paint windows scrape of loose material and sand to acheive a uniform feel,then prime with an oil based primer sealer ,Zinsser Coverstain,Dulux or similar would be my choice,Then finish with any Aussie made exterior acrylic for a reliable result. Regards, Blocker. Thanks very much for your advice.

I agree with your diagnosis - they obviously came pre-coated with something antagonistic towards acrylic based coatings. Sander here I come! I read this with interest, I have some spotted gum 6 meters off the ground I need to recoat or sand back and paint with similar coloured paint to last longer than 2 yrs! If there was a manufacturers name on the window you could ask them. I would use some Zinnser Cover Stain or one of there other superior products. I had a similar problem with some Cedar Architraves.

I had used Dulux Pink oil primer,then undercoat the Weathershield and that lasted about 4 years. I did them again with Zinnser ,then Weathershield and they do seem to be holding up. Maybe give Zinnser a call and have a chat Regards Greg. It took me two days to get all the paint off using a combination of the water blaster initially; then manual sanding, mouse sanding, belt sanding, scraping and even using the fingernails!

The cedar is so soft I kept gouging it by mistake so then I had to fill the scrapes and gouges. I got a tin of Zinsser Coverstain slightly tinted and that went on beautifully this morning. In many markets, like New England for example, painted siding is the preferred look.

Beyond that, Western red cedar has multiple advantages over other cladding options because it is a natural and sustainable product. For best results, fresh siding should be pre-primed on all six sides with a stain-blocking primer and top coated with percent acrylic-latex paint. Alkyd-oil primers are recommended, but one may choose a high-quality latex primer as long as it contains stain blockers.

It is strongly recommended that you go with the two-coat system for protecting your cedar siding. A primer with a paint top coat will have a significantly longer service life than will a single coat of paint or even a solid stain. Paint applied to weathered wood without a primer will nearly always have adhesion issues. Hand-brushing is recommended. For refinishing, especially, hand-brushing is always preferred. If one chooses to spray the paint on the cedar, the best results will be achieved by back brushing the finish during application.

With a porous material like cedar, the main idea is to apply a greater quantity of paint to the wood, and hand-brushing is the best way to accomplish this.

It is recommended that you paint within two weeks of installing the cedar. Make sure that you wait no more than 12 weeks. Allowing fresh siding to weather for as little as two weeks negatively affects coating adhesion. Test results from the Forest Products Testing Lab run by the USDA for the Forest Service , show that after 12 weeks of exposure to sunlight, cedar siding has lost half of its ability to hold a film-forming coating system like primer and paint.

Another test at an experimental facility in Madison, Wisconsin involved a sample section of red cedar siding that was pre-primed on all six sides including the ends , top coated with two coats of paint, and placed in a frame. The test section has never been re-coated and it shows no degradation of the coating system, though the test is over 25 years old.

Other samples were allowed to weather for three months, six months, nine months, and 12 months before being primed and painted. The longer the siding was allowed to weather, the sooner the coating system failed. And in all of those cases, it started to fail at the end grain where the siding abutted trim because the ends of the siding had not been primed.

While extremely old cedar can be painted, it requires heavy preparation.