I wanted to hear opinions from those of you who have used cedar shingles for siding. I'm using white cedar and I'm pre-dipping them in a 50:50 mix of Cabot weathering stain and bleaching oil. I really like the weathered grey patina look. I'm a little confused by the grading system. It appears that there really isn't an industry standard so different mfgrs grade them differently. The shopping around I've done so far leads me to believe that "B" shingles are about $60 more per square (four bundles) than "C" grade (or 2nds as some call them). I'm not worried about knots visually, but what do others think? Also, a local cedar mill has a great price on "c" shingles ($65 sq) that are 3/8" thick but he said I should consider the "c"s that are 5/8" but cost $20 more a square. Also the issue of R&R vs. not. Opinions?
I used cedar shingles on the gables of my house. They look great. A couple of years ago we did add on to a 60 year old house in Tulsa that still had the original cedar shingles on the outside and they where still in good shape. The shingles I used on my house where the leftovers from that job that I got for free.
There is supposed to be an industry standard on grading, I believe the cedar bureau has the specs on their site. IIRC there is an exposure and length difference between grades as well. I did some this past winter but it has already dropped from memory.
I used cedar shingles on the upper half of my cabin as well, along with the dormers. The rest of the cabin is 6" beveled cedar siding. I really liked the look of cedar and I'm happy with the results. I never really found different grades of shingles. I guess all of mine are #1's? There are no knots in them but they were costly.
I stained them with a product called Sikkens. It's an oil based product and my wife and I really like it as well!!
Good luck with your place.
(https://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj317/kubes14001/Mikescabin-DadsBirthday026.jpg)
John, your place looks really great! Don P you always come through. I'll check this out. I probably didn't dig deep enough. Thanks!!!
I really like the look of Sikkens but have had and seen some trouble with it in their Cetol 123 finish. The top coat made my wife ill last week, they took the garage doors they were finishing outside, wore respirators and still everyone was pretty messed up by the time they were done. I think they have some very aggresive chemicals in it to get the top coats to cut into and bond to the 1'st coat. I've run into this with marine finishes before. For us that is it for them, everyone has different sensitivities though and we have hit our limits on some things. It is also very important to adhere to the maximum moisture content specs, I've seen total failure when it was applied to too green logs, it came off in patchy sheets like polyurethane failure.