Cedar Siding Care

Wood siding is a cool trend and looks great on the exterior of your home.

One common type of wood used for the exterior on new houses, is cedar siding. This terrific look is also durable, but proper care is required. Cleaning, sealing and staining this natural building material will keep things looking sharp forever. Here are a few photos that highlight this exterior look on a variety of our new homes throughout Des Moines.

As we build new homes, our team nails cedar siding onto the home like normal siding, then we give it a deep clean before applying stain to seal the wood. This professional installation of cedar siding will last a lifetime, but any exposed wood is susceptible to moisture that can cause mildew, swelling and cracking.

With that in mind, we suggest cleaning and staining your exterior cedar siding every 1-3 years. This is a wide timeline, but it depends on the conditions of where you live. In general, if the wood siding’s color begins to fade or starts to look dried out, it may be time to clean and reapply stain to your cedar siding.

The product we think works best is from our friends at Penofin. We shared these deck staining tips in our own words long time ago, while Penofin continues to offer top notch advice on how to apply exterior wood stain. When selecting your stain color, remember you can always go darker, so consider a lighter stain to maintain the cedar’s natural beauty. Here is a quick video that highlights how you can safely apply, protect and continue caring for your cedar siding.