Stain and siding

We started working on the siding today, after spending more time than we expected on deciding what kind and color of stain to use on the wood. The siding is 1x8 pine shiplap (made in Vermont) that is rough on the outward facing side. We wanted to find a semi-transparent stain that looked like real wood with a slightly reddish tinge. But most of the stains we tried didn’t quite achieve that effect.

There’s definitely a trade-off between longevity and appearance: the more pigment (and hence greater longevity), the less the stained wood looks “real”. After trying a few samples and brands, we decided to mix two colors (one cedar and one beige) ourselves with the hope that it won’t look too bad.

We’re going to stain the wood before cutting and nailing it up. This way we can work on the ground instead of ladders, and we can stain the back side of each board as extra protection, and we don’t have to worry about getting stain on the 35 windows.

But it’s race against the weather now. Summer ended pretty abruptly and we’re into the cooler, wetter months, with a hard freeze forecast in the near future. We are going to have to work under cover, either in the greenhouse we’ve been using as a workspace, or in the house itself.