Paint vs Stain

[Ted in NE-OH]

My church is considering replacing cedar shingles on a tower. We have typically used two coats of white latex paint on the cedar shingles. Someone suggested that we use white stain. What are the pros and cons of paint or stain? Thanks

 

[jwal10]

Stain lets the wood breath, soaks into the wood, keeps water from getting behind it and peeling. I like semi transparent better. A lot less work when it comes time to paint again. Just wash and go, if there is some mold, just treat and stain again....James

 

[MarkB_MI]

I've always used paint on our shiplap cedar siding. Of course you can always paint over stain but you can't stain over paint.

 

[JD Dave]

I'd vote for stain. Less maintenance and easier to re-coat down the road.

 

[DanielW]

I too would vote for a solid stain (could go semi-transparent if you want a little more of the texture to show though). As someone who owns two shingle mills and has a reasonable amount of experience with wood shingles, I can agree with jwal: You want something that will soak into the wood more evenly. Coating both sides of the shingle is really best to prevent cupping, but that's not quite as critical with stain as it is with paint (as long as the shingles are sufficiently dry when installed and correct gap is left between abutting shingles).

You also want reasonable ventilation behind the shingles and to for them to be installed such that they can dry evenly. The longest-lasting wood shingles aren't necessarily those from wood that is most resistant to rot (though it helps). Ability to breath, soak up and dry evenly are far more important. Pine shingles, for instance, will last almost as long as cedar, even though pine isn't at all resistant to rot. As long as they're installed correctly and can dry, pine will absorb and release water more evenly without cracking. The converse is true with locust: It's even more rot-resistance than cedar, but it makes terrible shingles: Only a fraction of the outer layer of locust gets damp and dries out again, and the stresses created by this constant dampening and drying of only the outer fiber results in lots of checking/craacking. Similarly with red and white oak: White oak is far more rot-resistant, but red oak makes much longer-lasting shingles (assuming they're installed correctly).

 

[showcrop]

I have been using a high quality acrylic latex on my house, putting it over a high quality latex primer. The paint has the word Stain in the name, but it doesn't seem to penetrate much even on bare wood.

 

[Ted in NE-OH]

Thanks, I appreciate the info

 

[Geo-TH,In]

My church is considering replacing cedar shingles on a tower. We have typically used two coats of white latex paint on the cedar shingles. Someone suggested that we use white stain. What are the pros and cons of paint or stain? Thanks

My Boss's house is covered in cedar. Cedar doesn't hold paint. Every 10 years of so the paint would crack and flake off.
I would recommend an oil base stain or replacing the shingles.
We decided to cover the cedar with 2 different colors of vinyl siding.
Trimmed the windows with Aluminum. NO MORE PAINTING.

 

[jwal10]

Dad use to put bundles of shingles in the same barrel that he treated cedar fence posts. Mix of diesel and Penta. Back in the 60's you could get #3 siding shingles cheap like farmer loads of 2"x's. Dad built his shop with 2"x4" laid flat and used #3 singles as siding on the whole shop. He also built a graniery the same way. When he added onto the house he put a whole gambrel roof on it and used treated shingles on the gable ends. It weathered to beautiful natural grey color but you could still smell it after 20 years, on a hot summer day. All of them are still on the buildings, actually the only buildings still standing....James

 

[ss55]

My church is considering replacing cedar shingles on a tower. We have typically used two coats of white latex paint on the cedar shingles. Someone suggested that we use white stain. What are the pros and cons of paint or stain? Thanks

Most of the local churches that have a tower or steeple have moved to maintenance free cladding. If you are completely replacing the shingles, I would look for something maintenance free and long lived like metal, slate or tile. The labor cost to repaint or re-stain a 40 to 150 foot high steeple every six to ten years can be substantial even if a boom truck can be used instead of scaffolding. If that expense can be pushed out to every 50 to 100 years it may be worth the extra expense of longer lived materials.