For some reason the former owners tried to paint part of the cedar siding. They chose the front of the garage and ran out of paint before it was finished. So since late 2011 when we acquired this place we have had a partially painted garage front.
A year or two ago I researched the best coating for the siding given that it was partially painted. I thought an acrylic tinted stain would provide the best coverage but I had trouble finding a stain with low VOC (volatile organic compounds) locally for the job.
After some research I found an eco friendly opaque stain for wood trim and siding from Vermont Natural Coatings. I ordered a gallon online as it is rated to cover 250 to 350 square ft. So a gallon should be enough.
The reason the can is so drippy is that it needed quite a bit of mixing because I had stored it for too long. The bonding agent settled to the bottom and I had to scrape it up and mix it back in. I used a stout stick to scrape it and a drill and paint mixer to mix it. It was not easy but the white heavy whey based bonding agent redissolved into the stain.
The interesting fact about these coatings is that they use dairy based whey as the bonding agent. Similar to Elmer’s glue which was originally made with dairy casein.
From the website describing this sustainable product. “Our formulations use whey protein as the bonding agent. Whey is a renewable resource and a natural by-product of the dairy industry. This use of a natural product in our professional finishes translates to low VOCs, and better indoor air quality.”
I had hoped the color I chose would be closer to the existing gray. Mostly I wanted the old paint covered completely. This color is much lighter than the trick of website colors led me to believe.
It does seem to be doing a good job of covering the old gray though. As evidenced by the paint can drips it appears that the dried color is a bit darker. This is the finished first coat still mostly wet.
The next day I went out to paint on an equally glorious painting day with full cloud cover and 65°. I worked again in the morning and finished a bit less than 3/4. The second coat went on faster and I took a break for lunch.
The rest was the pre-painted side and the coating went on smoothly. So I finished about 2 hours earlier than the day before.
After two coats the painted siding was completed and the masking tape removed. Unfortunately about an hour after I finished we got a light rain and the instructions said not to apply it if rain was expected for 24 hours. Here in Colorado rain is very spotty so it’s hard to predict a scattered shower. The wall is under the overhang and probably reasonably protected.
I’m not sure what I think of the results. It’s nice to have a durable sustainable low VOC coating on the wood. But cedar really shouldn’t need it. The rest of our cedar is not painted. It’s just the natural wood.
I replaced the cedar on the front of the house with James Hardee stucco look panels. They are an adobe white so don’t match the rest of the tan stucco. Just the lower level was resided when the new windows and doors were installed, but in the clerestory above Dave just patched the cedar with some of the recycled boards.
I have about a quarter of the gallon of paint left so one gallon was plenty. After only twelve years it feels like another annoying feature has been corrected. Unfortunately more of our trim needs serious scraping and repriming and paint. We have been dismayed by the terrible paint job that came on our fancy doors. Despite a repaint by the vendor the door trim quickly began to deteriorate again. I thought we might just replace the outside door trim but so far we have not found an ideal substitute. Eventually we will take on that project.
