Siding stain/finish

[barbender]

I'm looking for opinions on exterior wood finishes. I'm putting up bevel siding and tongue and groove, both red pine. I'll probably go with something cedar tone, but I'm kind of interested in some of these "bleaching" oils that are supposed to give a quick weathered look.

[Planman1954]

I have tried many different types of exterior stains on houses over the years. The first was CWF (Clear Wood Finish.) Cedartone, I think it was called. It lasted only a couple of years before needing recoating. Then I tried Olympic Stain, Cedar, and the same thing. I then tried a Sherwin Williams solid color stain. It was great. It lasted about 5 years before fading started. The only downside is that it is much more opaque and does not let the grain show. I would go to a local paint store and talk to an expert on the products. Oh, and BTW, the solar dry kiln that I built has the Sherwin Williams solid color stain on it. It's called "Cedar Bark." Good luck!

[barbender]

Thanks Planman. I'd like to go with a transparent or semi transparent, but I realize that they don't last as long as a solid color product. I want the best quality product I can get, cause I don't want to be refinishing anytime soon. I'll check out the local Sherwin Williams and see what they have.

[beenthere]

Jeff has a good stain that he uses around his home.

Semi-transparent soaks in better and is less of a "paint" and more of a stain.

[scsmith42]

Check out Sikkens products, and TWP products.  These are the two best stain manufacturers that I'm aware of.

[oklalogdog]

Permachink will send you a free sample of every color they have + both gloss and semi gloss clear coat.  I got most of them and tried them on the log wall of a playhouse I built a few years back.  My wife and I have chosen two of them and oddly enough the ones we thought we would like from their brochure - we didn't like at all.

[newstick]

Barbender try shroeders log building supply in Grand Rapids they have all kinds of samples .

[barbender]

Newstick, I will be stopping at Schroeder's, I use to spend a lot of time in there when I was building a handscribed log shell, unfortunately it sat too long and I ended up putting it through the OWB >:( So it's been hard to go back in schroeders I'll have to explain how my log house turned out  :D BTW, does newstick=newberg?

[Jim_Rogers]

I just got an email from someone about Lifeline Ultra-7 from Perma-Ckink systems about this new stain for log homes and timber frames.
I suppose if you did a google search you'd find the web page for it.

It's suppose to be good.

Jim Rogers

[newstick]

Yes newstick is Newberg
Newstick was the name of a sawmill  that my Dad and a uncle had.

[bigshow]

i've had pine boards stained with Sikkens CRD Semi-Transparent for 3 years.  I put freshly stained boards right along side them, no difference in color whatsoever.  Ungodly expensive though - add about $1 a square foot if staining all sides!

Next time, I'd take the time to build a trough, fill it with stain, and dip them.  I cant help but think the stain would stretch a tad farther as opposed to brushing on.  My hesitation was buying $1000-1500 in stain and opening it all at once.

[frwinks]

After reading Jeff's report on Sikkens, we also went with it.  Not cheap, but it's not something I want to do/redo every 4 years. 
White pine boards with 078 natural CRD stain