Best oil primer for cedar siding?


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Old 10-19-13, 05:36 PM
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Best oil primer for cedar siding?

I'm scraping and painting my exterior, which is 120yr old 4" bevel cedar siding. I'm bringing it all down to the wood. I've been using Zinsser Cover Stain oil primer and also tried Pittsburgh Paints Ultra Exterior Alkyd Primer. I've got about 200sqft done.

I was recently reading about dry times for primers and found some folk saying that Zinsser Cover Stain was not a good primer to use because it dries quickly and isn't a "long" primer that will really soak into the wood.

Is this true? Is there a better primer I should be using? I'm limited to what is sold in Illinois.

Thanks!
 
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Old 10-20-13, 03:43 AM
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I normally use SWP's A-100 oil base primer, it's a slower drying primer and does a great job of sealing cedar. Most brands of exterior oil base wood primer should do a decent job. I use SWP because they are handy but whatever your local paint store sells should be ok. Stay away from paint depts, they generally stock their coatings based on low price rather than quality. Also paint stores tend to train their help better and have a better selection.

is there any lead paint still on your siding?
 
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Old 10-20-13, 06:51 AM
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I never tested the paint for lead, just assumed it was there. We're using respirators with P100 filters during any scraping/sanding/grinding, dropclothes, etc..

I looked at the SW oil primer and it was extremely expensive (~$51/gal with tax) and was never included in their 30-40% off sales. I have trouble believing a primer needs to be so costly in order to be good, but if someone says that they've tried them all and A-100 is the only way to go then I'll do it.

I shop at Menards a lot and that's where I've been getting my paint. Years ago my store had a stellar paint dept because of one woman who worked there. She was a tinting ninja and had actually used a lot of the products herself. She's not there anymore so I don't get good intel anymore but I still like their paint dept because they'll take back anything you don't like and try mixing it again. I like their Grand Distinction (Pittsburgh Paint) paint and that's what I'm using for my exterior. I've used it side-by-side with Duration on test patches and I feel like the Menards stuff is just as good, and they actually got the color right. I'll keep the few gallons of Duration gloss white that I bought at 40% off and use it on my trim.

Anyways, in my experience the coating itself never 'fails', only its adhesion to the surface. I'm more concerned about the primer than the paint. Has anyone tried Zinsser Cover Stain and compared it to other primers?
 
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Old 10-20-13, 07:10 AM
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I've used boatloads of Cover Stain. I love it and it certainly has it's purpose, however as you've already mentioned it's a faster drying oil primer and works incredibly well for sealing stains/tannins, etc. Not sure if I would use it for the entire body of a surface though. Would probably try and go with a slower drying oil primer that will have more of a chance to really soak in to the wood.
 
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Old 10-20-13, 07:00 PM
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Yesterday I was using the Pittsburgh Paints stuff which quotes 6-8 hours dry time, topcoat after 24 hours. Today I went back to the Cover Stain and found myself a little irritated with the faster dry time and workability compared to what I had adjusted to with the PB product. Maybe I'll just use the Cover Stain to prime the backs of boards before I put them up and use the other stuff for the rest of the work.

...I can't believe it's nearing the end of October and I'm still trying to finish up my exterior painting work...ugh.
 
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Old 10-22-13, 05:00 PM
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A painter friend of mine suggested adding penetrol to my primer to help it soak into the wood better. Anyone done this and are there any drawbacks?
 
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Old 10-23-13, 03:03 AM
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I haven't used Flood's Penetrol in a long time but it is effective in slowing down the drying time and helping the primer to suck deeper into the wood. We used to use it all the time when an oil base top coat was the norm. I assume it's ok to top coat over it with latex but I'd want to re read the label to make sure.
 
 

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