Maintainence on Cedar Shakes

I have a house with unstained cedar shakes siding. We haven't had the siding cleaned (we bought the house in 2018) and I don't know the last time the previous owners might have.

We like the "grey' naturally aged look of the unsealed cedar but we do have a few spots that have a green mossy color to it (but no physical moss build up). Because of that, we were thinking of cleaning the siding (or hiring someone to).

1) Should unsealed cedar shakes be cleaned regularly?
2) Is it correct that cleaning will lighten the shakes color (remove the grey) but it will fairly quickly return?
3) If we have spots here and there that are a green tinge, should we spot clean or still just clean the whole house?
4) What cleaning approach would you recommend? I understand that powerwashing can pretty easily destroy the shakes.

Thanks for the help.

 

I've only cleaned cedar shakes as part of paint prep. A pressure washer is ok but you need to use a wide tip and keep your distance! I normally use a pump up garden sprayer to apply the cleaner [bleach is what I use most] it will remove any mold/mildew and lighten the wood some. A garden hose can be substituted for the pressure washer. Left unstained the wood will return to it's previous grey look.

 

Yeah, cedar is pretty soft so you have to go easy with the pressure washer. I clean my cedar deck with bleach water and a brush but I can see that being a more difficult job with siding.

 

Thanks. So it seems pretty easy and not necessary to pay a company to do it? My biggest concern is getting detergent or bleach into the gardens. We have gardens that surround the entire house and deck.

 

If you wet the vegetation before, during and after there shouldn't be any damage to the plants. Keeping them wet and rinsed will dilute the bleach enough where it won't cause harm.

 

I do the same as Mark suggested - wet everything down first and then rinse off afterward and I've never seen any plant damage.

 

awesome. I thought it was going to be more complicated but it seem like spraying on some oxiclean and letting it sit, then rinsing with a hose is sufficient. I will probably give that a try on my shed first, which is cedar sided as well. I will keep the power washer on standby increase faucet pressure isnt enough.


thanks!

 

Sometimes the cleaner alone isn't enough, you might need to scrub stubborn areas - I use an old broom.