Cedar siding problem - Varnish flaking off - need solution


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Old 07-14-11, 08:42 AM
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Cedar siding problem - Varnish flaking off - need solution

Hello.
About 5 years ago someone painted our cedar cottage with varnish.
Bad idea, I know. And now we have a huge problem as it is obviously coming off and looks horrible.

The house is large, with very high vaulted rooves and lots of angles.

We tried sanding, by hand, one side of the place and leaving it to weather, but the next spring we noticed a lot of places that were missed (especially in the grooves). There is still spots of varnish.

We have looked into corn blasting, but this is very expensive and most probably out of our budget range.

We are wondering if there is a product (primer) that can be applied over the varnish (after being lightly scrapped and sanded) and then painted over the primer.

Is there a solid (gel) stain that would cover the varnish?

A big problem is that there are areas that are now raw wood (cedar) and other areas where the varnish is still sticking to the wood.

Thank you for any information!

Mark
 
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Old 07-14-11, 10:07 AM
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Welcome to the forums

Varnish? That seems like a strange choice for cedar siding, I would have gone with a stain.

I'm not sure but I think you may need to get all of the varnish off (or at least the loose stuff) for anything else to stick to the siding - I'm sure others will be along shortly to clarify.
 
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Old 07-14-11, 10:19 AM
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Yes, it is a strange choice for cedar siding - and not one that I made - but do have to deal with it now...

Thanks for your reply.

Mark.
 
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Old 07-14-11, 10:25 AM
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Photos of the problem

Here a photo of the siding :


 
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Old 07-14-11, 01:28 PM
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You have several choices, media blasting is one but only if done correctly [the wrong blasting media or wrong technique can eat up the siding ] or you could 'paint' the siding with paint and varnish remover, let it work and them pressure wash it off. Those 2 would be the best methods if you want to use a semi-transparent or translucent/toner stain.

If you just want to paint, removing the majority of the failed varnish followed by a good coat of oil base exterior primer will give you a decent surface for latex house paint or solid stain.

Gel stains are basically just for interior work. There is a big difference between interior and exterior stains.

hope this helps,
mark in tenn
 
 

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