Unfinished cedar wall shingles can be treated to provide uniform colour
Q What are the pros and cons of leaving cedar side wall shingles unfinished? We’re planning to cover the walls of our house in western red cedar, but don’t know what to do after that.
A I install cedar side wall shingles on my own projects because they’re the best option I know of for interesting, exterior wood on your house without a maintenance burden. That’s the biggest advantage. Leave them bare and you never need to do anything to them afterwards. I’ve seen cedar wall shingles last 50 years with zero maintenance. No paint or stain ever. That said, I wouldn’t let the shingles go grey naturally because the results will be uneven. Shingles at the bottom of the wall will be dark, and shingles in the protected place up near the eaves will remain light. In projects of my own I use a product called Ecowood Treatment to make the shingles an even grey colour no matter where they are. This is a one-time treatment that causes wood to go grey by a nontoxic chemical reaction.
The cons of leaving your shingles unfinished include the fact that you might not like the grey colour. In the case of western red cedar, the shingles will go quite dark — almost verging on black in time. Eastern white cedar, by contrast, usually goes a more silver-grey colour. Also, unfinished cedar shingles have a slightly higher tendency to crack if left unfinished, but this doesn’t happen much if the shingles are reasonably dry before installation. The nice thing about cedar side wall shingles is that cracks here and there don’t matter. At any given spot on your wall there are three layers of shingles at work. A new crack is just the same as any one of the hundreds of joints between shingles.
If you do decide to apply a finish, don’t apply paint or stain that forms a surface film. This will peel in time, causing something of a nightmare to strip in preparation for refinishing. Also, I strongly recommend installing the shingles over some kind of a drainage screen on the back. Creating an air space behind the shingles means that any leaked or condensed moisture can drain down and out of the wall harmlessly.
Q How can I make my basement less humid? We bought a cottage with a concrete basement floor and a wood foundation. There’s no mould down there, but it does seem very damp.
A Damp basements are a problem in a lot of places once the weather gets warm. I’ve dealt with particularly humid basements over the years and I’ve found a strategy that works.
The first thing to understand is that outdoor air is the source of moisture at this time of year. Assuming there’s no actual liquid water leaking into your basement, air is the culprit. And the warmer and more humid that outdoor air is, the more moisture it will bring into your basement. That’s why the first thing to do is to keep basement windows and vents closed whenever it’s warmer outdoors than it is in the basement. Whenever it becomes cooler outside than inside, open the windows again.
In addition to closing basement windows at the right times, you’ll also need a dehumidifier that’s large enough to remove significant moisture from the air. Many are not big enough to do this. Dehumidifiers are rated in pints per day of water removed, and a 50-pint unit would be a minimum for a basement like yours. Seventy pints per day would be better. Run the dehumidifier until relative humidity drops to 70 per cent. There’s no need to make your basement any drier than this. Keep and monitor a humidity meter down there so you know what you’ve got and how to manage your situation. Steve Maxwell loves cedar side wall shingles and dry basements. Visit BaileyLineRoad.com to join 13,000 people who get his Saturday morning newsletter each week.