Paint/stain for cedar shakes help, tips, advice?

[wotan]

I have a relatively large garage that was built (I believe) in the late 1940s. It had waaaay too many windows and doors so I recently removed all of those and framed in smaller windows and eliminated 2 service doors. This gets me much more interior wall space to use for storage and tool space. (Mission Accomplished!)

Here's my dilemma -- I had to patch in a lot of cedar shakes. I couldn't find any that matched the original shakes texture:


The replacement shakes are smooth faced (I promise they're not as crooked as they look in this photo):


So not only does the texture not match, but I'm really worried about matching a new stain to the old stain. I'm also completely over this "russet" brown color and would like to update it to to a grey or blue (also, would love suggestions on something classic but fresh looking?)
Here are some more photos.



Tips?

 

[wotan]

I tried to edit this to shrink the thumbnails and for some reason they aren't showing up now, but the links are good. Can someone else let me know if the images are appearing? Sorry!

 

[jon72vega]

I tried to edit this to shrink the thumbnails and for some reason they aren't showing up now, but the links are good. Can someone else let me know if the images are appearing? Sorry!

Images are not showing.
Use something else besides Imgur to host your pictures.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I can right click on the pictures and open them in another window. There's not much left of the original shingles...I would guess they have weathered over the years and that will explain most of the difference in texture. Over time the new shingles will weather out some, although it will probably take quite a while.

I'm personally a fan of Benjamin Moore opaque stain. It covers well and lasts a long time. I like it better than paint since as it ages it mainly just wears away, unlike paint that will check and chip. That makes it a lot easier when it's time to put on another coat in the future.

 

[aar0s]

We sell quite a bit of the flood brand stains where I work. I've never had to use it but I hear good things.

 

[Moxie]

Are the shakes stained or are they the original unstained color? I did a lot of research into this last year, and found that shakes would last longest if not treated in any way. So I reluctantly put the project on hold. If you really want to stain, though, I hear the following:
- pressure washing may cause deterioration of the surface of the shakes so use care
- you're better off brushing on than spraying any color treatment

 

[mtwaterguy]

Be sure and stain/paint the back side also.

 

[DCarr2]

One way to make all the shakes match, is to take one of the old shingles to Ben moore /schuele and have it color matched to the correct stain color, then 'paint' only the new ones.

BRUSH DO NOT SPRAY the stain. its way more labor intensive, but, no over spray, and when you spray, vs brush, the stain has a tendency to 'lay on the surface' more, where as with brushing it works it more into the grain of the wood.

Id skip the pressure washing... its really easy to do alot of damage

 

[wotan]

Thanks everyone -- I reuploaded the photos to photobucket and they seem to be working now. I stopped in at Sherwin Williams and Lowes this weekend and they both seemed confident I could spray solid-pigment stain over the new and old shakes and the color would match. The texture will become more matched over time (and with the patched/new shingles mixed in, it shouldn't be that noticeable.)

The original shakes are stained.

Those that can now see my photos may wonder why I don't just replace what's left.... the problem is that the house is all done in the "old" shingles and at some point I plan on staining/painting that to match. The garage is just step 1, but the house won't require nearly as much shingle replacement.

 

[Kevin54]

One thing you could do to get the texture to match would be to take a wire brush, either rotary or handheld, and wire brush the smooth shakes. Or try to sand the existing older ones to a smoother texture. Either way would work somewhat to give things the texture you desire.

As far as stain.....restain everything, but use a solid color stain. That will guarantee uniformity until the shakes decide to fade over time. To alleviate that, you could stain your new shakes with a semi transparent stain that matches your original color, then go back after it's dry and stain with a solid color stain. It should then fade equally.

BTW....nice job on replacing the shakes.

 

[wotan]

BTW....nice job on replacing the shakes.

Thanks. All hand nailed. Not excited about undertaking shakes again. Happy with how this stage has turned out but probably shouldn't have waited until this point for the plan on how to finish. Lesson learned.

 

[CTyankee]

Not to be a debbie downer but...you really should try to keep joints at least an inch away from the course above. I see a few that appear lined up with the row above.

Weaving in new shingles is a pain in the *** and now you need to deal with matching the old to new.. For all the area you had to patch, I would have stripped the whole building. JMO.

Maybe you can stain the whole thing a dark color and it will all blend together. Whatever you try, test it out on some of the old shingles first.

 

[GTO]

Not only are they not grooved,like the original,but they are not not clear(no knots) like the originals....