I'm a big fan of the look of cedar shake siding and cedar lap siding. However my designer has discouraged me from using these materials on the house I am planning to build due to the cost and headache of maintenance. Any thoughts on this subject would be much appreciated.

Ask your designer exactly what maintenance is required for cedar shake siding. Properly specified, it is basically a no-maintenance material.

Lap siding is another matter. It can be left to weather, but for best appearance, a high grade of siding should be used. Once it is decided to stain or paint either shakes or lap siding, the maintenance cycle has begun and will continue forever.

Look into white cedar siding pre-stained with a bleaching oil, which will create a weathered appearance that will last until real weathering takes place, and you'll have siding which will be maintenance free for 50 plus years, and maybe nearly 100. The color is a soft beautiful gray, and it looks sensational.

Cedar shakes if placed on gable ends and cedar siding need to be maintained more so than a stucco service. Cedar shakes on the roof if done correctly will require little maintance. If want the cedar look on siding and cedar shakes for gable ends or accent on you home. Hardie concrete products have the wood grain look like cedar and is termite and wood rot resistant. Your designer is trying to make your house as maintance free as possible and resistant to bugs, rot and weather.
You may not appreciate the gravity of this reccomendation but you will ten years down the road. Here is the site to Hardie
http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/prodhome/default.php

We used pre-stained cedar lap siding on the home we just finished. The siding has been up about year. It is absolutely beautiful, but is already showing some early signs of fading in the sun. My mother in law (whose house this is) likes the weathered look of cedar so I am hopeful refinishing will not be in our immediate future. The stain they used to prefinish it with was Olympic Maximum which is probably not hte longest lasting treatment. I think it will last only about 4-5 years looking like the picture below, with more noticiable fading after that based on the look after the first year.



My own home has cedar shingles on the gables in large areas and they are Painted. Oil based primer and then paint. The seem to be holding up very well and the look is good. I assume however you did not intend to paint.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nevermind,

The trick to keeping cedar looking good is to seal both sides. Pre-stain both front and back before hanging. After hanging, it should stay looking beautiful for many years with minor touch ups.

We have 2course 8' long cedar veneer shakes glued over plywood. They are 15 yrs old, painted/stained 4 times. The glue holding shakes deteriated and shakes either curl up or fall off. There is vinyl shakes in all colors that look like real mckoy and are virtually no maintenance. Don't buy Cedartown or Shakertown shakes. At most they will give you only 10% off if that. I'm replacing with vinyl....Willie

First off ask your builder who's home is this and who is paying for it.
I have cypress board on my home and it is no problem. I put clear wood preservative with UV on it, this is good for 2 years.
Build what you like not what someone else likes.You the one that will be living there.

I agree with previous posts to coat both sides and the ENDS of siding. I also recommend to vent the back of lap siding so it can air dry. On my residence I used treated wood 1x4 vertical strips to which the primed siding was nailed. After two years, looks good.

Ceder shakes do well on the roof so they should do as well or beter on the walls.
The thing I notice most is the cobwebs.