Staining the House

While staining the shed it occurred to me that the exterior of the house was long past due getting another coat of exterior stain/water proofer. The last time we did it was probably about 8 years ago. The pine siding, especially on the east side was dried out, flaking and portions covered with mildew.

east wall before treatment

close up of the mildew

I took an old plastic bristle brush and attacked the lower portion below. The old stain and mildew flaked off like dust. By the time I was done I was coated. It was nasty.

after brushing the old coating and mildew off

The next day I took the new pump sprayer that Hal purchased along with the new Behr stain and for the next 5 hours made a terrible mess of things on the lower wall. The spray went everywhere, not just on the wall and ran like crazy down the grooves of the tongue and groove boards. I had to use a small foam applicator to spread it out as it went on unevenly. It's very, very dark, the outdoor temp was close to 80 and even though I did this after that side of the house was in the shade, it dried so quickly there are obvious drips lines and other places poorly covered. But at least it's better than essentially what had become dry bare wood. Hopefully, it will weather better this winter.

from a distance it looks okay