We Are CEDAR Believers!
Buffalo Lumber quotes only CEDAR WOOD for exterior painted wood applications
Our Factory Finish process protects the wood and handles 99% of the coating. You will only have to coat the ends on the job site. What a time, labor and cost saver! With up to 30 year warranty. Now you can have real wood siding primed, painted and ready to install!
Historic renovation architect and Buffalo Lumber Customer Barry Weinstein won an award from the Highland Park Historical Society for his rehabilitation of a home in Highland Park IL using our CLEAR Western Red Cedar Finger Joint (FJ) Cedar bevel siding.
Why you should NOT use cheaper wood for your Painted Siding
CEDAR is definitely more expensive and it is just going to be hidden under the paint. So why pay more for cedar? Why not get the cheapest wood possible? Why not Pine?
The Pine of today is NOT your grandfather's pine. Today's pine siding is milled from fast growth timber, is highly susceptible to rot, prone to cupping and worst of all - it is pervasive in lumber yards.
Some of today's Cedar is also milled from new growth trees BUT cedar has a natural resistance to rot and reacts better as a painted siding substrate because it is less inclined to cup and bow when milled. Factory primed and painted cedar siding is the right way to go.
Take Bart for instance - He went to the local lumber yard and talked to the guy there and was told that pine would work fine - especially if painted. He bought a bunch of 1x6" Dutch Lap Pine Siding STK grade. He even back primed the pine himself before he let them install it. It took him a month of his own time! But even though he had done everything right the PINE siding started showing signs of problems within 6 years.
Right way vs. the Cheapest Possible way The cheapest possible way to paint exterior wood siding is to buy knotty pine, tack it up on the wall and paint just the face. That is also the worst thing you can possibly do! This is a total siding replacement needed less than 5 years after original install because it rotted out.
It also took out some of the sheathing and studs too! He had to replace the entire wall in some areas. The cost of this fix was over $40,000. THAT AINT CHEAP! In reality the cheapest possible way long term is to do the job right in the first place. While it may cost double what unfinished pine costs, factory finished cedar is the only way to go!