I had Fraser Shingles with Cabot factory paint installed on my home in 2003. They were then painted with the same paint after they were installed.
In the last year the grain on the shingles has raised. The paint looks okay though.
The issue is now a problem on about 35% of the shingles. It occurs randomly on all sides of the house.
The house looks dirty or like the paint is coming off.
I have contacted Fraser and Cabot.
I would appreciate advice on why this is happening and what should be done about it.

Are the shakes smooth or rough sawn?

Have you scraped over these rough spots to see if the coating comes off or not?

I went to the Fraser Specialty Products website to try to read about how the shingles are cut but I could not find anything about that.

The shingles that are not problematic are very smooth, see picture included for comparison.

I have washed the shingles, not power washed, but not scraped them. I heard back from Fraser today and they said they have never seen this happen

Those look like #2 pine. I could be wrong,..I don`t see enough wall area. A better photo for me would be, six feet back, on a corner, showing two walls. Unless your home is round !!

Not being squared indicates #2 grade. These have a rough side and a smooth side, and have different, mixed heights. The rough side wheathers better and is for stain or semi solid stains. Paints dont do well on rough sides. The smooth side is for paints, and has a better appearance. The smooth side soaks in water evenly. Uneven soaking (rough side) will prevent expantion better.

#1 grade R/R,...will be square on all four sides, the same heights, and plained on both faces.

If the installer does not take care to show the same feace uniformly when installing #2 grade, you end up looking like sh*t, or like the photo shows,...mixed installation. Joints shoud be staggered 1" minimum, and never one above the other.

I also see what appears to be more than 4" exposure. This will be a problem IF the heights are not the correct size for the exposure. 14"...17"...20",... are examples of heights. The height of a shingle dictates the exposure. A shingle MUST go under TWO rows above it and 2" under the third. This keeps the wall plumb. Curling, cupping, warping, and leaking, will happen real quick if the exposure rules are not followed.

Never...ever...ever, use sidewall shingles on roofing. They make different shingles (3/4" and 1" butts) for roofing.

You can use a 120 grit sandpaper, up and down on the shingles that have too much, to remove the bulk of the wooling effect on the rough side out. The mill or paint factory wont do that. but you can before applying the second coat.

I am just wondering if the coating is coming off or is the grain of the wood getting this rough over time.

Is this cedar or pine?

Can you pull the coating that is on the wood off? If you can is it going down to bare wood? Just use your finger for this.

The shingles are cedar. I cannot pull off any of the finish with my fingernail. The paint hasn't chalked, alligatored, etc. On the shingles where the grain is raised they look dirty or as if the paint is coming off. I will post another picture later today from further away so an entire section can be viewed.
Thanks for trying to figure this out.

Why do I got a feeling you have a pre primed house ? You can`t leave it that way, a month or so, but not years. I`ve sided a gazillion walls !!

The shingles were factory painted with Cabot paint and then field painted with the same paint.

Easy for me to make that mistake !! All P/P shingles come that color, anyway, I`d like to see a corner photo from back a bit. Any chance they left you repair shingles left over (in the box) ?

The shingles that are rough must have what is called flat grained wood and over time it will raise up and will cause the paint to crack and peel. This is the only thing that makes sense to me as it is random and I doubt just these shingles are installed wrong.

I would just sand those shingles smooth with and electric sander and recoat with the Cabot product.