You will be able to get close and get the new siding to blend in with the old. As it can hard to match the age perfectly.

You will need to take some of the old and new siding in to the paint store to get it matched. Be sure to ask if they match by eye as this type of match can't be done on a computer.

But if it has been 20 years since the house has been stained you want to think seriously about doing the entire house now as i am sure it could use it.

Thanks for the advice. The insurance company told us they would only pay for the damaged portion, and said the painters could computer-match the stain. The painters I've received estimates from didn't think they would be able to match it, but then again, they probably want to do the entire job instead of a small piece anyway.

But with the age, it would be smart to do the whole thing, but it's so expensive!

It makes me laugh when people think "computer color matching" is something special.

Computers only get you close - it takes human knowledge and skill to match a color exactly.

I doubt your siding has 20 year old stain. Stains don't last that long. It has turned grey because it is old - that's all. That is what untreated cedar does.

You won't be able to "stain" new cedar to look like this - your painters are correct. I wouldn't even try. If you stain it - it will always look different.

You can install new cedar and wait for it to turn (that could take a number of years) - you could install new and apply a "greying agent" - these make cedar grey faster - or you could prime and paint it all.

Mr. Paint

They just don't want the whole job their is no way it will match up because you can't grey your stain,the old stain is greyed because that is where there isn't hardly stain left it is gray from the weather.
If this is transparent stain or semil solid a computer cannot read a stain unless it is a solid stain because the eye will read right thru to a solid color which would be the wood.So what you need to do is get a higher estimate for your insurance company,you do not need 3 estimates like people think,and is against the law if the ins company makes you.
You could bring in 1 with the most expensive estimate then get a cheaper guy to do it.

Yes, I should have only gotten one estimate (a high one), and used as much of what the insurance co. gives me towards the end product.

I think I'm going to get enough out of them to do a solid stain on the entire house. But if it's grey now, how many coats will it take to do a solid stain in a medium to dark blue?

A solid stain is much like a paint,you need to pressure wash off the gray as best as possible,should just come right off probably without adding anything to it just straight water.The gray is kinda like dead skin on your body it isn't going to hurt if some is left on unless it is moldly (will have a greenish tint to it).Seeing how old the stain is already would not hurt to pressure wash it anyhow,get the grime off,then apply 2 coats of solid stain.