I would stick with the same type of siding you have now as it would look odd to have two different types of siding on the house.

To help it hold up better I would recomend priming all 6 sides of the siding before puting it up. Then once it is up apply two coats of of acrylic exterior house paint to get the longest lasting job.

Is it alright to just buy the primed cedar? It is only .10 more per linear foot from this lumber yard by my house. Figure it will save a lot of time than trying to prime 200 pieces of siding.

One other thing, does it matter whether I use 8', 10' or 12' long sections when installing the cedar?

I would buy the raw wood as the primer used on factory primed products is junk and will not hold as well as a field applied primer.

Why do you think it cost hardly any more than raw wood?

The longer you get them the cheaper it is 200 boards sounds like alot if they are 10'that is 2,000 linear feet and 6" so im assuming it would equal 1,000 sq feet.

So that etra .10 is $200.00

200 boards would take about 4-5 gallons of paint a few saw horses a paint sprayer rental and primer would run you about $120.00 plus 3-6 hours of your time depending on how well you can operate one or if you have a helper (wife,kids ??)

As far as the preprimed stuff I don't know much about it.

So weigh your options,while you had the sprayer you could paint it yourself too,saving money their too (they are a snap to run).I could explain a little system we use that saves a bunch of time if your interested.

Thanks for the input. I was thinking that the 10 cents per foot to have the wood pre-primed would save me a lot of time, but maybe I will do like you say so I can get a better quality repair done. Thanks.

ok, 6 sawhorses 3 on eachside run a 2X4 from the 1st to the 2nd and then again one from the 2nd to the 3rd.Do this on each side.each 2x4 being at least 12 ft.The width will depend on length of siding so if you get 10' siding then you'd obviously be about 8 to 10 feet apart.put 4 to 6 boards on the very end spray them up.Grab another 4-6 butt em right up to them spray em up,so on and so on.Till you get to the end use 1 hour primer by time you are done should be able to safely stack those first 25 up push the ones you just did before those to the end thus giving you enough room to do a bunch more when you are dont those stack the next 15 or so you did before hand.

Take a soda break look at what ya accomplished and spray up some more then stack the ones on the end again.After the break should be able to stack up another 20.

This goes really fast.If you are using an oil primer do not stack they will stick together.You will be amazed at how fast this really goes.

I would not use a 1 hour fast dry primer as you don't get the penetration and they dry very brittle and will crack and flake off over time. You don't want this type of primer for large areas of siding as there is alot of movement during the seasons in the siding.

Yes it will take longer to dry and you will have to find a way to stack it or lay it out somewhere but it will be worth the effort over the long haul.

I know I will be given a hard time for this but oh well that's the way it goes.

Now some things #5 agree on others we don't but that is the world we live in.We all have our own opinions and we will share ours with you,I won't get into it with you #5 we both know where it goes.After seeing others agrue on these sites I will just give mine,as you will yours.

we do a ship load of these every year and yet to have a problem,the one prob we have run into is bleeding thru if you don't use a good quality top coat it can do this.Now im not saying we didn't use a good quality on some of these it is sometimes a homeownere buys their own paint and alot of times they try to save money the hardway.

The problems with a quick dry primer don't show in a year or two but will show up later with the flaking and peeling.

The bleed through is held back by the primer and not the topcoat. So if you use a good primer and put enough on that will take care of the bleed through.

One more thing I was wondering about. People say the galvanized nails rust in cedar siding, is the same true if you are painting the siding, or do I need to use Stainless Nails? And what type should I use (Shank?)

The galvanized nails will be fine as they only rust when the siding is not painted.

That is what I meant,but for some reason fingers typed topcoat.My bad

I will be doing this the next two weeks when the weather gets back to being nice, thanks for all the help and tips. I will let you know how it goes.