In April of 2013, I had a beautiful cedar fence built for my puppy boy. Now, April of 2017, 4 years later, it definitely doesn’t look like new. It has that cedar weathering to it which is beautiful if you are at the beach, but for my humble, homely house it just looks washed out.
This is what it originally looked like. See how gorgeous it was?
My recommendation if you have a cedar fence is to do the CWF as quickly as possible to maintain the color. I chose a “transparent” one, but they always put a little stain on it. This is pretty darn close to transparent, however. I’m wondering now if I should have gotten the “cedar” one.
Here are the big players!
That is: 1) Flood CWF-UV, 2)Multi-sprayer, and 3)Cleaner. I used 30 Seconds Cleaner which I ended up running out of, spraying myself in the face with, and messing up the concentrations. It has bleach in it, fyi. And of course you need paint stuff and I would recommend eye protection and disposable gloves.
I forgot to take an initial picture until I started, so here is one a few minutes in:
The bleach solution was super easy to use. Here’s a comparison after just a few minutes:
Just be careful with the solution being too powerful or too concentrated otherwise you get a super bleached one. The problem was that I ran out of solution and it got to the very bottom. I guess I hadn’t mixed it well so I’m pretty sure that’s almost pure concentrate. It really did a number to the wood too! Bent it!
I ran out of cleaner, so I wasted 2 hours wandering around stores looking for it to no avail. Make sure you get enough. By the time I got back, it was dried. I think I was supposed to hose it off…
Notice how the first batch (the left half) was too concentrated, while the second batch (the right half) looks more natural, so I assume I was closer to the right ratio.
Now for the intensive part….I did it all by hand as the fence builder years ago recommended. You could do paint gun for speed (after the hours of hand work, I was seriously contemplating….) but as he explained, the manual method will make sure it gets into every groove. The cedar is so textured, I get why, but by golly it took FOREVER. If I was able to do this every weekend it wouldn’t be an issue, but I can’t. So. Anyways, hours later, I get this result. And the other side of the house thrown in too.
Not nearly as beautiful as it’s original glory (nor in terms of scent either!) but it’s much more pleasing to the average eye. At least in my opinion.
Here are the comparisons in chronological order:
Well there you go!! Easy, just mind numbing. And smelly.