Priming Before Installing
After cedar has achieved equilibrium moisture content and before it is installed, a coating on all surfaces is recommended. The type of coating will vary with final finish selected. The coating protects the wood from water penetration, helps prevent staining caused by mildew and extractives and can increase the service life of top coats. The following coatings have proven themselves in field testing (Table 2).

Check with your paint dealer to make sure that the prefinish coat you select is compatible with the intended finish coat. For example, clear water repellants should not be used where the intended finish is a bleaching oil.

Table 2: Recommended Priming Procedures for Cedar Siding

Type of Finish Coat	Recommended Priming Coat
Natural and Semi-Transparent Stains	Coat all surfaces with the stain
Solid color stains and paints	Coat all surfaces with an alkyd oil stain-blocking primer. Alternatively, use a clear water repellant on back of siding and the primer on face and edges
Bleaching Oils	Prime all surfaces with a coat of the bleaching oil

Figure 1: Siding stacked with vertically aligned stickers