We live in a townhome asso that has cedar shake siding. Our building was the last one built. The paint peeled off in big chunks within the first year. The builder's painter powerwashed, scraped, & put oil primer on the bare wood followed by 2 layers of Sherwin Wm latex paint. Less than 2 years later, the same thing happened & have had the same procedure repeated except just one layer of paint instead of 2. We believe the original work must have been done in cold weaather (Minnesota) or didn't have an oil based primer or both.
The other 3 buildings have a different problem, which is tanin bleed, which happened within 2 years of application. We strongly believe that a primer was not applied & that only a thin layer of paint or solid stain was sprayed on. To fix this problem, would you recommend applying an oil based primer & a layer of latex paint. Or would you recommend one layer of oil based paint or solid stain. Or what.

Sandra,
The failure could be caused by one or more things. Several issues may be happening at the same time. I suggest you read ALL of my Painting columns and make a checklist of the things I say should be done to never have peeling. Then compare the list to the facts as you know them. Pay attention to what I say in this column above about backpriming!

Dear Tim,
This may seem like a silly question, however, what is the best type of paint to use in the dipping method described above. Should it be an oil based paint, ...., etc? Thanks.

Just to clarify the above question. Which is better to use on new non-weathered cedar shakes, an alkyd solid stain or an acrylic solid stain?

Thanks.

I have had pretty good luck using an oil-based alkyd solid stain on my new non-weathered cedar shakes. It fades, but doesn't crack or peel. I have used Sherwin-Williams alkyd for this purpose.

Question: if I failed to dip and already have installed the shakes, what is the best method for painting? Sprayer?

We are in the process of re-painting the outside of our newly purchased house. The siding is painted cedar shakes. Our question is: Is it necessary to caulk between the shakes after we scrape and prime? If so/not, What does need to be caulked? Thanks.