Identify Shake Material and Select Finish

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How to Paint Exterior Shake Siding Like a Pro | Best Paint, Sheen & Spraying Tips

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The first crucial step is to correctly identify the material of the shakes on your property. This is vital because different materials require different finishes. There are three main types: wood shakes (e.g., cedar shakes), concrete shakes (e.g., Hardie Plank shakes), and composite shakes. For composite and concrete shakes, the recommendation is to apply a flat paint finish. This finish helps the shakes look like natural wood, preserving their unique texture and 'flavor'. In contrast, typical siding is often painted with a satin finish for durability, cleanability, and washability, but using satin paint on shakes can make them appear unnatural and highlight imperfections. For genuine wood shakes, *never* use paint. Instead, you must use a wood stain. A stain absorbs into the wood, acting as a self-primer and providing a finish that is less likely to peel, which is a common problem when paint is applied to wood shakes. Wood stains also typically have a flat appearance, helping the wood shakes look authentic.

Goal: Select the appropriate paint or stain type based on the shake material.

Tools and materials

Flat Paint Unspecified — Painting composite and concrete shakes
Satin Paint Unspecified — Painting siding (not recommended for shakes)
Wood Stain Unspecified — Staining wood shakes

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right. Today I'm going to give you a few tips when it comes to painting shakes. So I have some, you know, shakes right here. Whenever I'm painting shakes, I want them to look like they were actually wood shakes and and have, you know, that flavor, that uniqueness to them. One of the things I always do with my shakes is I paint them flat. So, I don't want them to look like the siding. I typically paint the siding uh satin because I want it to be durable. I want it to be, you know, cleanable, washable. There's uh wood shakes. They're cedar. So, you'll see cedar shakes. There's um concrete shakes, which are hardy plank shakes. And then there's these shakes right here, which are composite shakes. So, they look like wood shakes, but they're made out of the same material as this sighting is made out of. It's just some ground up fibers glued together, uh, pressed and got a like a paper over the top of it and it looks like wood, but it's not. If the shakes are, uh, concrete sided, same thing. Concrete sighting, hardy plank, we paint it. It comes out pre prime. I'm going to paint it once again flat because I want it to look true. You do not want to paint wood shakes. You want to add a wood stain to them. If you paint wood shakes, they're more likely going to peel. A stain is going to absorb into the wood and it's self priming. You're not going to have to prime it. So, that's a proper way to do wood shakes and your stains are flat. And so, the stains um will keep the the shakes looking true. A lot of times the

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