How can I stain my siding to make my new Doug Fir look like an aged, rustic Log Home?

Hello,

I am wanting to purchase your products for my Douglas Fir Siding. I just need to know what colors of stain and the sealant you would recommend. My home will be rough sawn 10" wide Fir and will also have some gouges. My wish is for it to appear very rustic and quite old even though it is brand new. I plan to buy a few samples first so I can see how it looks before buying a large quantity. Any layering techniques with multiple colors etc. will be very helpful. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you

Hi,

That's going to be real neat look. 

Yes. There are ways that we achieve this. More often than not, I will use a wet on wet approach. Applying one color, then another shortly afterward. 

The colors on rough sawn fir that I would start with would probably be Cappuccino and Butter Toffee (for an aged deep brown tone with darker undertones)

The darker color goes on first, then the lighter. You want the dark tones accentuate first so they lift up through the lighter top coat of stain. 

The colors we choose depends on the look we want. If you can send me some pics of the wood now and what you want it to look like that would help narrow down the color selection. 

Best wishes,
Tom
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Hello Tom,

I would like the colors to vary from the grey to golden and dark brown. Pictures of the fir siding to follow.

Thank you!

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Example of Grey Patina stain customer wants on doug fir siding.

Example of aged log log customer wants to exemplify with a two coat stain process.

​Hi,

​The fir will give the golden reddish hues naturally when a good oil is applied to it. 

For those colors you've sent, I might lean towards Pebble Deep for the greys and I'm in the air between Butter Toffee  and Mountain Laurel Deep. 

It's hard to say how the rough sawn fir will accept the overcoat and some of it depends on how much of the reddish fir untertones you want to come through. 
I'd probably take a test board about 6' long:

1. Lime Clean (or aggressively kill mold and address extractives)
2. Mountain XT Pebble Deep (artistically applied as desired)
3. Mountain XT Butter Toffee
4. Mountain XT Mountain Laurel Deep

The way this can be tested:
1. Apply the Pebble Deep to half the board and let it dry. 
2. Stain over it with the other two colors in 6 inch sections and label. So a section of one color, space, another section of the other color. 
3. Apply Pebble Deep on the raw wood half and then in a couple hours apply the other two colors in test areas. 

This won't take long. When you done you'll know which color you like best and can play around on the back of the board to see exactly the approach you want to use on the rest of the house. 

I'm ballparking on the colors, so feel to try any colors the feel right to you. 

The Lime Clean is the best wood cleaner I know of. Both pics show wood that needs aggressive cleaning. We usually use Lime Clean on decks so I'm not sure you want to use on wood that is hung as siding. It's a white paste and not real easy to apply to siding although it works good. We use Earth Clean on siding mostly but you'd need that full strength on the beams shown in the picture. They have deeply imbedded mold that can be a problem later if not addressed at the outset. If neither of these seems feasible let me know, there are other ways to go to make sure the prep is right. 

Below are some older wood test we've done that may be helpful as comparisons. 

Best wishes,
Tom

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Wood Finish Comparison Tests: Intense UV / IR Radiation and Wood Decay Tests.