The Simple Care of Cedar

The selection of building materials is critical to the care and maintenance of your dream home. And, as you would expect, higher quality building materials are easier and more cost effective to maintain over the lifetime of the home.

Each Lindal home is built with Western red cedar. This material was chosen because:

• Western red cedar contains natural oils that act as preservatives to help the wood resist insect attack and decay.
• Cedar is also a dimensionally stable wood that lies flat and stays straight.
• Properly finished and maintained, Western red cedar ages gracefully and endures for many years.
• "Everyone who comes into this house remarks on the warmth of the wood. And maintenance is a piece of cake." Colleen and Larry Kling, Lindal homeowners in Eagle, Idaho
• When you choose to work with Lindal, you do have the option of pre-stained finishes. Ask your local Lindal dealer for the Exterior Siding Selections brochure for complete details.

Western Red Cedar Lumber Association (www.wrcla.org) recommendations on how to properly finish your new home. The surface condition of the wood can substantially affect the performance and therefore the life expectancy of the finish.

New wood should be protected from the weather before, during and after construction. It is seldom necessary to carry out extensive surface preparation providing the wood has not weathered for more than two weeks and is clean and dry. If dirt, oil and other foreign substances have contaminated it they must be removed.

When new wood has been exposed to the elements for more than 2 weeks, it is recommended to quickly prepare the surface by sanding, brushing and washing before applying the finish.

Quick Refinishing Tips: Regardless of whether your home was originally finished with a penetrating stain or a water-repellent preservative finish, be sure to remove dirt, mildew and weathered residues. Failure to do so is an open invitation for early failure of subsequently applied coatings. Care should be taken to thoroughly rinse all cleaner/restorer products from the wood. In addition, make sure that all surfaces are dry prior to application, so allow adequate time for the wood to dry before applying a finish.