Many homeowners choose to install cedar wood fences because of the rich, warm, attractive color of cedar.
Yet after a year or two, cedar fences can lose that richness of color and fade to an equally attractive silvery gray.
If you’re longing for the days when your cedar still had its characteristic rich red-brown color, did you know you can get it back with a bit of fence restoration work?
Restoring cedar is something done by fencing restoration services; however, it's also good to know that such work is not that hard for you to do.
Using the right process that includes pressure washing, you can do your own cedar fencing restoration!
Why Does Cedar Turn Gray?
Cedar is a prime choice for many types of wood fences as it’s durable, rot-resistant, sustainable, and good-looking.
Yet it’s important that anyone who does choose cedar understands that this wood weathers and changes colors over time when exposed to the elements and requires occasional fence restoration to regain and maintain its beautiful color.
Its top layer of oils are what gives cedar its warm coloration and as part of the aging process, that layer is lost due to repeated wetting and drying out.
Pressure Washing - A Critical Step in Cedar Restoration
Luckily, if you long to regain the natural color of your cedar, you can do a fencing restoration by cleaning away the dried out top layer of wood cells using a pressure washer.
When used carefully with the right nozzle and water pressure, you can scale that top layer off to reveal the true color of your cedar as a fencing restoration service would do:
- Buy or rent a pressure washer that runs at 1,500 to 2,000 PSI only, as more powerful ones are too strong and could gouge and damage the wood.
- Use a 15 or 25-degree nozzle with the pressure washer to give you enough pressure to easily clean off the top layer of dried, gray wood cells.
- Learn the correct way to use a pressure washer before starting to have complete control of it while cleaning your cedar.
- Start spraying the wood about 18” from the surface and move in closer as needed to start revealing the brighter wood beneath.
- Make multiple back and forth passes with the sprayer until you start to see the underlying clean surface; avoid doing it too quickly in one or two passes or you may gouge the wood.
Finish the Restoration With A Stain or Sealant
After you’ve thoroughly pressure washed your cedar fence and its original color is showing once again, you can leave it as it is or take steps to slow the graying process.
Leaving it as is, you should expect to repeat your fence restoration pressure washing every year or two as the cedar discolors.
As an option, you can considerably increase the amount of time between pressure washings if you use a wood sealant or semi-transparent oil stain on the cedar fence after pressure washing it and allowing it to dry completely.
Both make natural cedar more water resistant on the surface and allow the wood to retain its natural oils and color longer.
In Review
Though it is mostly maintenance-free, cedar does need occasional fence restoration if you want to maintain that rich, reddish-brown color.
With little more than a pressure washer, some stain or sealant, and time, you can easily do fencing restoration yourself and make your cedar look like new.
If you prefer, contact a local fencing restoration service that will be happy to get your cedar looking tip-top in just a few hours!
