Exposed White Pine Siding/Pine Tar
Hello all, we are building a house in Southeast Michigan. Framing is getting started in about a week, likely not done and ready for siding until late October if not early November. We are using a 3/4″ rain screen and tongue/groove white Pine siding over that. The intent is to coat that with Pine Tar once it’s up. Given that it won’t be up until November and that pine tar doesn’t like to go on cold… I’m concerned that I will need to wait until a warm day in April or May to apply it, leaving the bare pine on all winter. Is there any concern with doing this, being that it’s over a rain screen? I will ask our pine tar supplier as well. I know a lot of folks here like pine siding and some have used pine tar so I figured I would ask here. The supplier recommended putting the pine tar on once the siding is up.
Thanks!
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Tim, I've used pine tar on both white pine and hemlock siding and timbers - in each case, we've pre-stained the siding with one coat prior to installation, then stained again after installation. It's important to be sure end grain, tongues and grooves, are stained in advance to limit water wicking and keep the color consistent. It does flow and absorb best in warm temperatures - but we've also worked with it in cool weather - it just takes longer to dry. My pine tar vendor says the product can be warmed up for use in cool weather, but I haven't tried that. We do keep a small brush and tar handy for staining fresh sawn edges, notches, but-outs, etc while installing siding as well.
Ok, thanks for the info! What is your technique for staining in advance? Between the garage and house, I've got just over 9,000 linear feet of siding. I've heard about using a crockpot or similar to warm it up while using it. But it takes 72+ hours to dry, I'm afraid if it gets to freezing overnight, it won't work well at all.