# Protecting Pine Siding



## djhnd (Jul 11, 2013)

We cut and milled several 50+ year old Northern White Pine trees here at the southern edge of the Catskill mountains in NY. We had the wood milled - rough cut - in order to repair and re-side an old barn on the property.

One side of the barn faces west, a marsh, and gets a lot of weather and sun coming from that direction.

I have been all over the web reading about this, and there is a wide range of answers: don't use pine (not an option), use motor oil or diesel fuel, boiled linseed works fine, boiled linseed doesn't work at all, do nothing. Most responses are made six months after something's been applied, or "farmer John up the road put his treatment on 40 years ago and it's still fine."

I don't want to paint it. It's always been natural wood color, and we like it that way.

I don't want to spend $150 for a five gallon bucket, either.

So far, I am leaning towards 75% boiled linseed oil and 25% turpentine I've read about. 

Suggestions? Advice? Thanks!


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## Wis Bang 2 (Jan 12, 2010)

Restoring wood & canvas canoes they sometimes used boiled linseed, sometimes w/ turp to put something back into wood that has been drying out for years. Not everyone was convinced it did any good. They do sell protective coatings for wood, I remember 'painting' wooden cabins at the scout camp for O/A w/ this thin smelly brown stuff. The camp applied it every few years.


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## Brighton (Apr 14, 2013)

Spend the money and get a couple of gallons of X-100! Put it on this year and again next year, then you can take a couple of years off.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Keep it out of the rain (long enough overhang) and you don't need anything on it. If water can get on it, you'll need something. Unless the wood is bone dry, I would let it dry first, before painting it with some type of preservative (oil/turpentine/etc.)


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Use what is used on a log cabin. I used the one with a little cedar stain, on the board and batten on the cabins I built. First 2 years and nothing since, some are 8 years old now. We really like how it has weathered but still looks natural but protected....James


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## oakridgewi (Dec 12, 2006)

Waste motor oil mixed with a little fuel oil for penatration. It is cheap, plentiful, lends a nice brown color. Not sure about on pine, but on my oldest red oak sided building, (about 15-20 yrs old), it's only needed redoing once or twice.

I know, I can hear all the yipping about toxicity and all that carp. My take is, I wouldn't wanna drink any of the commercial produced stuff either. And my mix don't cost $30 a gal or more.

Try it on a piece of scrap and see if you like it.


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

I am in the same boat,I am unsure what do with mine, I have used motor oil on different scrap boards and i like the color, I used a dirty Diesel oily and a fairly clean gas motor oil, Got a different look with both, leaning toward used diesel oil.

I have also heard do nothing it'll last 50 to 100 years. 

Mine is made from Hemlock.


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## djhnd (Jul 11, 2013)

Re: overhang, that would be fine if we were redoing the roof, but we are redoing the siding and some structural elements, since we got plenty of 2 x 4, 4 x 4, 6 x 6, and even some 8 x 8s out of our trees.

The orientation of the barn, and the whole property is such that the west face of our buildings tend to take direct hits from storms that come over the marsh we're adjacent to.

I'm hesitant to go the motor oil route, since the barn is literally feet from the marsh. So far I'm sticking with the notion of proceeding on a 80:20 Boiled Linseed:Turpentine. 

However, with Board and Batten siding touching the ground, I may have to apply something else to the bottom two feet. I'd have gone with creosote except for all the stuff I've read about how nasty it is. But I still will need something cheap, even for that.

(I suspect Pine is softer and less sturdy than hemlock.)


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Touching the ground, all bets are off. I've had heart cypress (naturally rot resistant) rot, when in contact with dirt. Now, most all of my outbuilding projects are built up off the ground... high enough for chickens to wander under, to eat any insects that might want to chew on the wood.


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