Protecting your cedar cladding
The most popular external cladding for a garden room, by far is Western Red Cedar. Cedar cladding is popular because it is low maintenance – it has a natural resistance to rot and fungal attack. It also has strong aesthetic appeal thanks to its rich reddish brown colour. However as the cedar cladding is exposed to sunlight it will weather to a silver grey. How long this will take depends on its exposure.
Some professional garden room suppliers offer the option of applying a UV oil to preserve the original colour. The oil also adds a real richness to the cladding.
Millworks a timber cladding specialist we mention in The Self Build Garden Room Guide have sent us some photos of cedar cladding at three stages. The first shows the newly milled cedar cladding when the colour is at its natural richest, before any exposure:
This second one shows cedar with a UV oil applied:
This last one is untreated cedar that has been exposed to sunlight for just a couple of months. You can see that the original richness is already starting to fade. As the months go by this will become very silvery:
If you want to preserve the original colour of your cedar cladding Millworks suggest you apply 2 coats of OSMO Clear UV Oil before you install the cladding. You then re-coat the cladding every 1 to 2 years. You will find that the different elevations of your garden room will weather at different rates depending on their exposure.
OSMO UV Clear Oil is available in 0.75 litre and 2.5 litre tins. 1 litre will cover 18 square meters of cladding.