Cedar Siding Repair Services
Cracks, rot, and worn cedar siding don’t just look bad — they leave your home open to moisture, pests, and other damage. Our cedar siding repair service restores the beauty and strength of your home’s exterior. Paying for proper repairs now can save you from expensive replacements down the line.
Cedar Siding Repair: Spec & Costs
You're busy. Here is what actually matters, from our own job records - not marketing copy.
The replacement spec
- Failed shingles and siding stripped; plywood decking below catches every piece; debris hauled, dump fees included.
- New building paper first - replacing shingles over old torn paper is cosmetic, not repair.
- Pre-primed sidewall shingles, starter course, woven corners - the traditional spec Vancouver's originals were built with.
- Cut ends sealed, then primed and painted into your existing scheme by the same team.
Cedar fails quietly
Cedar siding rarely announces failure - it curls slightly, holds moisture against the paper, and rots the sheathing behind it while looking "rustic." By the time a board is soft to thumb pressure, the paper behind it has usually been compromised for years. Catching it at the curl stage is a section repair; catching it at the soft stage can be an elevation.
What we'll tell you up front
- We may find more rot above the first floor once we're up there - height carve-outs are stated in the quote.
- Repairs are based on what's visible at the estimate; hidden sheathing damage is priced when exposed, with your sign-off.
These lines come straight from our written estimates. Contractors who don't say them up front bill you for them later.
Recent Work
From Our Job Files
Recent cedar siding projects, described the way they were scoped. Names and addresses stay private.
What can change the price after the quote
- The quote is a fixed written price for the section we measured. It moves only if what is behind the siding moves - and you see it before we go further.
- Sheathing or framing that is soft once the shingles are off: shown to you, priced per area, repaired before the new paper goes on.
- Bevel profiles that are no longer stocked and have to be special-ordered to match the existing wall.
- Extending the repair to the next course or the next wall once the first one is open and the pattern is obvious.
- Paint on the whole elevation rather than the repaired section, if you want the wall to read as one colour.
What We Run Into With Vancouver Cedar Siding
Cedar shingle and bevel siding shows up in more than a hundred of our exterior scopes, most of them in Kitsilano, West Point Grey, Mount Pleasant, Riley Park, South Cambie and Kerrisdale houses built before 1950. The wood itself usually outlasts the paint; what fails is the bottom courses, the walls that face south and west, and any section where a gutter, a planter or a hedge kept it wet.
Section replacement. We cut out the failed area to a clean line, check the sheathing, lay new building paper, and re-shingle with No. 2 pre-primed sidewall shingles: starter course, corners woven, exposures matched to the existing wall. Bevel siding is matched by profile; when a profile is no longer stocked we show you the closest match before ordering.
Rot at the edges. Knees, window sills, fascia and the casing bottoms next to the repair are checked and fixed with Rot-Fix epoxy or new wood in the same visit, so the paint goes on once.
Animals. Raccoons and woodpeckers open holes in cedar; we close the wall structurally, then re-side, and coordinate with pest control before the last course goes on.
Finish. Two coats on new wood, spot-and-finish on the old, in Sherwin-Williams Duration or Benjamin Moore Aura; Sansin where the cedar is stained rather than painted.
Cedar Siding Questions We Get Every Week
Short answers from the crew.
Can you repair a section, or does the whole wall come off?
A section, almost always. We cut to a clean line, weave the new shingles into the old and match the exposure. Whole-wall replacement is for walls where the sheathing has gone too.
Will the repair be visible?
Pre-primed shingles painted with the rest of the wall disappear. On stained or natural cedar the new wood is lighter for a season or two; we can tone it to blend.
What goes behind the new siding?
New building paper, flashing at windows and horizontal joints, and a starter course at the bottom. If the sheathing is soft it is replaced first.
Do you paint or stain after the repair?
Yes - two coats on the new wood, spot-and-finish on the old, in Duration or Aura, or Sansin on stained cedar. One crew does the carpentry and the paint.
How long does it take?
Two to four days for a typical section with the neighbouring sills, knees and fascia repaired. Larger south-facing walls with scaffold run a week.
What is the warranty?
Two years on workmanship from completion, covering both the carpentry and the paint on the repaired area.
Who wrote this. The Renaissance crew, from our own job files. Owner Eric Goodwill is a Red Seal Painter and Decorator and has run the company since 1992. More about Eric
Ready To Start Your Project?
Free phone consultation with ballpark pricing - just send us a few photos.
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