We just had to go through this decision so here's what I've learned on the subject. As I answered in one of your other threads, we have Cedar Valley installed on our house.I looked into the differences between paint, solid stain, and semi transparent stain and there's some debate on which product is superior (of course).

Paint is the most protective from the elements, but it's a surface coating. That means that it will last longer, but will peel towards the end of its life, estimated between 8-15 years. It will need to be scraped and sanded before it can be reapplied so it requires a bit more labor. Good applications include a coat of primer and at least two coats of paint. It will be the most obscuring in terms of wood grain and wood color variation.

Solid stain is second most protective from the elements and UV damage, but unlike paint, it soaks into the wood. Life is estimated between 5-10 years and unlike paint, it should fade, not peel, towards the end of its life. Application doesn't require a primer. There's some debate on whether it behaves more like a stain vs sitting on the surface like a paint with some anecdotal evidence citing peeling solid stains. It does less to hide grain texture, but obscures wood color variation well.

I'm not familiar with semi-solid stain but it probably sits between semi-transparent and solid. I think two coats of semi-solid is equal to one coat of solid so I'm not sure what the purpose is.

Semi-transparent stain is the least protective due to its low pigment content. It also soaks into wood and does very little to hide wood grain texture and wood color variation. Expected life it 3-5 years and the product will fade instead of peeling. Both solid and semi-transparent stain should be easier to reapply since no scraping or sanding is required.

You didn't mention transparent stain, which tries to preserve the wood quality while keeping the natural wood color. Least protective to UV effects, and obviously does nothing to hide woodgrain texture and color.

And then there's "weathering stain"...which is designed to give an early and uniform weathered look to natural wood shingles! -)

And of course, there's the option to leave the shingles natural and let them age naturally, which they will do safely for 100 years or more.

FWIW, I would never, ever paint natural shingles; only stain them in order to retain as much of the natural wood texture and detail as possible. As to solid stain or semi-transparent, it depends on your desires for aesthetics, weathering and durability/maintenance. Semi-solid stain sounds like either a new product base on a marketing strategy to increase sales of the product, or a couple of painters pouring a gallon of solid color and a gallon of semi-transparent into a 5-gallon can and stirring...

Dazureus...thank you for spending so much time on your explanation. I didn't even look at solid stain because I thought of that as more of a deck stain. Maybe I need to look at this stain again with that longevity. Solid stain sounds like it might be the way to go for us from your explanation. I really like the sem-transparent but i don't want to restain in 3 years.

i also have the semi solid sample coming.

i didn't even look at transparent stain as I knew we wanted a color to coordinate with our stain.

What are you using on your cedar siding? I looked at your blog.

Virgil...I googled cabots weathering stain and this is one of the images. The top three are the weathering stains you refer to when you discuss weathering stains?

We wont use paint because I want to see the wood grain. But, i do not want to go au naturale.

Thank you.

ILoveRed We're using Sherwin Williams Woodscapes in Earl Grey for the cedar siding. I think there are a few pictures of the color on my blog. The cedar trim will be painted white.

Thanks Dazureus. Is it Solid Stain? It looks very nice on that sample area that I saw.

Yeah, it's a solid stain. I got a sample of the color in a paint base, and I honestly can't tell the difference between the paint and solid stain.

Red, the creosote stains you posted are not Cabot's Weathering Stain. Creosote is not something you would consider for your house and is no longer sold in the US.

Are the shingles red or white? Either way, your shingles should be factory dipped in stain so start by looking at at samples from the manufacturer.

Cabot Weathering Stain #6244 is only one color: a silver gray. It is intended to look like shingles that have been exposed to the sun for years. It consists of linseed oil, an aliphatic petroleum distillate solvent and is lightly pigmented.

Another similar stain is Cabot Bleaching Oil #3241 which is similar to Weathering Stain but chemically accelerates the silver weathered look. Its what most architects specify for the New England area for white cedar shingles. It can be mixed with Weathering Stain.

JDS..I think the Cedar Valley are red. They send the shingles to a place here in Il and they are dipped before our supplier gets them.

Cedar Valley will use any brand and color of stain we want and send us samples. We received 2 samples (Cabot ) this week and I thought one would be a sure thing when I ordered them. Didn't like either with our stone. Back to the drawing board.

i will look at the Cabot bleaching oil. Who knew it would be so hard to pick a stain color.

hope you see this before you go.

Dazureus...thanks. The Cedar Valley rep we talked to said the solid is much like paint and last the longest and increases your warranty. This should make it a no-brainer for us too. I really want to see some wood grain, so it's not an easy decision.

Dazureus...is the cedar shingle siding from Cedar Valley red cedar or white cedar? I can't find that information anywhere.

thanks.

JDS or Virgil...or anyone else that knows. I just found several pictures of red cedar siding dipped in Cabot bleaching Oil as JDS discussed above.

I know these are pictures which may look totally different but I really Love this color.

heres my question...If you use red cedar siding and Cabot bleaching oil and this color is produced...how long does this color last?

Thanks.

ILoveRed Their website says that it's Western Red cedar. I don't have enough exposure to either varieties to confirm in person.

Linking this thread found in search so I can easily find it again. Lots of good info...

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2291135/naturally-weathered-eastern-cedar-shingles-vs-weathering-stain

ILoveRed, for the best answer to "how long does this color last", you should contact the stain manufacturer. That said, all conditions are local, and depend on the amount and frequency of rain, sun and other weather conditions.

Here's a closer shot of the sample area covered in Sherwin Williams Earl Grey solid color stain on the Cedar Valley shingle. You can still see the grain, but not the grain color and variation.

As a comparison, here's what the grain color and variation looks like.

Very nice Dazureus.