Thanks for your question. This comes up on every project that uses cedar siding. For the project above, we used Cabots semi-transparent stain (New Cedar) for the horizontal 1x8 clear cedar rainscreen siding. As with all semi-tranparent stains over cedar, regular maintenance (every couple years depending on exposure) can be expected to keep it looking new. Cedar contains a lot of tannic acids, especially red cedar, which has the tendency to make it's way to the surface of the siding (regardless of finish). It is critical that the cedar be prepped properly prior to applying any finish. It's often ideal to let the cedar weather a little bit to allow the tannic acids to come to the surface. At that point the cedar can be thoroughly cleaned and dried prior to applying the stain. On the project above we strategically located the clear/ semi-transparent cedar on the least exposed portions of the house. We used an opaque stain over tight-knot cedar on the SW side of the house to minimize maintenance and costs for the more exposed areas of the house. A different strategy altogether is to avoid the constant battle and leave the cedar bare and apply no finish. This is my personal preference and the decision I made for the western red cedar shingles on my own house. They will silver, stain and weather according to their exposure to rain and sun but I personally like the variation and natural patina. There is also a misconception about needing to put finish on cedar siding to preserve it and have it perform well over the long haul. Cedar is very good at protecting itself with it's natural tannins (which are what we spend so much time trying to cover up) and assuming that it is milled and applied properly with the appropriate exposure and thickness, I wouldn't expect it to need replaced until a new homeowner who hates the look of natural cedar buys it and puts vinyl siding over top of it! Hope this helps.

Just realized your were asking more specifically about the vertical cedar siding (T&G). The same holds true for it (as mentioned above) with the only difference being that we used a semi-transparent Cabot stain (Spanish Moss) that had a little more pigment than the 'New Cedar' finish we used on the horizontal cedar.

did you have to order the rain screen cedar custom made ? what is the difference between plain vanilla T&G and rain screen?

thank you!

The cedar material is the same as used in traditional installation (can be T&G, lap or horizontal with gaps between boards). The rain screen is the type of installation. See the following comment for more information: [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/what-is-the-horizontal-and-vertical-rainscreen-are-the-corners-mitered-dsvw-vd~246746?n=3[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/what-is-the-horizontal-and-vertical-rainscreen-are-the-corners-mitered-dsvw-vd~246746?n=3)