I've stripped and stained lots of decks, but never siding. This shows new stain being applied.

Plenty of info available via a bit of searching and reading.

Benjamin Moore says it's too soon to use their "Remove" product, so that's off the list. What else can we do? The color is so dark and red and I hate my dream home. :(

Whats the actual superdeck product? Is it the oil or waterbase and semi Trans or other

It's the Superdeck Modified-Oil Semi-Transparent, but applied with two coats. :( I'm so upset by how dark and red it is, and afraid that even a light sanding will remove the zinc from the galvanized nails. I've experimented with bleach and mineral spirits -- they did nothing.

post a picture to see whats going on. will probably need to be stripped

Yes...do not consider sanding unless you want to add thousands of rust spots to the siding. I will also caution you that trying to remove the finish on the siding with a bleach or other remover may result in a mottled look when you reapply stain. I think your choices are: 1) live with it and hope it weathers nicely; or 2) stain it with a semi-transparent or opaque stain in a color similar to what you were imagining this would look like; or 3) paint it.

This is what it looks like. We wanted a much lighter color and much less red I guess we are going to see how it weathers. Here's the siding and the approved sample.

Let it weather for now. And then strip it and restain it

Thanks. Strip it with the Benjamin Moore "Remove" when it's weathered a bit?

Yes there others as well I'll sending you names

I know the color is not what you wanted, but I like it. However, since my house is painted red, with some black contrast walls, I may be biased.

Lol, that may be a slight bias. I know, everyone thinks it's fine, but we've always imagined it a honey brown, so seeing redwood is a shock.

basically the same thing happened with our builder and our cedar posts and cross beam on our porch, but they just say they could never have guaranteed a color (even though we have gotten their painter/stainer guy to admit they never should have used the stain color they did when we asked to keep it looking as natural and light as possible). they supposedly used an Old Masters wood stain and some kind of sealant.

did you ever find a good method to remove the stain? our posts are still rough/raw and the trim at the bottom and corners is smooth so we are unsure how to handle the rough portions or what sanding technique would work best.

So, I originally posted this in Feb, 2022. Now, in August 2023 ,the stain is peeling, just as the manufacturer said it would with two coats. Still no good solution from anyone. It has gotten a little less red, but still darker and redder than I ever would have wanted. We're going to continue to let it age and peel and then lightly sand and try to add more brown to the newly exposed wood

Make sure you don't end up hitting the galvanized nail heads with the sander or you will have an even worse appearance when the nails rust. You might consider going over the deck with a nail set and setting at least some of the nails a bit deeper before using the sander.

Ugh what a nightmare. And why superdeck, isn’t that made for, well decks? At least Sherwin Williams has a different stain for decks and vertical surfaces. Sorry I have no solutions though, how frustrating. I assume your builder is helping?

I would try to pressure wash it. It should remove just a small bit of the outside down to the clean wood. I used this to get logs to lolooking nice after they fade. And should work for this

We're going to let it go another year to see how the color ends up fading too, then try to pressure wash and restain to our chosen (light brown) color.

" One option is to use a grinder. This is the best way to remove the stain of large, flat looks. Just make sure you reach 120 grit or higher and sand until the stain is gone. "

Ronnie Jones What? A Grinder on Cedar Siding?

Yeah I don't think that would work very well either, maybe a soft wire wheel on it . But a ton of work and would be really dusty but maybe he knows how

This is question not comment - arent there strippers made for exterior deck stains? I used a deck wash once to clean a fence prior to re staining and even that took out a bit of color... although it wasnt completely or evenly removed.

I do not mean to hijack your post, but it seems like a good place to add another example. We are dealing with this exact same issue. Bright red stain on brand new cedar siding after being VERY clear we did not want red at all costs. Our contractor used 2 coats the same day he put the boards up. Besides the ridiculously ugly color, I am unsure what problems we should anticipate, as I am reading there should only be 1 coat and that waiting for the wood to dry before putting a stain on is essential. I will post any solutions we try-hopefully that will help others.

Green, knowing how little console there was from other people's opinion on this, but the color of yours looks lovely compared to ours, and your home is absolutely gorgeous.

Since that application about 1.5 years ago, our wood has started to peel very badly but everyone is saying it's just wood being wood. Now we have to somehow sand it down and restain it, but how to get it to the color we wanted and not the color we ended up with.

There were many tears when I saw my house too. The red is slowly fading, but it still has that redwood color in most lights. We're hoping it continues to wash out and then we can work in the honey-brown we wanted over a few decades. :(

Again - there are in fact deck and exterior wood stain strippers, why not just remove it? Or, if you have or can get some pieces you can experiment on - you might try a semi-transparent green stain over it. Green + red = brown.

Sorry Debbie - I missed your initial response. All our windows have black aluminum trim that we worry will be ruined by the chemicals, while other sections go up against our stone sections, so they can't get right up to those areas - a stone chimney and large section of the front of the house is stone.