Background: This ranch backs up to the Absaroka Mountain Range. The wood homes on the property were built up on top of a hill exposing them to weather blowing up the valley from Yellowstone National Park. After years of withstanding direct sun, strong winds, deep snow, and occasional hail storms, the exterior wood clearly needed some care. When we showed up, the wood was bone dry. The south and west sides showed significant sun bleaching in the form of bright white patches and burnt black spots. The north and east sides had water damage down low on the walls and along the rooflines where snow piled up for half the year. 

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Prep Process: We started by addressing all of the weathered/damaged wood around each of the 4 homes. We power washed the entire exterior of every building using TSP on any area that had green or black growth. We also blasted the bright-white, chalky layer that formed on the sun-bleached areas on the most sun-affected sides. We scrubbed any sunburned wood with wood conditioner to bring back some of the natural wood color and open up the pores again. This particular homeowner liked the rustic look of their siding, so we focused our prep work on repairing the damaged areas rather than trying to fully refurbish the wood to its original look. 

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Staining Process: Our crew started by masking anything that we didn't want to stain including windows, metal doors, fixtures, etc. We had a few workers hand-brushing the cedar oil stain onto the roof fascia while others sprayed and back-brushed stain onto the siding, soffits, and trim. We made sure to work the stain into the wood with brushes to ensure it penetrated deep and soaked in properly. After the first coat had thoroughly soaked in and dried, we applied additional coats to only the spots that remained dry enough to accept more stain. Our crew pulled all the masking, completed a thorough cleanup, and stepped back to admire our fully sealed masterpiece.