Super White Cedar Shingles: Worth the Cost?

White cedar contains natural oils that protect the Maibec shingles on homes like this from insects, mold, and decay. Photo: Maibec Sidings

White cedar shingles protect a building from the elements, have a small environmental footprint, are easy to maintain, and they look good.

After a long summer of too much rain followed by too much heat, I am finally able start painting the clapboards on our house. The house desperately needs it, but I don't look forward to the prepping, scraping, caulking, and eventual painting. It got me thinking: what siding would I choose if I were starting over with a new home? (Hey, I can dream.) The answer was simple for me...white cedar shingles.

Problems with paint

Most wood needs to be coated repeatedly over its lifespan to prevent damage from moisture, insects, and various fungi. And though there are still low-toxic, old-fashioned options like lime paint, most paints or stains are petroleum-based, requiring significant amounts of materials and energy for their manufacture, distribution, and application. The environmental impact of maintaining a simple pine siding over its lifespan can be substantial.

Built in protection

White cedar shingles--made from either Northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) or Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides)--offer an alternative to painting clapboards. These shingles contains oils called thujaplicins that act as natural preservatives and protect the wood from insects, mold, and other creatures that cause normal wood to rot.

Moisture management

White cedar is also moisture resistant. It has a naturally low moisture content, yet it does not absorb moisture like most other wood. And once the shingles dry, they "stabilize" to resist cracking and splitting. Untreated, they only need to air dry, so no kiln drying is necessary, saving the manufacturing energy that other woods typically require.

Good looks

Untreated white cedar shingles will last for years, weathering to an attractive silver-gray patina, but the color can also fade to darker colors too, depending on UV and rain exposure. Fortunately, these shingles also accept stain very well. With many wood species, such as pine, special coatings have to be applied to prevent tannins from bleeding through paints or stains. The oils in white cedar do not act like tannins, so if you don't like the design options afforded by a graying shingle, they can be stained almost any color.

A coating of water-borne, low-VOC stain will provide color options and provide additional protection against the elements, giving white cedar shingles a lifespan of about 50 years. Photo: Maibec Sidings.

Will it really last?

While all of this natural protection is great, Maibec still recommends two coats of its low-VOC, opaque waterborne stain. With treatment, the company offers an impressive 50-year warranty against rot on its shingles; no treatment, no warranty. Other companies, such as Liberty Cedar and Koenig Cedaroffer untreated shingles, but you can often get them pretreated by the manufacturer.

And it's available with FSC certification

Our GreenSpec Directory only lists FSC-certified white cedar, so all of the products here are not only environmentally responsible to install and maintain, they also come from forests that are sustainably managed. They are solid environmental competitors when looking at any siding option .

So...how much are these going to set me back?

Yes, you are going to pay a premium for white cedar shingles. These are more expensive to purchase and install than most siding options, but the lack of maintenance and good looks might just add to the value of the home, offsetting first costs. Note that white cedar is available in three grades, A, B, and C. Maibec's A-grade has "no imperfections," B has "no imperfections on exposed face," and C has "sound knots on exposed face" and "contrasting tones." So if you are willing to put up with a little imperfection, you can save some money and still have a low-maintenance sustainable siding.

Brent Ehrlich is the products editor at BuildingGreen, Inc.