Get up to 15% off select Shou Sugi Ban profiles — premium charred wood siding
Get up to 15% off select Shou Sugi Ban profiles — premium charred wood siding
Last week we covered the first step in selecting shou sugi ban siding for your project–choosing a surface type. Once you make that decision, it’s time to select an oil prefinish. This will determine the overall color, tone and sheen of your siding as well as make it more durable. It is critical to note that the shou sugi ban charring technology was developed for better durability without an oil finish. However, read on to understand why most people choose to have an oil finish applied to their shou sugi ban.
Oil finishes have three functions in our world: to match the wood color to your design vision, to slow down color weathering and fading over time, and to seal in soot from the burning process. There have been dramatic changes in oil formulations over the past 20 years, with traditional monomer oils replaced with high-urethane formulations, solvent carriers replaced with water carriers, and various longevity enhancers such as reflective silicone. Different pigment colors have gone in and out of fashion as well, such as reddish pigments popular in the 1990’s having since gone out of style in favor of more blacks, grays and browns today.
A major factor in wood longevity is UV protection, because shou sugi ban will eventually wear out after 80-150 years due to surface wood fiber UV degradation and plank thickness erosion. All oil finishes offer at least 95% UV protection simply from dried oil residue on the wood surface so will protect the wood from UV exposure and increase the siding’s lifespan. Exterior grade oil finishes have visible and invisible pigments that bring this up to near 100% since pigments are the main ingredient in oils for UV protection.
Higher UV protection results in delayed weathering of the wood fibers, but at the sacrifice of the oil finish. Therefore siding has re-oiling as a periodic maintenance. The more re-oiling maintenance done over the siding’s lifetime, the longer it will last.
Depending on the wood surface selected, you may have multiple oil formula options available. Formulas generally fall into one of two categories: traditional oils or waterborne oils. Traditional oils are monomers that oxidize into a polymer after application. Waterborne oils are basically halfway between an oil and a paint. Traditional oils are semi-transparent and will fade in color gradually as they weather. Waterborne oils will often stay the same pigment color until the oil erodes off the wall.
We offer both traditional linseed and waterborne alkyd oils for these two categories. We make all of our formulas from oil pressed from plant seeds such as linseed, tung, and soybean. It is recommended that customers don’t think about this too much. Simply choose whichever sample swatch or product photo you think is the best fit!
We offer four different surface options for wood siding. Unburned Sugi cypress, traditional charred Suyaki, brushed Gendai, and twice-brushed Pika-Pika. Depending on which surface is chosen, various color options are available.
Suyaki is only available in black, with the two different oil prefinish options dependent on whether or not it will be installed on the exterior or interior. If you’re looking for a traditional, textured black look, you can’t go wrong with Suyaki!
Gendai is naturally a rich brown color, with the charred grain slightly peeking out from the surface. It is available in a range of blacks, browns, greys and white, and usually matches to any siding project without issue. Gendai® with Black oil prefinish has been our most popular selling product for several years, both in Japan and North America. Not so much because it makes a unique statement, it simply looks really good for a long time.
Pika-Pika is wire-brushed and has the lightest natural tone out of our charred wood products. It has a pronounced grain pattern that can be stained with an oil finish to a variety of different colors.
Once you’ve narrowed your shou sugi ban options down by surface, you can begin to decide which color of siding you’d like. Our team is very experienced with guiding customers to the right options based on project details, so please don’t hesitate to give us a call regardless of where you are in the decision making process. The most effective way to compare colors and surfaces is to order product samples. Choose the formula and color you like best since all Nakamoto Forestry shou sugi ban products are crafted to last a lifetime.
Learn more useful tips for yakisugi installation and maintenance on our YouTube channel
Putting it All Together
It is challenging to specialize in natural building materials since they are more inconsistent than engineered materials. Every single tree will have wood with different density, grain, and color characteristics. Each stick of wood from that tree will be primarily heartwood at one end and sapwood at the other. This makes the sampling process incredibly challenging. Small samples rarely paint a full visual picture of the product spanning an entire wall. Engineered materials are processed and more visually consistent, but they are not as beautiful or wholesome as natural materials.
Color and tone variation in our natural wood products is one of their most desirable characteristics, but it’s also a subject most people have a lot of questions about. We hope that by sharing our knowledge of how wood anatomy factors into the unique appearance of each final product it will help garner greater appreciation for the beauty and visual play of wood products across the board. The most important thing to remember is that change over time is considered beautiful with natural materials. For those who prefer a uniform siding that will stay the same color throughout its lifetime, painted wood products are probably a better fit. However, if beauty and natural textures are your drivers in choosing a cladding then natural wood siding can’t be beat.
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