A red window surrounded by aged cedar shingle siding

Cedar is a gorgeous natural wood that can be used as a beautiful addition to the exterior of your home. It’s often produced in the form of beveled boards, but can also be made into shingles and other shapes. Although beautiful, it’s not a very common material used for siding. One upside to this is that, if you choose to use Cedar for your siding, that your home will stand out with its unique beauty. If you’re having a hard time deciding whether or not Cedar siding is right for you and your home, check out our list of pros and cons.

PROS:

Environmentally Friendly

The three most popular siding materials in the US are cement, vinyl, and cedar. Of the three, cedar has the lowest rates of energy consumption and greenhouse gas production. It’s also a renewable resource, as trees are constantly growing. This makes cedar the obvious choice for anyone aware of the environment.

Durability

Cedar weathers extremely well. It will hold up against a number of exterior forces, including both weather and impact.

Aesthetic and scent

Aside from the fact that cedar is much more beautiful to look at than either vinyl or cement, it also has an incredibly pleasant scent that will stick around long after its original installation. It doesn’t matter what your style is, there will be a form of cedar siding that will perfectly fit into your home aesthetic.

Manipulative material

You can do almost anything with cedar. It can be bent and shaped to fit almost anything that you could possibly think of. Despite this, it’s very durable and high-impact. It naturally has low resin and pitch, which means it will respond well to any sort of stain or paint you want to apply to it. You can truly use cedar to do absolutely anything that you want with the exterior of your home.

CONS:

Level of maintenance

This is honestly the only downside to having cedar siding for your home. We’ve mentioned that cedar is incredibly durable and weatherproof, and will last quite a long time on your home. It’s incredibly straightforward as well, but it’s not the lowest maintenance material you could use for your home. It requires a full treatment every five to ten years. The exact time frame will depend on the weather. However, this doesn’t mean that cedar siding is necessarily high maintenance, and most people are willing to accept this for the number of pros that cedar siding holds.