So I’ve started staining the shingles. I really wanted to do as much pre-work as possible before putting these shingles up. There is generally 110 shingles per bundle and I coated my first bundle a week ago. Then I started hearing stories about how to seal shingles.Â
 
The first story came from a recent episode of The Handy Guys, where they talk about a 3 coat seal on shingles. In this episode Brian mentions that he coats his siding every two years, and I just cringed inside when I heard that. He was trying to protect his #3 coat though so maybe the job can be stretched to every 4 or 5 years. I’m 2 seconds from 50, and I can just see myself climbing scaffolding to stain siding that begins 16 feet off of the ground. Oh well.  I hope to keep it’s natural color for the next 10 to 15 years, and after that, we’re looking at a paint job. Then there is the issue of how to seal the individual shingles themselves. There are all sorts of opinions on the issue, the consensus is to give each shingle at least one doublesided coat of sealant to prevent cupping. Here are some more links to articles about staining and sealing cedar shakes.
 The Perils of Installing Shakes with Stain – http://www.soundhome.com/qa/siding/treating-shake-and-shingle-siding
The Stain Decision – http://www.oldhousejournal.com/magazine/2002/july/stain.shtml
Why You’d Want To Stain The Back – http://rochester.ynn.com/content/top_stories/?RegionCookie=2134&ArId=352559