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Cedar Loving

Pretty much from day one we’ve wanted to clad our house in cedar. We love it and think it’s perfect for the home we’re building and the setting it’s in. Yummo!

We hunted around a lot to find the style of cedar that we wanted and came across Rosenfeld Kidson. Mark Liggins and the team there are awesome and have been so good to work with, putting up with our continual requests for more info, samples and colours. Until we settled upon our dream combination. A mixture of horizontal and vertical shiplap boards. Using a profile that has a centre groove to provide the appearance of a narrower profile, which we wanted, but with the benefit of being faster to install and requiring less material.

In case you want to know the specifics, we’re going with:

Horizontal boards – RKA766 ex200x22mm (161×18.5mm finish)
Vertical boards – RK59 ex200x22mm (165×18.5mm finish)

In the new driftwood colour by Dryden WoodOil, with a dressed face (super smooth vs band-sawn finish) and vertical grain.

We're going to use our cedar cladding in both vertical and horizontal directions, too add texture and interest with the same material.

We’re going to use our cedar cladding in both vertical and horizontal directions, adding texture and interest with the same material. Plus it just looks damn sexy!

Some of the different profiles we considered. Settling on the centre one, as it provides us with the narrow board look we want, while being efficient to install and reduces material costs too. Boom, a win win right there.

Some of the different profiles we considered. Settling on the centre one, as it provides us with the narrow board look, while being efficient to install and reduces material costs too.

Detail of the centre groove boards we have chosen.

Detail of the centre groove boards we have chosen.

9 Comment
  1. In your laundry, it appears to show storage on the bathroom side and washing machine / dryer on the bedroom side, in my opinion they would be better reversed, 1. As currently laid out, it prevents you from using the wash / dryer at night as soon as you have a guest or during the day / night if you have a baby in the next door bedroom, you will get noise transfer through the wall 2. keeps your plumbing together

    • Thanks Paul, you’ve made a very valid point. Had been messing round with the laundry layout based upon door location and it’s symmetrical balance down the hallway, also ensuring when the door is left open, you can’t see into it whilst walking over the glass bridge or from the living area. We’re using a high performing plasterboard with great sound insulation, http://knaufplasterboard.co.nz/opal but we’ll look at reconfiguring the laundry with your points in mind. Thanks!

  2. Hi Ben,
    The house is looking fantastic and really enjoying the progress. We are exploring different wood options for cladding. With the cedar you have chosen – how often would you be expecting to re oil it? Or will you let it go natural. Thanks

    • Hey Jo, thanks for getting in touch. And thank you, we’re pretty stoked with how the house is coming together. The cedar is so beautiful. Our timber supplier, Rosenfeld Kidson, supplied it with one coat of oil applied in the factory. We then had to apply a second coat once on the house, within 90 days. As the scaffolding was still up and we have a smooth, dressed profile, it went on very easily and quickly, between Kylie and I we did the bedroom pod in well under a day, with plenty of coffee and food breaks!

      Rosenfeld Kidson have advised us that we should give it a soft wash just with broom and water once a year. In year two, they recommend you touch up any areas that are showing signs of silvering off. Then they have said to keep it looking as good as new, a coat of oil every five years. Something I’m happy to do to keep the beautiful colour of the timber, vs having it silver off.

      Hope that helps! Are you building or renovating/re-caldding?

  3. Thanks for your reply. We have our plans to build but at this stage have a macrocarpa wooden rain screen which has gaps in between. Just concerned with having the gaps and our major problem down south of rural cluster flies. Thinking the gap may be a place for them to hide which could be a problem.
    Will look more into the cedar cladding – looks great and a similar look we are going for. Thanks for your help and all the best.

    • Hey Jo, Mum & Dad are still on the farm in Southland and are inundated with cluster flies, so know second hand how troublesome they are! Have a chat to Rosenfeld Kidson, they’re based in Christchurch too, and have been awesome to deal with and provide great solutions and suggestions. They supply a lot more than cedar too. Good luck!

  4. Hi guys!
    House looks stunning! How did you decide between dressed faced or bandsawn? I love the look of dressed faced but some suppliers have suggested bandsawn is better. What did your suppliers recommend? Was it more expensive?
    Even your bricks look great! Enjoy your beautiful home. We hope to build one day…
    Cheers!!!

    • Hey Renee, thank you!
      For us it was an aesthetic decision. We wanted a sleek look and had hesitation with the band sawn finish as it can bring a bit of a bush hut vibe with it. The cost was the same either way and the suppliers said performance would be just the same too. I know some people say a fully dressed board can be more susceptible to cupping and warping. We haven’t found that to be the case with very minimal distortion, if any. However we have oiled it as per the supplier’s specs, which means it now has had three full coats over the past 2 years. This prevents/minimises warping/cupping etc as well as keeping it waterproof, and these early applications are key to ensuring this. A happy result of a dressed face is that it’s very easy to oil as your brush slides over effortlessly.
      Hope that helps. All the best!
      Cheers, Ben

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