• Properly installed cedar siding can last for years.house siding 3 image by Psycience from Fotolia.com
  
  Cedar siding provides a durable wooden cladding for building structures that is naturally resistant to bug and water damage. While many people leave it unfinished, painted cedar siding is also quite common and may even outlast its unfinished counterpart. By taking a few precautions when installing cedar siding, you can extend the life of your siding by years.
  
  

Back Prime

• If you are painting the siding or just giving it a clear coat, do the same to the back side of the siding. This will prevent any water that makes it behind the siding from easily penetrating the wood, leading to rotting or cupped cedar siding.
  
  

Flash Butt Joints

• Where the ends of two pieces of siding butt together, be sure to place a piece of black vinyl flashing behind the joint. The flashing should be placed on top of the course of siding below the joint and extend from the bottom of the new course to the top to prevent any moisture that enters the joint from making its way behind the siding.
  
  

Nail Studs

• Even if the house is sheathed in plywood, be sure to nail into studs to proved maximum holding power. Nails driven in plywood alone tend to pull loose after a couple of years of weather-related expansion and contraction.
  
  

Proper Siding Nails

• Use small-head, galvanized nails designed for siding. These nails will either have ring shanks or a twisted flute pattern. Regular ring shank nails that are used for framing have too large of a head. Do not use trim nails as their lack of heads makes it easy for the wood to pull away from the wall during expansion phases.
  
  

Spacing Jig

• Use a jig to ensure proper spacing between the bottoms of successive rows of siding. The jig can just be a longer piece of wood with a smaller piece nailed to one end in such a way that when the smaller piece hooks the bottom of a piece of siding, the next course of siding will sit on top of the other end of the longer piece. This saves much time by not having to pop lines for every piece of siding on the building.
  
  

Hand Drive

• When you are installing cedar siding, leave the air nailers in the truck. Siding nails should be set flush with the surface of the siding and not counter sunk below the surface. Counter sunk nails crush the wood fibers and provide a place for water to penetrate the wood as well as reduce the holding power of the nail.