Pre-primed clear cedar
This is the top grade of cedar siding, already primed for you. This product does need a topcoat of paint, but you are saved the step of priming it yourself.
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Clear cedar
This is the top unprimed grade of cedar siding.
It looks great, with its tight vertical grain. A coat
of semi-transparent stain brings out the beauty
of this product, and the grain also helps minimize warping over the years. Solid stain also can add
to the appearance of this siding, depending upon the look you want.
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Cedar Ayes
This is the midgrade cedar siding, with what
is called a flat grain. The grain does not have
the same close, parallel look of the clear vertical grain (CVG). Most often, this is used with a solid stain or a paint. (More on Paint versus Stain.)
It is still an attractive siding, and is less costly
than the clear.

Sometimes ayes are installed backwards, so
that the rougher side is out. This is not really
the intent of the mills when they plane the wood, but this doesn't stop people from preferring the rougher side. (It is cheaper to go with a rustic clapboard,though, if you prefer a rough siding.)
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Rustic Cedar
The rustics share a similar grain to the Ayes,
but are not planed. They are rough sawn, which means a rougher texture. In some cases, this
is the perfect look for your home. They cost less than the ayes, because they are not milled nearly as much. It is usual to see these clapboards
with a coat of semi-transparent stain,though sometimes a solid stain can be used also, depending on the desired look. For more on semitransparent vs. solid stain, click here

Finger Jointed Primed cedar
This is another grade of clear cedar, but instead of single, solid pieces, the clapboards are pieced together with fingerjoints. A fingerjoint is a way to glue together two pieces of wood so that they almost seamlessly become one piece. This allows the mills to create pieces without knots or irregularities, and to sell longer lengths (a good thing when you're covering a wall). These clapboards are then preprimed, so that installation is fast and easy.
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Pine
We also stock pine clapboards, and they are the least expensive of them all. These must be taken care of more than the cedar, though. Pine does not have the same level of natural resistance
to weathering as cedar. Pine has pitch to help
it resist weathering, but the pitch is not quite as effective as the tannins that are in cedar. Pine
can give a house a more rustic, colonial New England feel, though, and it accepts stain and paint very readily.