Repainting wooden shingles on your garage is perhaps one of the the quickest, easiest DIY jobs you can do do. More than that though, painting shingles results in immediate improvement to the look of your garage!
In this article, I’ll go through the step-by-step process I did did to achieve a long lasting finish on on the wooden shingles on my garage.
This step-by-step process works if you’re planning on applying wood stain to your shingles, or or intending on painting them with exterior paint. Personally, I prefer the wood stain look, so I did that.
Step 1: gather up your tools!
First thing’s first, to repaint wooden shingles you’ll need the following items.
An orbital sander (yes you can use hand sandpaper, but trust me on this you will lose at least an hour of your life! Using a cheap orbital sander is completely, 100% worth it!
Ronseal 10 year woodstain. Obviously there’s other brands that you can use out there are, but I’ve listed the exact product that I’ve used and after 3 seasons (including winter) it’s not faded one bit. So I hand on heart recommend this one if you want to save some time researching – obviously you can choose different colours.
A paintbrush … you’re not paining the Sistine chapel here – any one will do provided it’s not tiny.
A ladder. Again, if you want to save yourself some time – I have this three way folding one which is dead easy to store and not that expensive.
An old sheet/tarp or whatever that will cover your garage door in case you’re too slap dash and drip your woodstain!
And that’s it – told you this job was simple!
As always, I’d recommend some eye and ear protection as well as a mask.
Why? Well one because you’d feel like a numpty explaining why you’re deaf/blind/have breathing problems later in life … “I was doing some DIY and …”
But also because when you sand those shingles, you’ll have years of algae/moss build up raining down on you. It’s not that pleasant.
Step 2: prep your wooden shingles ready for painting
This is a really simple step, and simply involves you doing two things
First climb up your ladder to get your shingles
Next grab your order orbital sander and and start standing!
The only thing to watch out for at this stage is if your shingles are particularly old, you’ll see that one or two of them may be cracked or a little bit fragile
The key is to sand lightly at first until you get a feel for how strong your existing shingles are!
Stop sanding once you’re confident that you’ve removed any build up of algae and moss, and your shingles have a natural wood look.
Step 3: start painting your wood stain onto your garage shingles
Again, this is pretty straightforward, and I don’t really want to treat you like a child and explain how to paint step-by-step!
A few quick tips though on this stage:
Don’t apply too much stain/paint too quickly, as you’ll get drips that could easily run down and stain your garage door if you’ve not fully covered it.
Start from the top down as this allows you to smooth out any runs and drips of paint wood stain as you work your way down
Watch out for your paintbrush flicking paint when you do the bottom row of your shingles. When you get to this part, go slow and steady and don’t apply too much pressure to your paint brush.
Also, it can be a bit of a faff being up a ladder holding a paint can, and a brush. If you don’t feel safe, or just want to protect yourself, it’s worth considering getting a clip on paint tray.
Step 4: Do a second, or even a third coat.
If memory serves me right, I ended up doing two coats, but depending on what brand of woodstain or paint you’re using you may have to do a third.
Don’t skimp at this stage. Yes it can be tempting to say “it looks good enough”, but better to spend the extra 20 minutes doing a final coat while everything is set up and ready than coming back to the job in a few months time.
Step 5: Admire your handiwork!
I was seriously impressed after painting my own wooden shingles on my garage. It’s one of those jobs that you can easily overlook and not get round to.
But the fact that it only took me approximately an hour and a half total – including set up time and second coat (with a bit of waiting) – makes this a 100% worth it DIY job.
Like I said at the start, it’s an easy, simple job to do that does have a real impact on how your garage looks.
So, given I can’t admire your handiwork, here’s a before and after photo comparison of mine:
If you liked this article, you might be interested in my step by step guide to making your own garage shelves – so much cheaper, and much more useful than buying pre-made garage shelving.