The appearance of wooden cladding changes naturally over time. However, its ageing can be premature due to climatic factors (sun, water), biological agents (fungus spores) or an existing finish that is deteriorating. It is therefore essential to maintain your wooden cladding regularly to avoid having to replace it completely.
The factors responsible for the ageing of cladding are linked to its environment:
All these climatic aggressions will eventually degrade and alter theeffectiveness of the film-forming products in the finish, which will become thinner and thinner, cracking and chalking.
For optimum results , the best time best time to maintain your cladding is in spring.
The first thing to do is to carry out a diagnosis to assess the condition of the wood surface of the cladding and its finish, and to determine the type of wood. The diagnosis also makes it possible to determine the type of design of the façade (more or less draining design) as well as to identify the singular points where vigilance must be increased at the time of renovation.
By taking all these factors into account, you can select the most suitable maintenance solution for the cladding in question.
If your exterior façade is greying or has stains of unknown origin, you will need to apply a woodstain remover to restore the wood’s shine. If the cladding becomes tarnished, floury or peeling, preparation involves completestripping by airbrushing which involves projecting a natural abrasive using low-pressure compressed air.
In all cases, it is essential to use PPE when preparing and then treating wooden cladding .
To treat the cladding, apply an insecticide and fungicidesolution directly to the cleaned wood. Applying a wood preservative helps toensure the longevity of the wood by protecting it from wood-eating insects, termites, spores and other fungi. The treatment makes the wood suitable for use in use class 3.1.
The finish will protect the cladding and give it an aesthetic appearance that meets your customers’ requirements. A saturator can be applied to cladding. With its matt, non-film-forming appearance, this finish saturates the wood to protect it from external aggression and delays greying. Another possibility for a finish, this time film-forming: an opaque stain or paint that protects the wood from weathering in the same way.
Choosing quality products is essential for a clean, long-lasting job. The XILIX range® EXPERT range offers high-performance products for all stages of wooden cladding maintenance, from surface preparation to finishing.
Standardised accelerated and natural ageing tests carried out in accordance with European standard EN 927-6have shown that the products in the XILIX® EXPERT range have a durability* of between 3 and 5 years for the lightest shades and over 6 years for the darkest.
*as long as application is carried out according to the rules of the trade and under normal outdoor exposure conditions.