Greetings. I read this thread with great interest: http://www.painttalk.com/f6/new-smoo...es-rails-5160/ and noted your contribution regarding the weathering age of new cedar prior to staining. I wonder if you might be willing to provide some guidance on a job I am currently working on. We have recently complete a new porch finished mainly in cedar (minus the decking which is a composite) - about 5-6 weeks ago. The sub scheduled to do the finish work became injured and I was unaware of the possible implications of waiting for him to do this job. We have fascia, posts and railings to finish. While we have encountered the weather, there has been very minimal usage of the deck. I am ready to put someone else on the job, but wanted to be smart about how we proceed. That is, do we need to do any special prep? How many days of dry weather do we need before and after each coat? Is this the same answer for the first priming coat as it would be for the subsequent coats? Since it is smooth cedar, do you recommend a "scratch" sanding - and can you explain what this is? None of the parts of this job were primed before construction. I can see from other posts that this could be a problem later on. Any additional advice you can provide about this would also greatly be appreciated. Locally, I have not been able to find the kind of expertise you seem to have. I appreciate any help and direction you may be able to provide. Thank you in advance. Robin