I recently purchased a hunting cabin on 800 acres that my grandfather built 70 yrs ago. The house has not been repainted since 1985. The foundation can be fixed. The inside is fine – lots of charm with bunk beds etc – needs new kitchen and windows. The outside needs help. 5% of the boards are rotted – painting is work – I’d like to come up with a long term solution with little work – but the idea of using vinyl is not appealing – I’ve been told to rebuild the who;e cabin but would prefer
If in fact you have paint on it, it needs to be removed or the rot will continue. It will have to be media blasted and probably ground after to remove everything clean enough to stain. Only apply a good quality latex stain. If you want low maintenance use a solid color stain like Sherwin Williams Woodscapes. You normally get 5-7 years of maintenance cycle time. Vinyl is the only long term solution, but the rot must be address first and not just covered.