The Ultimate Guide to Log Home Maintenance
Ultimate Guide to Log Home Maintenance
No matter the type of house you own, whether it’s Vinyl sided, pine, or cedar you’re going to find yourself washing your house down to keep it clean. In many respects the difference between a Vinyl sided home and a log home are relatively the same minus some differences in applying clear coat. This guide aims at simplifying the log home maintenance process by providing you step by step walkthrough involving tools, products, and photos. Welcome to the ultimate guide to log home maintenance.
Where to start?
Not every side of your cabin is going to be on the same maintenance schedule as the others. It’s important to keep track of which sides of your cabin you’ve clear coated recently and which sides may need more attention because you haven’t gotten to them in a few years. Breaking up the sides you work on per year helps tremendously with your maintenance workload. Additionally, not all sides are going to be on the same schedule because not all sides are always getting the same amount of weather. Some sides of the cabin may be under a porch and not need much attention while others may get the sun all day long and may be ready for a clear coat sooner than others. Either way, take a look at your cabin and look for dull spots to your clearcoat and consider in the weather focused sides and what you’ve worked on recently to decide what you need to tackle this year on your log cabin.
Washing, Cleaning and Prep
One of the most important maintenance steps to owning any home is keeping it clean, and a log cabin is no different. Throughout the years I’ve owned both vinyl sided and log cabins and this step is relatively the same for both. One of the first steps I recommend is finding out what brand of stain was used on your cabin. This will help you determine which brand of wash to use on your cabin. The big three are Sashco, Sikkens, and Permachink, but Behr and other companies do make products as well. The reason we say stick to the same brand as your stain is because you are less likely to have any kind of reaction between the same product line that you are between different ones.
After selecting the correct wash for your cabin let's make sure you have the right tools for the job. First thing first you need a way to get the log wash onto your logs. This can be done with an attachment for a pressure washer or an attachment for a standard hose. Either method is fine but keep in mind with a pressure washer you are going to make sure you don’t leave any marks in your logs by getting too close. While it may seem like after simply washing down your cabin with soap is good enough, I recommend using a microfiber brush on an extension pole to wipe down and remove any pollen or dust that may still be sticking to the log rows. You don’t want to seal these types of materials in before putting on your clear coat. Once you’ve thoroughly wiped down the entire cabin and every log row (including your joints) and have let it dry you’re ready for step two.
Touch Ups
After letting your cabin dry for a day or two or testing it with a moisture meter for good measure, we are ready to touch up any spots missing stain or paint. At this point you want to make sure you have a few clear days of weather in your schedule so as to not affect the work you are about to do. Take a walk around the sides of the cabin and make sure there aren’t any spots such as low log rows, corners, or trim missing any stain or paint and touch those places up if they are. Make sure to take a look at the bottoms of any of your log corners as well as the bottoms of any of the log railings that you have as well. This is a good time to really check all of the logs and make sure there aren't any obvious spots you’ve neglected over time.
Clear Coat
We’ve done it! We’ve finally made it to the clear coat stage of the process. The clear coat is the most important part of your log home maintenance. While the stain provides the color and the logs provide the natural grain and beauty, the clear coat is the sacrificial layer that preserves both of those. The preparation and application of this step is the most tedious work but at the same time the most rewarding because it brings life back to your cabin by adding that bit of shine to it.
There are a hundred different ways to cut it but at some point you are going to need to reach an area you can’t reach from just your feet. Depending on your financial or tool situation you have a few options to get to those areas. One the most obvious being to use an extension ladder. While easy enough this can be a pain to move around from time to time. Keep in mind most clear coats are extremely forgiving and do not leave lap marks from the process so don’t worry about using a ladder in this situation.Your next options are to either use scaffolding if you happen to have it on hand or a lift of some sorts to get to all those tricky spots. Both of these are great options and can speed up the process, but are not required.
There are two main methods of applying a clear coat and both are effective. One is using a sprayer to get a nice even coating on the logs and then back brushing it immediately. The benefit of the sprayers is that it can apply an even coat and really get into all the nooks and crannies of the wooden grain. This step also requires you tape your windows and doors over so the overspray doesn’t end up getting all over them, which can be a timely process. The other way, which I use on our log home model is to simply apply the clear coat with a brush. As mentioned most clear coats are forgiving and don’t cause lap marks but it’s still good practice to apply the clear coat on a few log rows at a time across the cabin and then go back the other direction once you make it to one end.
Tips
Note that most clear coats go on a bit milky colored but eventually end up clearing up over 20 minutes or so. An important thing to make sure you do is have enough time for this to dry before the evening due sets in. I’ve been in situations before where it wreaks havoc on drying clear coat because I’m trying to sneak in a few more brush strokes before it gets dark out. Additionally, make sure you are always keeping rags on you in case you get any drip marks while going through the process.
The Ends
No, we aren’t quite at the end yet, but the ends are important. One last part is to make sure you hit any log ends of purlins, corner logs, or decking posts with a log end seal product. Permachink makes a great log end seal that almost creates what seems to be a plastic barrier around the end grains of the logs. This is important because the end grains are suck up the most amount of moisture and can deteriorate the quickest because of this. A good one or two coats of a good thick log end seal will do the trick for 5-10 years down the line.
The Final Product
Owning a log home is a wonderful and unique experience most individuals do not get to experience in their lifetime. While there are a few extra steps in maintaining a log home most of this can be done in one or two days of work over the summer every few years and is most definitely worth the experience of owning a log home. I hope this guide, the tools mentioned, and the products make owning your log home an easy and fun experience for you and your family.