Posts Tagged ‘maintain log homes/cabins’

Log Home Maintenance – Top 10 ways to protect your log home and your investment

Log home maintenance, done on a routine basis, is your best homeowners insurance against costly repairs. Check this out:

darkened logs

Time for new stain.

1. Keep the finish on the exterior logs in good shape. This means checking it every year on every side of your house to make sure when you wet the logs, water will still bead up and the finish is not fading or graying.

2. Make sure the caulking or chinking between your logs is in good shape… no cracks or splits in it.

3. Make sure the decks on the home are flashed correctly and are not allowing moisture to be held up against the logs.

4. Caulk up-facing checks in your logs if they are ¼” wider or more or are in vulnerable places on your home, i.e. just above a deck surface or on a high gable wall.

Check for leaks in gutters

5. Keep gutters on your home functioning properly, i.e. not full of leaves or debris and not leaking. This will also help to keep the logs dry. Splash back from decks is the #1 cause of log rot.

6. Clean the exterior logs on your building once a year. Dust and pollen promote the start of decay.

chairs against the logs

Look familiar? Don't do this to your log home.

7. Keep deck furniture, grills, wood stacks, and other items away from the logs around the home. They can hold moisture against the logs, which can cause rot.

8. Make sure every log on the home is inside the “drip line” of the roof. In other words, makes sure water does not drip off the roof onto the logs. Logs exposed completely to the weather WILL rot… it  is only a matter of time. Consider installing gutters where water comes off of the roof and lands on a deck. Again, splash back from decks is the #1 cause of log rot.

9. Flashing around chimneys should be inspected every year for signs of leaking. This is a place where rot can take over very quickly.

10. Keep records of what has been done to your logs. This will help when  it comes time to refinish or when trying to explore causes of problems with the logs down the road. Click here for a checklist of things to look out for.

log cabinThese are the most important things you can do for good log home maintenance and to keep your log home in good shape. Being an astute log homeowner is very important to protecting your investment.

Seeing little things that need attention day-to-day or year-to-year will be the difference between minor fixes and major repairs.

RELATED LINKS AND TIPS ON LOG HOME MAINTENANCE

Maintenance you can do yourself
How to check for rot
Log home common problems

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Log home restoration

Log home restoration is all we do this time of year.   We are trying to take advantage of the warm days of summer to get all of our log home restoration projects done before the snow flies.

log home restoration

We restored this log cabin last week near Rhinelander, Wisconsin

There is still time to get your log home restoration done this year. Call us at 877-378-4403. We are happy to talk to you about your specific log home and what might be done to solve the problems with your logs.

We get to all parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota in the summer months so call us and see where we are this week.  Log home restoration is all we do.

Check out one of our most recent projects that we completed in St. Croix Falls, Minnesota. Click here.

Related links:

Log home restoration
Blasting to remove finish
Chinking and caulking
Contact us

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Log Cabin Restoration – Water management is very important

Log cabin restoration is our specialty. While in the process of working on a log home near Hayward, WI this spring, we saw a number of things that are important for log home owners to remember when looking at the up keep of their log cabins.

rot from water splashing back onto logsTwo issues related to water management came up on this job. First off -gutters are needed on many log homes. If the logs get significant splash back from water dripping off the roof edge, then one needs to consider getting gutters.

If you find yourself in this situation, we recommend that you check into seamless gutters (see link below) as we find  that they offer the best functionality and overall cost effectiveness.

Another issue that came up on this job was the fact that the land up hill from the lake pitched groundwater back on the house. This allowed water to go up against the logs and was part of the reason why there was rot. Instead of needing routine maintenance, this homeowner’s log cabin was in need of restoration.

Keeping water issues at bay is paramount to preventing rot. Click here to see this project we are referring to near Hayward, WI.

A number of our customers near Hayward, Spooner, and Minong have used Northland Seamless Gutters and we have found that they do good work. Check them out at:  www.northlandseamless.com

Log cabin restoration services are all we do. Contact us or call 877-378-4403

Related links:

Common problems
Borate treatment
 Where we work

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Log Home Maintenance: What to do about logs that continue to seep out sap or pitch

Log home maintenance has some unique aspects to it compared to maintenance on other types of houses. One unique problem that log homes present is when the sap or pitch from the logs seeps out to the point where it is visible and unsightly.

We received the following question from our blog regarding this common problem with log home maintenance.

Question: Pitch or sap is leaking out from my logs.  I want to know if there is anything that can be done to keep this from happening.

Answer: We have seen a number of log-sided and full log homes that have real problems with pitch seeping out of the logs. Most are homes built within the past 20 years and all are made of some species of pine, be it eastern, white or Norway pine.  Most of the time pitch does stop coming out after about five years.  Often in these cases, the logs need to be blasted to remove the pitch and then the logs need to be re-stained.

In extreme cases, pitch can continue to seep out for many years. It is my opinion that this is happening because the stain on the logs is acting as a blocker and once the stain begins to get older, it starts to fail and break down and this “blocking” effect goes away.  When this happens, the sap is allowed to flow again. Here is an article entitled: “Effective Management of Resin Exudation from Eastern White and Red Pine” done by the University of Maine. Just in case you want more information on this and what resin blockers might be able to do, click here for a PDF of this study.

For more information on other log home maintenance issues, check out some links to our website:

Cracks or checks in logs
Epoxy not recommended for filling cracks
Frequently asked questions

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Log home maintenance – Another story from on the road

Remembering George “Buzz” Geist

They say it is a small world. Well, the world of log homeowners is even smaller.  And the world of owners whose log homes have been revitalized by Edmunds and Company Log Home Restorations is smaller yet.  Back in 2007, Dave Geist and I were standing together on the banks of the Encampment River on the North Shore of Lake Superior, going over details of the job we were on.  Dave was the contractor overseeing the restoration we were doing in this historic compound of privately owned log cabins, nestled in the ancient rock formations and large trees near where the river empties into the lake.

Over the constant roar of the river, I heard Dave ask,

“We might have something in common.  Do you have a fellow named Blaise working for your company? I hear he is dating my pediatrician’s daughter.”
“Yes I do. Actually he is my oldest son. But doesn’t your children’s physician live in Northfield, MN? That’s a long way from here.”
“We live there in the winter. My wife teaches at St. Olaf College.”

That was a coincidence.  And that it should even come up in conversation was more unlikely. By the way, my son went on to marry that fine young woman, the daughter of the woman who is a pediatrician in Northfield. There was something else that I couldn’t put my finger on.  Dave’s last name seemed familiar.  When I mentioned the exchange to my boss, Matt Edmunds, he told me that Dave Geist was the son of a former client of ours, Buzz Geist.  Now this was another coincidence. (more…)

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