An online log home community for log home enthusiasts.

Time to stain

Finally, It's time to stain. I have read many of the posts concerning staining a log home. There are as many answers as there are log homes out there. My question is about the cleaning process. Do you clean the interior logs in preparation for stain as you would the exterior, seems like it would be a mess to clean up. Is it there a different process.

Is there a way to test my logs to see if they were actually borate treated at the factory as promissed? The log home company I purchased from is no longer around. Not sure if they cut corners on the way out.

Thanks for your help.

MARK

Tags: Prep, Stain, for

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Permalink Reply by CharisB on May 20, 2011 at 11:49am

Hey, Mark. A couple things:

Prep on the interior is important, but not nearly as involved as cleaning the exterior wood. You don't need to do the same to the inside as the outside unless you have massive amounts of mold & mildew. If the interior was left unprotect for a while before the roof went up, there may be a lot of UV damaged wood. Best thing to do is sand things down with an 80 grit sand paper or Osborn brush to get rid of that UV damaged wood and move forward with finishing from there.

Yes, there is a way to see if you have borates in the wood...circumin dye will show the presence of borate. Where to get a hold of some is another issue. We have some here in our lab and would be happy to test a piece of your wood, if you want to send it to us. Let me know if you're interested in that & I'll get you an address & we'll get that testing done for you.

Hope that helps some. Happy staining!

Charis Babcock w/ Sashco - cbabcock@sashco.com - www.sashco.com/log

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Permalink Reply by Michael Whalen on June 8, 2011 at 11:42am

Mark-

To cut through the sales people trying to sell their stains and find real world professional answers to correct processes on log home finishing, visit www.woodspecialist.com, here you will learn from experience.

Mike w/MM Wood Restoration & Protection

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Permalink Reply by The Mitchell's on June 9, 2011 at 10:50pm

Mark, we washed our interior logs when we washed the outside (no windows or doors yet and limited electrical and such). It sat then for a few months. Before staining inside, we sanded with regular old palm sanders. I didn't like the results I was getting with the osborn brush. It didn't take much time, just enough to knock off the uv damage. We also found our stain selection really helped hide any issues we missed. We went with sascho capture wheat and covered with a couple of coats of symphony. Looks great! We found our best process for staining, was to roll it on by hand with a 4" trim roller and then back brush with a 4" brush. We had sprayed the outside with good results, but I didn't want to mess with the over spray inside. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by See Dirt Run! Inc. on June 10, 2011 at 12:53pm

Mark,

We are a MHIC licensed, Maryland based log home restoration and maintenance company. We would be happy to help and to answer any questions you may have.

Beth Borrego

See Dirt Run Log Home Maintenance & Restoration

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Permalink Reply by EZMARY on June 11, 2011 at 6:33pm

I have owned a log home for many years. I power wash it down, use clorox, clean it good. Then fill in any cracks or caulk where ever you need to, apply Permachink (lifeline exterior) back brush it on, then apply the clear coat. I am not a rep for anyone, I have always used permachink products, (easy clean up, water based) I use weatherall oil based stain for my decks cause it last really long, and wears well! Good luck to you. its a lot of work doing this, I am glad I built a ranch home. hahah Its all worth it, cause log homes are pretty!

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Permalink Reply by Mark Circo on June 28, 2011 at 3:45pm

Hi EZMary,

After speaking with the folks from Permachink I decided that was the way I wanted to go.

I looked at log homes that were stained with oil based products and others that used water based stains. I have 12" hand hewn Logs with a 2" milled chink groove. I stained some samples with both types of stain and the Permachink transparent stain really brought out the character of the wood. The other factor I had to consider was product compatibility between the stain and the chinking. By going with all Permachink products I am sure they will work together and adhere properly. The icing on the cake was the great customer service offered by Permachink.

They are very accessible, helpful, and knowledgeable about their products.

Now I must get to work! All I need to do now is rent a lift to get to the second story and I will be staining by Friday. I'll post some before and after shots of the cabin and let you all tell me if it look OK.

Regards

MARK

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Permalink Reply by Mark Circo on August 22, 2011 at 9:17am

We rented the man-lift and took began staining. The top half of the cabin is by far the toughest part. We are going back tomorrow and apply the sealer coat on the two eves on the shed dormer and the lift can go back to the rental company. All that is left is the area under the porch and a step ladder and some scaffolding.
Do no be afraid of this job anyone can do it.