Log Home Maintenance

Once the final staining has been finished and your Michigan Log and Timber home is complete, we recommend to all of our customers to keep up with the exterior maintenance. Simply put, the best way to achieve this is to have our staining contractor come to your site annually to inspect your log home to preserve your investment. The small items he needs to fix annually can get real expensive if they are put off for two or three years. If you follow this plan, you can be assured that restoration will never be needed.

However, if you do need restoration, there are some options available and we are able to service you with the restoration of your home.

THREE COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT LOG HOME RESTORATION:

1. What methods are used to remove the existing finish?

There are currently three methods used to remove the existing finish on your log home.

• Ozzying (Sanding) with an osborne brush or buffing pads on a variable speed right angle grinder.
• Media Blasting with corn cob granule, walnut shells, glass, or soda (food grade baking soda)
• Chemical Strippers

Each of these three methods require the greatest amount of time when restoring your log home. Removing the existing finish completely is probably one of the most important steps in the log home restoration process since it gives you a blank canvas to work on.

2. What Is It Going To Cost To Restore My Log Home?

Each home is very different and so is the type of maintenance it will require. There is not a set pricing guide that will blanket log home restoration. We can provide a quote to you for your needs. However, one thing is true and that is, the longer that you put it off, the more expensive it will be to repair.

3. How Long Will It Take?

• While each log home is different it takes on average 3-6 weeks to restore your log home from start to finish. It usually takes this long due to drying time from washing the home, drying time in between coats of stain, and curing time for any caulking or chinking that had to be done.
• Removing the existing finish can take 3-6 days depending on the type of existing finish, size of building, design of building, and landscaping around the building. Washing a log home takes a day and needs at least 2-4 days to dry out depending on the weather conditions (humidity, precipitation, temps, etc.).
• Applying a borate log preservative should only take a day but requires the same amount of drying time as washing the log home.
• Applying forst coat of log stain. Applying the first coat of stain can take 1-3 days also dependant on the size, design, and landscaping around the home.
• Caulking or chinking can can take 5-10 days and usually needs 3-6 days to cure before applying the second coat of stain. This curing time is dependant upon the joint size of the caulking or chinking.
• Since caulking should not be applied to a joint size greater than 1? it usually takes less curing time than chinking.
• Chinking joint size can vary from 1? to 6? and usually the larger joint size requires greater curing time so you can apply the second coat of stain to it without ruining your beautiful chinking job.
• The second coat of stain can take 1-3 days to apply and needs a day of dry time.
• Finally the top coat of stain, which usually goes on as a two coat process, can take 2-3 days to complete.
• We always wash windows at the end of the project and that can take a day in itself depending on how many windows there are.