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Rot Repair

Before doing blasting or staining work on your log home, it is important to address rot issues. If your log home has rot damage, we need to cut out and replace the damaged area. If not replaced, the rot can spread, and your log home might suffer structural issues. Oftentimes rot in log homes is caused by moisture, so gutters and other protective measures are important to protect your log house.

Once we have fixed any damage, we will begin the stripping and refinishing process. The first step is to remove anything from your log walls. We recommend the homeowner moves as much as possible. However, anything our crew needs to move will be taken care of by North Idaho Log Home Restoration. We will remove your light fixtures, mask your windows with 6 mil plastic, and remove gutter downspouts. We will also cover air conditioning and heating units to protect them from sand and stain.

Media Blasting

After the home is prepped, we move onto media blasting. At North Idaho Log Home Restoration, we pride ourselves on our blasting process. We select the proper media and grit size to achieve the optimal surface for your specific logs. Some homes have thick coats of paint or stain, so they may require more aggressive blasting to remove the previous coating. Other homes that are dry or have little amounts of stain can be blasted with a finer grit size to achieve a smoother surface.

Log Treatment

Once we blast all wood surfaces, we treat them with borate to kill existing bugs and remove mildew. Click this link to learn more about our borate product and how it helps protect log homes from future damage. We always treat our homes with borate prior to staining to ensure it best absorbs into the logs.

Finish Sanding and Osborn Brushing

Osborn brushing and finish sanding may be required after media blasting. On most log cabins, media blasting is sufficient, but sometimes Osborn brushing or finish sanding is needed to create the ideal surface for stain to adhere. This process can also be helpful to remove any stubborn “wood fuzz”. Generally, we sand the trim to leave a buffer zone around windows to prevent damages. 

Filling Log Checks

As log homes age, the logs expand and contract based on weather conditions and temperature. This is especially true in areas like Coeur d’Alene, Spokane, and surrounding towns, as we experience significant shifts in weather. This movement of logs over time can create “checks”. Checks are normal with log homes, but they do create entrances for bugs to get into the house. Additionally, on upward facing checks, water can enter and become trapped. This causes the logs to rot over time. Because of this, we recommend filling checks with Log Jam chinking material prior to staining. Log Jam is a textured synthetic chinking material that blends in with the logs. It also accepts stain well, so we can often make it difficult to tell the check was ever there.

Staining and Sealing Logs

After media blasting, borate treatment, finish sanding, and check filling, we are ready to apply a new coat of stain! For Coeur d’Alene and Pacific Northwest homes, it is important to use a quality stain product, as weather conditions fluctuate between freezing and extremely hot. We prefer to use Sashco’s “Capture Stain” and “Cascade Clear” for our log home restorations. These products are water based and provide a surface that can be stained overtop in the future. If you stain with an oil based product, you are more likely to have issues with incompatible products in the future. This is due to some products not adhering to oil based products. We apply stain with a 40:1 airless sprayer, and then we back brush the new stain to ensure it seals into all the crevices of the logs. 

Chinking

Once we have applied the stain and clear coat to your log home, we move onto chinking it. Chinking is the process of applying material between the seams of your logs. Bugs and bats can enter your log house through these areas, and the seams can also allow cold and hot air to enter and/or escape your log home. The energy efficiency of a log house highly depends on a proper chinking job. We use Log Jam from Sascho or “Permachink” products. These have an 100% elasticity rating, meaning that the chinking will shrink and stretch with your logs. Many other chinking products are stiff and will end up cracking or separating from your logs during weather changes that result in the expansion and contraction of your logs.

To detect the efficiency of your log home’s chinking, we use thermal detection to see if hot or cold air is escaping/entering between the logs. In the above image, you can see heat escaping through the log home, meaning the chinking is inefficient. When this happens, it is important to chink the seams to both allow better temperature control of your home and to save money!

1. Prioritize Experience

Log home restoration is an intricate and specialized industry. When choosing a Coeur d’Alene log home contractor, it is essential to find an expert with knowledge on the required equipment, products, and skill to provide a beautiful restoration.

Log homes are different from traditional houses. They are prepped, finished, and maintained with log-home-specific products. For this reason, it is important to hire a CDA or Spokane log home restoration company with proven experience in the trade. Ask them of their process and compare it to this guide on Sascho’s website to make sure they are qualified. Keep in mind that hiring an inexperienced contractor could cause more damage than good.

2. Understand Importance of Equipment

Idaho log home contractors employ different types of equpiment to complete their log restorations. While this may not seem like something for you to worry about, the quality and timeline of your restoration is greatly dependent on what your contractor uses! At North Idaho Log Home Restoration, we use a 375 FM air compressor and a 600lb blast pot to complete our media blasting. For applying stain, we use a 4000 PSI airless sprayer and a Snorkler chink pump to dispense bulk chink. These pieces of machinery offer the highest level of quality, along with the most efficient timeline. This allows us to complete a log home restoration, including blasting, applying borate, filling checks, staining, and chinking in approximately 4 – 5 days. Many North Idaho log home contractors will take 1 – 2 months to achieve the same amount of work…and a low quality product.

3. Ensure High-Quality Products

If your log home contractor plans to use anything other than Sashco products, we highly recommend you do an extended amount of research. If your contractor uses a low-quality product, you will likely have a premature failure and have to redo the restoration in a couple of years. To save money in the long run, it is best to use high-quality products the first time around. Sascho products are made to be used specifically on log homes. In Spokane and CDA log homes, this is especially important, as we get a wide range of weather conditions that add stress to your log home products over time.

4. Review Previous Examples

Before hiring a log home contractor in Idaho, always check examples of the previous work. Nowadays, you should be able to find a company’s past jobs on their social media or their websites. As shown on our North Idaho Log Home Restoration website, we have worked on numerous log homes of various styles and with differing needs. We show our experience with rot repair, chinking, and the full log home restoration process. Your contractor should have photo examples of their past jobs (not stock photos!). If they do not, you will want to request pictures from your contractor and ask to speak with references. If your Idaho log home contractor does not have any examples…we recommend you hire someone with more experience. You do not want someone’s trial run to be on your house!

5. Consider Their Timeline

For Coeur d’Alene log home contractors (as well as log home contractors in Spokane), there are not many with proper experience and equipment. For that reason, quality contractors often have a tight schedule. It is best to get on their schedule sooner, rather than later, as they could be 6 – 12 months out before taking on your project. It is much better to get on their schedule than it is to hire a contractor who has little experience or is inexperienced in log homes altogether. Again, hiring someone without log home restoration experience is a dangerous idea–you will likely end up hiring someone to fix the damage they’ve unintentionally caused due to their inexperience. 

Beyond getting on a contractor’s schedule, also make sure you undertand their timelines for a given project. At North Idaho Log Home Restoration, we complete most log homes in under a week (unless they are considerably larger than the average log structure!). However, some log home contractors will take multiple weeks or months to get the job done, so make sure you know what you’re getting into before hiring!

6. Beware Misguided Advice

Beware well-meaning, but ultimately misguided, contractors. Some CDA contractors may suggest using a pressure washer and chemicals to remove old layers of stain. Do not listen to this! Pressure washing a log home will not fully remove the previous stain. The only way to fully remove a previous stain job from your log home is through media blasting. If all of the previous stain in not removed during a restoration, you could be facing a premature coating failure within only 1 – 2 years. The only time you should use a pressure washer on your log home before staining is if you are applying only a maintenance clear coat. In that case, remember to use the same or a compatible product with the material previously used, as pressure washing will leave traces of the previous stain on the log surface.

7. Check for Licenses and Insurance

Always protect yourself and your assets by ensuring your log home restoration contractor has the proper licenses and insurance to work on your home. If they do not and they cause any damage to your home, you will likely end up paying the price to fix it. Having the proper insurance and licenses is an important sign that your contractor is organize and reliable. If they haven’t done the basics, don’t trust them to restore your log home!