All finishes for log homes need to start out with a good wood preservative. Rot, once it gets started is expensive to repair so always start with a good EPA registered wood preservative. At Logfinish.com we recommend Shellguard RTU. This product is a 10% Borate solution in propylene glycol. You spray it on with a backpack sprayer such as a Solo 425 and then backbrush it in.  It penetrates deep and makes your wood toxic for powder post beetles and termites. This product is safe enough to be used inside and outside your home. The key is it must be applied to clean, bare wood. Let dry for 3 days and you are ready to stain with finishes such as Sikkens Cetol Log and Siding and Lifeline Ultra 2.  When using Sikkens Cetol and Lifline Ultra 2 you must protect your wood first with Shellguard.

Logfinish.com’s best selling product is Woodguard Wood Preservative. This product is an EPA registered Wood Preservative and a log home finish. Woodguard is available in six factory pretinted colors. It should be applied with a Solo 425 Backpack Sprayer and then be backbrushed in. Woodguard is a petroleum oil based product and the active ingredient is copper 8 quinolinolate.  Like Shellguard, Woodguard makes your wood toxic to powder post beetles and termites it just operates with a different active ingredient. It is equally effective but can only be used on the exteriorof your home.

Woodguard is a one coat product that is applied to the point of refusal where the wood will not take any more.. It also provides excellent water repellency and sun fade resistance. It is available in natural wood tones and cures into the wood to a natural flat finish. Of all the products sold by Logfinish Woodguard is the easiest for a log home owner to do himself and get an excellent job. There are no issues with lap line or brush marks as everything evens out  with the penetration process.  With Woodguard a second coat must be applied after two years. This second coat will protect your home for an additional 4-5 years.  If you want a satin or gloss finish Woodguard offers a clear Acrylic Topcoat. Using one or more coats of topcoat will significantly boost the lifespan of this product. At Logfinish.com we recommend that you hold off on the Acrylic Topcoat until after you have applied the second coat of Woodguard. When applying the topcoat alway let the Woodguard dry for at least 30 days.  If drying times must be accelerated add a quart of Penetrol to the Woodguard to speed up the penetration process.  Woodguard is supplied with the log home packages produced by three of the top four log home companies including Southland Log Homes, Kuhn Brothers Log Homes and Heritage Log Homes. Woodguard is an integral part of their warrantee program.

Logfinish.com’s second most popular finish is Sikkens Cetol Log and Siding. This is a two coat alkyd resin product that is brushed on. Sikkens Log and Siding uses the same product for both coats and yields a beautiful satin finish. Sikkens Log and Siding is available in seven wood tone colors. The product is designed to be brushed on. Apply the first coat one day and then come back and do the second the next day.  The only limit to this product is that it must be applied to logs that are 18% moisture content or below. When in doubt get a moisture meter. If your logs are wet protect them first with Sikkens Log Pretreatment for six month to a year and then clean ad apply the Sikkens Log and Siding.  When Log and Siding is applied to wet wood there is a potential for peeling on the high sun sides of your home.

Logfinish.com’s newest exterior product is Lifeline Ultra 2 by Perma-Chink.  Ultra-2 is a water based acrylic latex system that requires two coats of color followed by two coats of a satin or gloss topcoat called Lifeline Advance.  Ultra 2 is designed to be applied with an airless sprayer and then back brushed into the wood. It is a little trickier to apply but the results are stunning and the product offers the industry’s only five year written warranty.  Our sales of this product have increased substantially this year despite the fact that it is the most expensive and requires the most trips around the home to apply. Because it is water based Ultra 2 is the most environmentally friendly product on the market. Ultra 2 is available in 12 factory pretinted colors.

Which exterior log finish product is the best for you? At Logfinish.com we let you decide  by making wet sample kits available at a nominal charge plus UPS shipping. You can try the product on your own wood and decide what is best for you.

Bill Frykberg

President Logfinish.com

There are a number of simple design and construction steps that you can incorporate into your log home to keep your wood finish in tip top shape. 

In general, water is the enemy and to prevent finish failure and eventual rot you have to control it.  Here are our design tips:

1.  Always install gutters on your log home.  The single biggest cause of finish failure and rot is water that runs off your roof, lands on a deck, patio or the ground and bounces back up onto your wood.  Install gutters and you will control the water flow and divert it away from your exposed wood. To make sure that your gutters do the job all the time, spend the extra dollars for gutter protection products such as Gutter Helmut or Gutter Guard that keep your gutters clean and free flowing year round.

2.  Maximize roof overhangs and install all around covered porches to the full extend that your budget will allow.  In tandem with gutters, this keeps water off your logs and preserves the finish. 

3.  Never let your logs get any closer than two feet from decks, patios and ground areas that are exposed.  If water bounces back up onto your foundation there is not much problem.  When water bounces back onto the wood, this is where finish failure and rot begins.  The simple answer is to make your foundation a little higher off the ground.  Finish your foundation and floor system with stucco and/or cultured stone.  In areas with high snow accumulations, extend stone and stucco up to the point of typical maximum snow depth.  Logs are not designed to be buried in snow for weeks or months at a time.

By using these tips you will prolong the life of your log home finish and virtually eliminate the opportunity for log rot to begin.

Are carpenter bees drilling into the fascia, soffet and beams of your log home? If they are, here’s how to effectively deal with the problem.

Acquire the following items:  a can of WD 40, a roll of aluminum foil, and a tube of log home caulk.

Put the red applicator straw on the WD 40. Stick the red applicator straw as far as you can into each carpenter bee hole and Spray WD 40 into the hole until it bubbles out. This will coat any existing carpenter bee larvae so they will die. In some cases you will spray into a hole with a real carpenter bee in residence. The bee will usually stumble out of the hole as if it is drunk. In this state the bee is easy to safely kill.

Once the hole has been treated with WD 40,tear off a small piece of aluminum foil and roll it into a ball, put it on the tip of a screwdriver  and stuff it into the carpenter bee hole. Caulk each hole with a log home caulk such as Energy Seal or Super Caulk.

Follow the above procedure with every hole that the carpenter bees have drilled into your home.

Carpenter bees, once they get started on your home, can do enormous amounts of damage tunneling through your wood. Further damage can occurs when the woodpeckers come calling to harvest the bee larvae.

Carpenter bees are like salmon, they return to the same place where they were born,  and continue to grow the bee population and generate increasing damage to your log home each year .  Following the procedures outlined above will make a major dent in your carpenter bee population in just one season.

There are also several stain additives that will help with Carpenter Bees. The best of the bunch is NBS 30. This is an insect repellent stain and paint additive. Add just a pint to a 5 gallon pail of log home finish and apply then apply the finish to your home. NBS 30 is a citronella based product and the citronella odor will run off carpenter bees as well as lady bugs. Our field results indicate that NBS 30 should be added to log home finish each time that your home is stained but only in the final coat of stain. The citronella odor will be noticeable to you for several weeks. A single application will normally run off the Carpenter Bees for several years.

If you are not planning to stain your home and have a lot of Carpenter Bee activity try getting rid of them by spraying with Beegone. An 8 ounce bottle mixes with 5 gallons of water and should be sprayed on your home.

Spray the product where you see Carpenter Bee activity. This product will literally drop the Carpenter Bees to the ground.

This product is a pyrethrum based insecticide. Read the label and follow the directions carefully. As the product will wash off in the rain you will probably need to retreat monthly during the carpenter bee season.
Beegone is available for sale in all states with the exception of New York where its use is limited to pest control experts.

The latest wrinkle in getting rid of Carpenter Bees is a new product called the Carpenter Bee Chamber.  Remember the advertisement for the Roach Motel. The roaches enter but they never leave? Its the same idea with the Carpenter Bee Chamber. You mount Carpenter Bee Chambers on the Fascia and Soffet where you have some bee activity and the bees go in the hole. Once inside they get caught up in some sticky stuff and cannot leave.  A pesticide expert that I know says that this is the best solution he has seen for carpenter bees.

We field tested the product on a log restaurant near our offices that was so over run with carpenter bees that the bees dive bombed you when you went in to the restaurant. Two weeks after the Carpenter Bee Chamber went up the bees were gone!

NBS-30, Beegone and the Carpenter Bee Chamber are all available at www.Logfinish.com.  

Hi:

 I know what to do for the outside of my home, but what should I use on the wall inside my log home?

Hi

I have a 10 year cabin and it needs some TLB what is the best way to protect my exterior?

My house is only 6 months old and I am seeing dryness and cracking. What do I do to protect my deck and make it last?

I just built my dream home and the carpenter bees and ruining it by putting holes everywhere.

What should I do?

So what should I plan for with my cabin