Log Home Refinishing and Restoration

In this day and age, there are still people who prefer to build and live in log homes in the United States. One reason may be that log homes seem to be cozy, comfortable, and quaint forms of lodging that many people are attracted to. However, like all homes built of wood, log homes require proper maintenance or else their wooden parts (the logs that make up the walls) will eventually rot due to exposure to the elements (particularly rain and water splatter.)
To know if your log home has been affected by wood rot, use a small hammer to firmly tap on the log you suspect has been hit by wood rot. If the sound that you hear is that of a dull thump, then you have a rotten log in your wall. However, if the log is still sound and stable, the sound that will be produced will be like a clear ring instead. In that case, you should take steps to guarantee that sound logs in your walls will not be hit by wood rot in the future. This can be done through proper log home refinishing and restoration.
One of the options you may have in log home refinishing and restoration is to replace any rotten logs immediately upon detection. Though theoretically any rotten log can be removed and eventually replaced with sound wooden logs, the location of the rotten log will determine how difficult extraction and replacement will be.
Another common problem that is encountered with log homes is when rotting hits that part of the roof where it meets the upper half of the log wall. To remedy this, the rotten part has to be completely removed, replaced with sound wood, and then flashed the right way. This area of your log home structure is vulnerable to roof leaks, splashing due to snow or rain, and even piling up of ice, so upon construction of your log home you ought to treat the wood so that it will be protected from such weathering. This means doing very thorough wood flashing as part of the construction phase of your log home.
Now, let s say you would like to have refinishing done on your log home. You should first determine if this is actually necessary by sprinkling water in different parts of your logs. A log that does not require finish will show beads of water on its surface. When those water beads are absent, you should apply finish to your log home structure. If the logs also display signs of flaking and peeling, then you should really apply a proper coat of finish to your log surfaces. For gaps seen between individual logs, you may opt to rely on synthetic chinking or siliconized latex caulk to fill them in.
Many log homes have a chimney made of hard materials like rock integrated into the walls and roof of the log home. Leaks may be experienced at the base of the chimney where the roof line and the flashing meet. You could also find that the rock or masonry of your chimney may not have been sealed properly, or have cracked, so that moisture is allowed to enter. If a chimney cap is also not set into place properly, that could also result in entry of water because the function of the chimney cap is to prevent water from entering the chimney.



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