Who should stain your log home?

Now that you have this beautiful log home, you want to make sure it stays that way. You realize that you cannot leave it unprotected. But who should be in charge of the maintenance?

• You might do it yourself. Heck, anyone can swing a paint brush, right?
• Perhaps you’ll hire a local painter. After all, the house is made from wood. Painters understand wood…they should know what to do.
• Finally, you might consider a specialized log home staining crew. This is a crew that works on nothing but log homes with a pipeline of log home maintenance products at hand.

Let’s take a look at all three options.

Stain your own log home

It is not uncommon for someone that builds a new log home to be the first one to stain it. Sometimes finances at the end of construction are tight and staining & painting area good way to save money. Plus, the equipment needed is readily available.

This equipment includes:

• Power washer or media blaster
• Airless sprayer or pump sprayer
• Ladders
• Staging

Keep in mind, however, that the job is labor intense. Log homes have rough, rounded surfaces creating more area to be treated. They also have large overhangs and criss cross corners which need protection as well. Finally, there is the step of log washing and surface preparation. A good cleaning can be the most important part to well-done stain job. Have a plan for these tasks and you should be fine.

Hire a local painter

If you hire a local painter, be sure they have a good grasp of the job. Sure they have the equipment to do the work. But surface preparation and the amount of wall area to be cleaned and treated must be carefully considered. Log corners are especially tricky because the end grain of a corner will absorb a great deal more stain than the side grain of the wall logs. This must be allowed for in both materials and labor. Fortunately, with a log home, surface preparation is more about cleaning than scraping. That should save time.

Hire a Log Home Staining Company

A log home staining company will usually do the most thorough job. They know that before you start, you must spend the time to properly prepare the log surfaces. This means removing dirt, pollen or mildew on the logs, as these will prevent the stain from penetrating. A thorough cleaning also prevents any impurities from getting trapped below the coating of stain.

They know from experience that the key to staining a log home is to thoroughly coat the log walls with a high quality, log home stain. And any stain that runs must be back-brushed into the walls to encourage further penetration as well as a more uniform coating. Later, a second coating is often applied to provide an outer layer of protection.

A log home staining company will deal with any checking along the surface with a caulking material which is compatible with the stain to be used. This caulking will prevent water from getting deeper into the log where it does not belong.

From experience, a log home staining company will provide advice about how to know when it is time to re-stain. They will also alert the homeowner of any areas of the log home that may need special attention due to direct sun exposure or water runoff and splash back.

Before starting your log home staining project, consider all of your options and make an informed decision.