Cleaning the Logs – Inside and Out

Here’s a ‘joy’ I never need to experience again…cleaning the logs with bleach.

When you’re building a log home, the logs arrive pristine and white. They’ve just been through the mill and are barely kissed by the sun before they are wrapped up, tied up, and shipped to the log home builder.

As you set to work however, your hands get dirty, your jeans leave a mark when you move them, you have to climb the new log walls to get to the second floor, and perhaps the elements get to them as well if you don’t get your roof on fast enough.

By the time you’re ready to start staining and sealing the interior and exterior of your log home, your once glowing logs are a mess.

Streaked, stained, and dirtied.

The sun has beaten down on them and brought out the natural golden-orange tones of the wood and the rain has passed over the joist hangers and decking screws and left long gray streaks on your new log walls.

I’m going to propose to you that although building a basic log home (no crazy roof design) can be faster, the process of making that house a showpiece home will slow you down considerably when it comes time to prepare the log walls for inhabitation.

Oh yes, there’s one more piece that sullies the logs – the ’stickers’ (chunks of lumber) that are placed below each skid of logs – they’ve been soaked in oil that deters rot but blackens them. Those stickers also make one hell of a mess and transfer ugly black stains onto any log that touches them.

The solution isn’t the same for everyone…

Perma-Chink makes a product called Log Wash (which is a little out of my price range right now) which is supposed to do wonders.

Or you can have your logs media blasted – I don’t know the cost of this but it sounds more of a process and expense than I’m interested in right now.

Most people, however, use bleach to bring the wood back to pristine white, remove the sticker stains and joist hanger streaks.

• 1/3 bleach and water solution.
• Be sure to rinse well after bleaching. Bleach will eat through and shorten the fibers of your logs if not well rinsed.
• Use a stiff, but natural bristle scrubbing brush – or risk chewing through the log you so carefully placed while building your home.
• By all means wear gloves and be sure the area you’re working on is well ventilated.

My tips to share so far are:

1. 1/3 bleach doesn’t always cut the mustard. Sometimes you have to straight bleach or sand the mess off.
2. Go to a country supply store and get calfing gloves for full arm coverage. I wore long rubber gloves for a day’s work and am now sporting chemical burns where the gloves ended and my skin touched the bleach.
3. Re-think your notions of white-wash log stain. If your logs are too stained, no amount of pickled white log home stain will cover the mess underneath.

If you are a log home builder or own a log home yourself and have valuable tips to share with others, please leave them in a comment below.

As for me, it’s back to the building site and buckets of bleach!