By Jeff Kyger
Northwest Log Home Care
www.northwestloghomecare.com

Pressure washing (also referred to power washing) is the function of using highly pressurized water to remove mildew, mold, dirt, pollen, UV graying, etc. You’ll hear different recommendations whether or not pressure washing your logs is the best cleaning method.

Generally speaking, pressure washing is the quickest and least expensive choice.

One fallacy is that you’re saturating and “damaging” your logs with water as a result of pressure washing. This simply isn’t true. On hard, sound, rot-free logs, you’re only introducing water into the top fibers of the wood.

When preparing a home for a new finish, one tool we typically recommend is a pressure washer. However, all pressure washers are not created equal. Choosing the right pressure washer for the job is critical for the proper performance of our cleaning and finish removal products.

Although paint primers have been used for many years, clear primers for wood are few and far between. Prelude™ is the only water-based clear primer on the market that’s specifically designed for use on log homes before the application of a water-based transparent stain.

Much of our technical literature and many of our articles refer to pH as it relates to its impact on bare wood and finished surfaces. Everyone should have a basic understanding of what pH means and how it is measured.

By Seth Murphy

Papadiy.com

Homeowners almost always have a list of projects to complete around the house. If interior projects are on your list, don’t let winter slow your progress. The truth is, there are several indoor maintenance projects that are ideal for winter.

Centipedes, millipedes, pill bugs, roaches, crickets, ants, beetles, spiders, wasps, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, bats and mice are just some of the pests that manage to find their way into homes. It’s just about impossible to keep all of them from getting in, but there are several things that you can do to significantly reduce the number of pests that make it inside your home. Most have to do with blocking the ways they can enter. Furthermore, there are also some things you can do outside to make your home less attractive to pest invaders.

Many people do not understand film-forming stains and how they adhere to wood. Much of this misunderstanding relates directly to the term “stain.” In the past, staining wood meant that the wood fibers themselves became impregnated with color and that the color penetrated into the top layer of wood. Even today most oil-based stains work in this manner. Once stained, if the surface is rubbed or scratched, the color of the stain still remains since the solvents carry the colorants into the top layer of wood which make the fibers beneath the surface the color of the stain.

While we call our pigmented finishes “stains,” in reality they behave more like water-based paints than traditional oil-based stains. The word stain itself implies that the wood fibers become stained with the pigments contained in the product, whereas water-based finishes form a film that covers the wood fibers without actually coloring or “staining” them.

For many years oxalic acid has been one of the most commonly used products for brightening and preparing wood surfaces for a coat of stain. Why? Prior to the introduction of organic solvent finish removers in the late 1990s, the most popular paint and stain removal products were caustic chemical strippers which contain sodium or potassium hydroxide. They are still sold at most paint stores, and although quite caustic and somewhat hazardous, they have been used for over 100 years and are relatively inexpensive.

Every summer we receive calls about small flying insects making holes in the exterior surfaces of logs. They are usually described as tiny flies, bees or flying ants, but in fact these insects are small parasitic wasps that are about the size of a fruit fly or large gnat. There are literally hundreds of parasitic wasp species and some of them specialize in parasitizing beetle larvae including wood boring beetles. They can be seen going in and out of existing beetle emergence holes looking for live beetle larvae to lay their eggs on.