A number of log home manufacturers offer squared log homes with cosmetic chink joints. Although some owners of these style homes ignore these cosmetic joints and just stain over them, others like the look of a chink style home which may be the reason that they bought the home in the first place. The question is when should you use Perma-Chink® in these cosmetic joints versus using Chink Paint™?

We've all done it - slapped on a coat of paint, then looked at the fresh paint and the old paint, realizing they're quite a bit different in color. Panic ensues, until the new paint dries and it blends in perfectly with the old color. This situation can occur with Check Mate 2, which does dry darker in color that when initially applied.

Although the color of Check Mate 2® may be apparent right out of the tube (gray verses brown, for example), the final shade of the color will not be evident until the Check Mate 2 has had a chance to dry. The picture below helps show what happens.

The most important step in finishing wood - whether it is a log wall, a piece of log siding, or even a piece of wood furniture - is the surface preparation prior to applying a finish system to the wood surface. This important message has been communicated by Perma-Chink Systems for many years. The reason this topic is so important is that this step, or process, has an impact on the longevity and durability of the system. More specifically, an unclean wood surface and the presence of foreign substances interfere with the direct surface contact of the coating with the wood substrate; furthermore, it will impact the adhesion properties of the finish in a negative manner as well as present a good possibility that wood discoloration will be a topic to deal with in the future.

Carpenter bees are big, black, solitary bees that look similar to bumble bees but have bare, shiny backs, unlike the hairy back of a bumble bee. Unlike honey bees that reproduce in hives, carpenter bees drill into wood in order to lay their eggs. Their holes are perfectly round and about 1/4 inch in diameter. Although carpenter bees prefer softwoods such as cedar, redwood, or cypress, they happily attack pine and most other species of wood. Even pressure treated wood is not immune from carpenter bee attack.

As the bee drills into the wood, coarse sawdust may be seen coming out of the hole and piling up beneath. Since it only takes a couple of hours for a carpenter bee to drill a hole a few inches deep, lots of holes can appear over a fairly short period of time.

If you live around trees, and most people do, you probably have carpenter ants around your home. Carpenter ants are typically large ants, although the size of the workers can vary in a single colony. Finding a few carpenter ants in your home each week is not necessarily a sign that you have an infestation. Foraging ants roam far and wide looking for food and an occasional ant trapped in a sink or bathtub is quite common. If there are trees close to your home, ants can fall or be blown off the trees onto your roof. They may end up trapped within your home during their journey back to their nest.

“My log home is around 2000 square feet. How much stain will I need?”

Often that’s all the information a customer has available when they first call Perma-Chink Systems. When people talk about the square footage of their home, they are usually referring to the floor area that may or may not include a garage. But does this number give us enough information to make an estimate of how much stain and topcoat will be required to finish a home?

Have you ever considered the impact that landscaping can have on the well being and beauty of your log home? Let’s look at some things around your home that can significantly affect its health.

How about EuroPlast?

Looking for just the right compliment to enhance the interior walls of your dream home? Consider the ageless appeal of Venetian plaster. For centuries architects, designers, builders, and owners alike have marveled at the splendor of this highly popular form of wall surfacing, and throughout the ages the artisans who were skilled at creating such beauty have been revered and sought after. With today’s advanced technology, you can now have this distinctive elegance and appeal at a fraction of the cost- in as little as two days.

When it comes to ordering sealants like our Perma-Chink® or Energy Seal™, there are two dimensions that you need to know in order to determine how much product you will need: the width and the cumulative length (linear feet) of the gaps or joints that you want to seal.

In the early 1980s Rich Dunstan, our founder and company president, had to come up with a company name. Although Perma-Chink Log Home Chinking was the only product manufactured at the time, he choose Perma-Chink Systems, Inc. The name was chosen because he had a vision of developing a full line of products to construct, clean, preserve, seal, finish and maintain the wood components of a log home. Over the years Rich has fulfilled his dream and Perma-Chink Systems, Inc. has become a systems company. No other log home related company offers the broad range of products that we do. However, this large product offering presents a challenge to our own salespeople. We expect them to achieve a high degree of expertise in a wide variety of different product lines. To reach this goal we devote hours of training so that they can knowledgably assist our customers.