Most people are accustomed to spring cleaning, but if you are a home owner, you know that your house needs attention year-round. Fall maintenance is much like spring house-cleaning, but more preventative and less “cleaning.” And it’s much easier to do it now rather than wait until the weather turns nasty.

Have you noticed your heating bill increasing year after year? It could be that your home has cracks that let heat escape, costing you money. Seal up cracks and seams before the weather turns cold and it’s too late to do anything about it.

Specifically designed for milled and scribed log homes, Energy Seal is a revolutionary product offering superior binders that effectively seal all interior and exterior gaps and cracks.

Energy Seal is a 100% acrylic polymer sealant formulated to provide a long-lasting and resilient barrier for any chinkless log home. Since logs constantly twist, turn, swell, and shrink during the life of a log home, annoying gaps can appear. These gaps promote the retention of moisture, which can lead to log decay and damage, as well as seepage of air and water.

What to do if your log home was flooded? 

Log homes are actually more durable than traditional homes, and are more likely to survive natural disasters, including flooding. The clean-up and repair of a log home after flooding is also much easier; follow these steps...

All About Linseed Oil - And Why It's No Good For Wood

We occasionally get calls about the exterior of a home that has turned black.

Almost without fail it's the result of using an oil-based stain that contained linseed oil.

Linseed oil is a yellowish oil derived from the dried seeds of flax plants, and is also known as flax seed oil. Linseed oil is used as a carrier in many brands of oil-based paints and stains. Since linseed oil is organic, many varieties of mold fungi thrive on it. Over time mold can proliferate to point where the coated surface can turn dark brown to black. One way to tell if the darkening is due to mold rather than UV damage is inspecting areas protected from direct sunlight like under eaves and overhangs; it will be the same dark color as the rest of the wall.

Dear Mr. Kennedy and Perma-Chink:

My log home has just been restored beautifully by Mark Hoge (www.cascaderestores.com) in Oregon.  A rough start because of a short working season wound up to be a wonderful experience.  Once the job was started, they stayed with it until it was finished.  His men were extremely nice and polite and worked tirelessly to get me the best job possible. 

This is my second experience with Perma-Chink and the contractor who built the home in 1988, Dan Nicklason of Bet'r Bilt is still recommending your products.  In 2007, I had a local painter use the corn-cob method and I was pleased with that except my home was in such bad shape, we kept running out of the corn cob.  Anyway, I was pleased then as I am pleased this time.  I feel that Mark knows what he's doing and was very patient in answering my questions.  I would say he is a master at staining.  I am grateful and appreciate Mark and Mr. Kennedy who gave me the names of the people who could help me with Perma-Chink. 

Thank you, most sincerely,

Mary Lynn (Satterla)

Umpqua, Oregon

Although there is some controversy regarding its cause, the most commonly held theory about the formation of mill glaze is that it is created on logs, siding and trim by heat and mechanical compression generated during a high speed milling process. The combination of compressed wood fibers and high temperatures that melt the sugars, cellulose, and other water-soluble extractives present in the wood end up forming a surface glaze.

In today's economy energy efficiency is a subject that most people are aware of including log home owners and those people contemplating the purchase of a log home. With this in mind we occasionally get asked about the R-value of our chinking and/or backing materials since many people assume that they provide some insulation value to the exterior walls. In point of fact, neither the Perma-Chink nor the backing material contributes any significant insulation value to a wall. What they do is eliminate outside air infiltration into the home. This has a much greater impact on the overall energy efficiency of a home than adding a minor amount of insulation to a wall.

Why is it so Critical to Seal Exposed Ends of Log Homes?

Wood is a hygroscopic material, which means it naturally absorbs and releases moisture from the environment. Logs can safely absorb large quantities of water before reaching moisture content levels that will be inviting for decay fungi.

Some of the most vulnerable areas of a log home are the corner log ends. This is because the cross section end grain is exposed and the ends often stick out beyond the walls allowing sunlight, wind, rain, snow and ice to wear away the stain and expose bare wood.

The exposed end grain acts like small straws sucking water into the log, giving rot and decay an opportunity to start eating away the wood. In addition, wood cracks and checks are prone to start at the ends. If left unprotected long enough, log or log corner replacement may eventually be required.

Being aware of the susceptibility of log ends to weathering, rot and decay, we developed Log End Seal, a clear polymer finish that prevents water from penetrating into log ends and provides a layer of protection against log end damage. Although it is a sealer, Log End Seal is designed to allow moisture already in the wood to slowly escape. This helps reduce those large checks that often form on log ends.