Re-stain my log house

[sparky1]

Ok, I think im starting to undertand this I could possibly get by washing the house with the bleech solution and then re-stain over the existing stain to "darken" it up to what it was originally was. This would eliminate the pressure washing.

[sparky1]

ok.. I'm ready to order some stain now, I was chatting with a sales man yesterday. He told me to use the Sikkens system. First use the cytol 1 (one coat) and then use cytol 23 (two coats).  So i seen a house he said was done, and it looked great. But I then seen the price of the stain and it's 60 plus bucks a gallon. Is this necessary, I don't want to short change it. I also don't want to pay more for something thats not needed..

[frwinks]

judging by the pics posted by Jeff, the one coat SRD does a pretty good job.  The house stained in '04 still on it's first coat and looking fine

[Jeff]

The only thing I can say is that I'd not do anything different if I had to do it again. The other stuff worked fine for me. One thing though is my wood is all Northern white cedar. If I never stained the siding, it would still last my lifetime.

[oklalogdog]

sbishop

I used CWF on a rustic house I built in 1980.  The gables were rough sawn board and batten cedar with exposed rough sawn 6" X 12" cedar beams.  It was over ten years before I had to treat again.  The south gable at that time was the only one that really needed it.  The two east gables and north gable still looked pretty good.  I'm no preservative expert but CWF worked pretty good for me.

I am now in the first stages of building a log house and am also trying to figure out which would be the best to use.  There is another one used a lot down here TWP.

P.S. I'm in Oklahoma - I think the area makes a lot of difference too.

[MReinemann]

Looking back through this post even though it started in April.  Sparky if you still got the bats I believe wasp and hornet killer will kill them I remember my dad using that in our attic back when I was a kid.

[Jennsmith15]

Hi! I have a question. For the bleach/water mixture, can I just use regular clorox bleach?
We have white pine logs and woodguard stain was used the first time to stain them. The house and deck was stained in 2008 and they need stained again.  Do you all suggest going with sikkins? We have considered hiring someone to restain the house, but after reading these posts I think we can do it ourselves.  If I am correct, spray the bleach/water mix on with a power washer, rinse it off, let the logs dry, then apply the stain with a brush - 1 coat if we are using the sikkins correct?

[logsmith]

Re cleaning and staining, my experiences are
1. I avoid power washing for reasons stated on this forum
2. I use a stain product called TWP, not usually available at big box stores though
3. Someone asked about black logs near the top.  I found this on my house also, professional painters said it could not be removed.  I found it was simply ...dirt... that collected on the logs more protected from the rain.
4. To wash I just use a general house cleaner, like you can get at big box and attach to end of garden hose, and a brush on a pole and then good rinsing and drying.  But be careful, there are also products that will take off most of your existing stain, unless that is what you want.
5. I only use bleach or similar product to remove mold, which is usually just in areas that may collect water and are also more shaded from the sun.  Mold removal also takes some brushing
6. Re staining, after a couple of times having it sprayed, I have found that brushing is truely the best method and will last a lot longer.  But, there are some logs that I cannot reach easily with a brush, if any one has a suggestion for a tool for application in these cases would like to know (considered a roller tool with stain in the pole handle, but think that would be really messy and hard to get over a rounded log anyway)
 

[sparky1]

HOUSE DONE!!! WHAT A GOOD FEELING!!!!!!   I ended up pressure washing it. that took three weekends. I used a bleach and water mixture.. it worked well!! I then used Sikkens cetol log and siding stain. It was about 70 dollars a gallon, but i love the look!!! we went through around 11 gallons! A case of Korbel to my boss for letting me use the boom truck, and a couple hundred dollars for gas. It took two weekends to stain the house too! Now i get to go through and caulk all the joints, the builders didn't think it was necessary to do that...uggh.  all in all i have 1300 dollars stuck in this so far!!

[Magicman]

Congratulations on getting that chore behind you.  Now you can concentrate on fun stuff.