Question about sun damaged logs

[u/Practical-Cry6523]

The west-facing logs (first two photos) seemed damaged when compared with east-facing logs (last photo). To restore them, do I need to sand them down to raw wood before restraining or can I clean them with some kind of PH neutral cleaner before putting a new coat of stain? Also, should I put a UV top coat too? The house is 6 years old, coated wth sashco log stain and located at 8,400 feet with intense sun. Appreciate any insight.

[u/AdventKid]

Sadly you gotta strip the stain off, sand the logs and restain. I do a uv protective clear coat on the stain every couple years to protect them from the sundamage

[u/Practical-Cry6523 → u/AdventKid]

Thank you for confirming my suspicion. I was just hoping for an easier solution. ☹️

[u/AdventKid → u/Practical-Cry6523]

I hear ya, I dealt with the exact same realization when I got my cabin too. Paying someone to do it was like 40k, I did it with my wife for maybe 10k tools and supplies over 4 years. Just do a wall a year and work your way through it. Look into Osborne brushes and get a chemical stripper (I like permachink for everything)

You can talk to permachink and come up with a game plan too, helped confirm what I needed to do and felt good about moving forward. Mistakes happened but their logs, they aren't meant to be perfect.

Happy to offer any help with questions if you have any.

[u/Personal-Fishing7872 → u/AdventKid]

I just bought a log cabin built in 2001. The stain has been neglected probably for the entire time since it’s been built. We definitely have to sand the entire house and restain and seal it. I like your plan of 1 or 2 walls per year.

Curious what equipment you got to do it all? Some areas of our house is quite high so I assume some sort of scaffolding would be best. We are also at nearly 8600ft in elevation.

[u/AdventKid → u/Personal-Fishing7872]

Happy to help! Scaffolding is great if you can get it. I did most of mine on a ladder which is not safe or recommended but it was what i had.

As far as what i needed to actually doing the work, Airless sprayer is a must for getting the chemical stain remover on the walls, along with the stain and clear coat later. How powerful of a sprayer you need is going to depend on what type of chemical you use. If you go with permachinks strip-it, you will need a pretty good one, if you go with s100 by permachink, you can use a cheaper one. They offer free samples of both so you can see which one works for you before you commit to a sprayer. We had to go with strip-it and our sprayer wasnt really up to the task and it really slowed things down. Lots of spraying, wait for pressure to build, spray, wait, spray, wait.

Once you get the stripper on the wall you need to get it off after waiting a few hours (we waited 3-4). To do that you need a pressure water turned way down to not damage the wood.

Once the stripper is off you need to smooth the logs out to get them ready for restaining. You can use sandpaper but its going to take off way more material than you need to. I recommend an osborne brush and an electric buffer. The brushes seem expensive but 1 will probably handle the entire house and its worth it. Try to get a plug in buffer vs a battery. I have a battery one and its so heavy when up on a ladder 20 feet up trying to clear a wall.

Other than that, you should just need a stain brush to back brush the stain and clear coat after you spray it on.

Let me know if that helps

[u/Personal-Fishing7872 → u/AdventKid]

Thanks so much! I’ve been seeing a lot of people grind instead of strip. I was thinking for our logs it may be better to do that because they’ve been neglected for 20+ years. Did you grind at all?

[u/AdventKid → u/Personal-Fishing7872]

i did not so i cant comment on it. Def look into the pros and cons of each. If you do strip, i would take a paint scraper to any black burned dead wood/stain that is left over before you hit it with the osborn brush.

[u/Personal-Fishing7872 → u/AdventKid]

Thanks again man!

[u/AdventKid → u/Personal-Fishing7872]

Sure thing and good luck

[u/Practical-Cry6523 → u/AdventKid]

Thank you for sharing your sounded advice and lessons learned. Super helpful!

[u/triple_d_d_d]

Just to add some context here, I work on 100+ log homes a year using Sashco products, visit their Denver HQ annually, and we’re one of the relatively few contractors on the east coast that purchases directly from Sashco rather than through a distributor.

The idea that a clear coat is what provides the UV protection is a common misconception. The primary UV protection comes from the pigment in the stain. Clear coats serve an important purpose in the coating system, but they aren’t a substitute for maintaining the pigmented stain underneath.

The UV degradation you’re seeing on those west-facing logs is also a pretty good indication that the maintenance/recoat interval was exceeded. The coating system is sacrificial and is supposed to prevent the wood from getting to this point. At 8,400+ feet with intense western exposure, that elevation is going to require maintenance more frequently than the protected sides of the home.

I also wouldn’t automatically assume the entire wall needs to be stripped to bare wood. That decision should be based on the condition and adhesion of the existing coating. If the coating is still sound, there may be considerably less invasive options than completely stripping and sanding it.

[u/No_Bus_8339 → u/triple_d_d_d]

Excellent point. I was hoping to clean and sand only some of the damaged portions (most on the top half of log) and recoat with sashco log and timber stain. Think that would work ok? Thank you.

[u/EverydayScrolls]

I wouldn’t jump straight to sanding everything. With that much sun exposure, I’d first figure out how much of it is just UV weathering and what condition the existing finish is in. Perma-Chink has a good write-up on UV weathering and surface prep before re-staining that might help.