Log Home Owners?

[beenthere]

If the staining of these house logs was on the outside, I would tend to think 'no major problem'. But, these stains are pretty clearly from water coming in from the outside, and all the way through the log joints to the inside. This means that the water is and has been between the log joints. Much more serious to me than just some superficial staining. To me this is all the way through the logs at the corners and as well, around the windows and down through the walls. One can choose to ignore the signs that are evident, and some probing should be done to make final determinations of soundness of wood.
Clearly a poor design for log (which is easy to do, IMO) construction.

 

[twabscs]

Marty / beenthere,

Thanks for the comments, and Marty, I'm more like you in that I like a challenge, but I don't want to take on something too big and without some sort of compensation for my effort...

I visited again today and got some more pictures. This first one is a look at the outside logs and the somewhat amateur chinking / calking job.

 

[twabscs]

Another view of a side wall.

 

[twabscs]

Some of the damage. This is the inside portion of the first picture above. Notice also the log "siding" above that shows no damage. Of course, I'm sure it's there, just not visible. Half of the house interior has the log siding material and so the damage isn't visible. One option, after fully fixing the leakage, is to use that material to "repair" the inside. Could also use the bleaching, staining method mentioned by Marty.

 

[twabscs]

Just to show that there is some nice aspects of this home. Here's a view of the open kitchen.

 

[twabscs]

And a view of the south side with deck.

 

[rtvman]

That's not chink it's caulk. Chink is a latex based motar that is designed to expand and contract as the logs will do naturally. Caulk on the other hand is not really designed for this application. This may be partly the reason why your seeing water damage. This caulk will not expand as far as the chink will and the result will be voids between the logs which will let water and other things can get in. Having said that, and as bad as some of these pictures look, I think you can still work with this provided that the damage (ie.. rot, pests) is not inside the walls. A lot of work to correct, but maybe worth it. Proceed with caution. Hope this helps.

 

[moeh1]

I agree with RTVman, he obviously knows his RTV when he sees it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif This is terribly amateur work, and would need to be removed and re-done right but if the logs are intact, its just some painstaking work. My wife and I filled all the cracks on our exterior surface, I think it took us 2 or 3 weekend and was a pain /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif. I wish I had a picture handy of my house going up. I stopped at the start of the peak on one side while I did other work and the other peak. I then put that peak up 3 weeks later in one day, I have a picture somewhere. Night and day difference what 3 weeks of sun and rain will do to un-protected pine. Even worse to imagine what 5+ years of neglect can look like at this place, but again if the wood is not damaged down deep, you can recover from this. If you end up going with it, it is important to remove the surface decay either with mechanical means and or bleaching/scrubbing and I would recommend a borate wash after that and think about mixing an insecticide into your outside finish to insure you don't have insect troubles. You may want to find a place that would corn cob it and re-finish it, get their rough estimate and factor that inot any offer you would make, assuming you can ascertain that the basic wood is still OK.

 

[moeh1]

Tom,
I've got another question. I went back to your pictures, but I'm having a hard time with one detail. Does every log have a chink line? Some of the log designs had a little space like 1/2 by 1/2" at every outside joint which was supposed to be chinked. It was as much for looks as anything else. One joint in a picture looked like that style, thats why I'm asking, or was that just more owner-caulk-happy work?

 

[twabscs]

Yes, there's no doubt this was an amateur job and the house has had to endure for many years in this condition. Marty, I'll add some additional pictures to see if you can get your answer. It looks to me like every log had the caulk in it. Most of the knot holes and cracks were also caulked.

Oh, I also finally got a hold of the local dealer and he's anxious to visit the place to give me some advice - no charge. Seems like a great guy and has been around log homes for many years.

 

[twabscs]

A corner view of the construction.

 

[twabscs]

More logs and caulk and (lack of) chinking.

 

[beenthere]

From the corner construction view, you can see the milled spline and dado (for the spline) on each 'log', that will get the argument that chinking isn't necessary. This doesn't explain the passage of water through the logs and down the inside walls. By rights, the spline should have stopped the infiltration of water. It didn't, and I suspect decay is present.

The species of logs used might be helpful (likely lodgepole pine from Western Montana, or thereabouts).

Someone did make a mess trying to caulk the logs, but I suspect that they didn't really know the source of the water and made the mistake many log home owners make. Better to not entrap the water in the log.

Good luck with your plans for the house.

 

[twabscs]

Agree. If they didn't even seal the logs wouldn't the log ends (and the whole log) wick moisture? Given the lack of maintenance throughout the house and the exterior I'm of the opinion that the owner's didn't have the resources or knowledge to maintain the home. From what I can tell, most of the leaking is coming around the windows and that one corner.

Also, I haven't bought the place yet, and I do appreciate the skepticism. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'm hoping to get the local dealer up there with me in the next few days and that should help a lot.

Thanks,

 

[moeh1]

I'll be anxious to hear what the dealer has to say. The corner detail photo was the one was looking for. Other than large up-facing cracks and possibly poor fitting butt joints, there shouldn't be any chinking and or caulk on the logs. The tongue and groove design wasn't meant for any to be put in. It likely is trapping water from poor application and causing the exact problem it was intending to keep out. All that caulk should go, there is a high quality product for application to the cracks called Log Builder, I'm sure other vendors may have a similar product, but I used and liked that one, but it isn't intended to be used on the horizontal seams if you have the log profile shown in your picture, I'd bet that started all the issues, largest question is how much damage has been done. Let us know what the local dealer said.

 

[twabscs]

Had the dealer go up with me on Sunday. He agreed that the home had not been well cared for and that it didn't look like they knew what they were doing. He indicated that most of the leaking was from the joint between the real logs (only going up 8 ft) and the log siding that continued up to the roof line. The outside logs hadn't been cleaned, stained, and sealed in many years. He felt things could be fixed without too much cost/effort and actually was interested in buying the place. He said he would be glad to help out in any way if I purchased the property. I Used 3+ hours of his time and all it cost was lunch.

Anyway, I had made a low offer on Saturday and after speaking with the dealer was ready for the sellers counter offer (I would go up a little). The counter was too high, but it was as low as they could go with out losing money on the deal. I could have come back to see if they would take a loss, but in the meantime (actually just today!), I found a beautiful 110 acres (closer to what I wanted in acres) just two miles from the log home. It was an excellent deal and I just signed the contracts a few hours ago.

Oh well, learned a lot about log homes, and I'll probably build one on the other place in a few years.

Thanks everyone for the help on this!