Tips to Help You Maintain Your Log Home over Summer
If you play your cards right, your log home can last you your entire life with very little headache. It is important that even if you’re not there much this time of year, you take care of your log home. Simple maintenance can go a long way toward avoiding future headaches. Summers may come with vacations, sunshine, and green leaves but they also bring about dry spells and scorching heat. If you do spend time in your log home still, good for you! Either way, we’ve got some big things you need to be on the lookout for.
Even though logs are natural insulators of heat, your log homes still require some kind of preparation before summer comes along, to keep the home as cool and comfortable as possible. Here are some log home tips that’ll help you keep your log home happy and healthy even during a scorching summer!
Repaint with Light Soothing Colors
You may want to consider repainting your log home if you have not done so in a long time. Colors to consider include white, coral, lime, pastel pink, sky blue, and sunny yellow as any of these colors can help to create a calming and soothing atmosphere and also won’t absorb much heat. It’s not imperative that you paint, as logs are naturally not that dark, but it’s an option.
Door Stoppers
It is advised to install door stoppers once your log home is ready to go. Door hooks keep the doors from swinging open from things like big gusts of wind and can help to keep unwanted visitors like bears out if they were to try to get into your home any time of the year. The wind coming off of the mountains can be extremely fast, that’s something you need to be on the lookout for.
Gravel
Placing a layer of gravel around the base of your log home will provide extra protection to your home from water and erosion. The rocks are able to really slow down and disperse water, and they hold things together which are all great for slowing down any erosion. This also helps to keep the timber dry and thus prolongs the durability of your log home. Gravel is just very handy overall, it’s a great base for a driveway even.
Ventilation
Ventilation may be the last thing that comes to your mind when thinking about log home maintenance but it is actually very important in any home. Ventilation prevents the formation of condensation inside your log home, which of course isn’t particularly good for wood and many other materials. Install one ventilation grate on the back of your log home and another on the front for more effective aeration, this means the air will cycle through the entire house well. Nobody wants to walk into a place that hasn’t hair air circulating around it for a while, it’ll smell bad and musty and that could take some work to get rid of.
Treating Your Log Home
If you want to protect your log home against the elements i.e. rain, wind, and sun, then you need to treat your wood as soon as you can. You can treat your log home in many different ways depending on what your budget and preferences are. Options to consider include:
- Pressure treating to protect from fungus and insects
- Water-based treatment for weather protection
- Spirit and solvent-based treatments
- Oil-based treatments for weather protection and UV protection
If you need any advice or help with your log home, contact us and we’ll see what we can do to help you out.