During Nov. we had a heck of a wind storm come through that took out a lot of trees. One night, taking trash out, in the dead of silence, I hear a crashing sound. Fast forward and I found out what it was. A large ponderosa pine with an approx DBH of atleast 32 in! There is also another one that fell next to it. Looks like it y'ed off into two crowns and snapped at the y. I still have an aprrox. 20 or more feet of that still standing. The previous owners also felled two large ponderosa's in the front. One was bucked up and I used for firewood, while the other still lays in whole length.

 

Now, what I was thinking was utilizing these trees for some sort of domestic purpose. Rather than bucking them up and burning for heat, I would like to see these large logs used for something with more purpose. If the mill I was supposed to get would have gone through, I would be making lumber! But I guess my offer was less than their pride...

 

So, I had a thought. I want to build a front and back deck! Why not use them as building materials for the deck! Yea! Log verticals and maybe some support pieces, etc. Then it dawned on me. Once I cut them and peel them, then what? I need to preserve them somehow! I know there are those out there on this forum who have had to go down this road before. What to do?

 

I've been told by some before to use thompsons water seal mixed with diesel. Not sure how well that would work. I just need something that is lower maintenance and does the job. I started thinking about whether or not to sink them into the ground or if I should pour footings and mount them on that say 1 to 2 feet above grade? Maybe do some stone veneer, etc.

 

Anyways, the point of this thread is what preservative could I use?

The whole log idea I can say is going to take effort to keeping looking good. Like Shaver's in McCall, ID used the same idea for the store front. Today, years later the logs are splitting open, Th cracks in some logs are big enough to stick my hand into. I would suggest that the logs are set on concrete on buried in the ground.

There's a company call Sikkens that makes great coatings for wood. Best stuff I've ever used for wood preservation in the elements. 

While there are good preservatives out there just remember it will be a yearly or by yearly thing you will need to do to protect the wood. My father bought a house back when I was in the 6th grade that had a big painted deck on it. It was built out of framing lumber and we tore it down 5 years later due to rot. I remember my daddy coming home and telling me he bought some presents. I jumped pretty darn excited. He gave me a crowbar and a 3 pound hammer and told me he wanted it down by the time he got home from work the next day. Sure took the fun out of getting presents.

Kind of like us we use a mixture of linseed oil and mineral spirits to protect the wood. I'm sure JAG1 will tell you the same thing that it will not protect against UV's. Which my deck has turned dark brown to black in color. Wood is holding up pretty good. The hand rails are getting rather weathered.
 

As for your post idea... The whole idea of large log post is neat looking but going to add to your yearly house maintenance. Like last year I did not treat the deck because of the local fire. Had too many fires too close and the linseed and mineral spirits is rather highly flammable. So consider some of these factors.

Remind me not to smoke on your deck if I get there at the wrong time.

Just now, dripley said:

Remind me not to smoke on your deck if I get there at the wrong time.

 

POOF! Call 911 Dave is BBQ'ing...

That's how Dave gets the whole fire crew to refinish the deck instead of him stuck with it .

 

I'm on the fence about any kind of deck  finish stain wood preservative. I've seen everything used from a-z and to tell you the truth... never seen anything last unless it is under a roof. Instead I let nature weather my wood decks and just clean them with a pressure washer is all. They are lasting as long as any other deck that we tore out and longer even.

There is one item that works if you don't mind the cracking warping and shrinkage. It's the use of pressure treated lumber. That stuff lasts but have seen some of it fail. Still you have to p/w it every once in awhile.

 

Linseed oil is actually a good medium for mold to start growing I learned that the hard way a long time ago after Bob Villa stopped recommending it.

Edited April 11, 20169 yr by JAG1

I need IBMobile right now. Bet he has a flaming Ripley in his emotican stash somewhere.

 

As far as the wood goes, my daddy's deck was built out of kiln dried white pine. A favorite vertical framing lumber out my way. The paint on the deck helped contribute to the early demise. It just holds the moisture in and speeds up the process. Doug Fir is a lumber we dont see out this way much at all. We used to use Fir for all of our exterior trim due to it weathering better but there is not alot of that out this way and it started to get very expensive and we drifted away from using it. Maybe the doug fir will hold up better but it is still going to a maintenance issue.

 

I put some cedar lap siding on part of my house about 2 years ago. It came out of a Roadhouse Grill we tore down. it had some form of finish on it, not sure what. I added 2 coats of SPAR urethane to it before install. The gable that is in the sun all day already needs my attention. It is weathering fast. Could be the oils in the cedar dont like the finish. We used to put cedar shingles on the Burger Kings I built many years ago. Any where we had to caulk we used silicone. It would go on very well but you could go back a couple months later and grab the caulk and just pull it right off of the cedar like it never stuck to it. 

Yep any kind of wood finish tends to seal in moisture speeding up the rot process. Poderosa pine is a more rot prone wood than doug fir but if you are in a very dry climate, it may last 20 years anyhow.

What do you recommend on a log house?

12 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

POOF! Call 911 Dave is BBQ'ing...

 

                               

9 hours ago, IBMobile said:

 

                               

Thats what I am talking about.

So in the beekeepers world we have a few tricks up our sleeve to preserve our wooden equipment. In my area, we use pine. I paint my boxes.

 

By maybe another two I could consider:

 

1. Copper napthenate. How to apply it to a log though?

 

2. Hot wax dipping. Cut wax with rosin and cook the equipment at high heat in the mix. Wonder if I could use something like turpentine with wax.

Log homes should have good size overhangs so the finish lasts longer than on a flat deck out in the rain. I am experimenting a mixture of non toxic antifreeze and Borax soap for the wood treatment. I'm hearing Borates are available that will mix better than the Borax soap though.

 

Then I need to come up with a finish over the top that still lets the wood breath and not stay wet when there's driving rain against the log walls. Otherwise mold develops and that is the beginnings of rot.