Terry & Shelley S's Page

Amazing progress in family living !

Terry & Shelley,

I just finished viewing your photos. Beautiful place you have there. I'd say that riding motorcycle and living in a log home go perfectly together. What a lovely place to come home to after a long day's ride. Congratulations! We live where there are some pretty rough gravel roads and hills here in Arkansas so we had to sell our bike before we moved here from Minneapolis. Enjoy your new home. 

Denny

dennyj.com

Stay Clean is the mildewcide, not the cleaner, so you had it right the first time.  :-)  The shelf life of the Stay Clean will be as long as the shelf life of your maintenance coat.  With most products, that's around 2 years.  If you plan on using all 5 of those gallons before shelf life is up, then go ahead and get the Stay Clean for it, as well.  But if some of those 5 gallons will end up sitting around for several years (to the point it goes past shelf life), I'd hold off.

Hope that answers it!  -- Charis

Hi, Terry & Shelley.  Thanks for the comment on my page.

You've pretty much already tested - you can wipe away the black spots but they return.  You have some surface mold and mildew on there.  Easy-ish fix: 1) clean with a sodium percarbonate cleaner (oxygenated bleach) to kill the existing mold and mildew. Apply the cleaner then rinse thoroughly  2)  Allow to dry. 3) Apply the clear coat (is that 1 or 23?  I forgot...) but this time, boost it with a mildewcide.  We like Stay Clean I/E.  It will help control surface mold and mildew and it's pretty inexpensive - $30 for the amount needed for a 5-gal. bucket.  You can get smaller amounts for 1-gal. buckets, too.

Keep an eye out on other high-risk areas for the same thing (north side, anywhere that doesn't get sun).  If you see it there, treat the same way & you should be in good shape.

One other recommendation: get a hold of a moisture meter. Be sure your wood is below 19% moisture content before doing any of this work. Putting another coat on may trap some of the moisture and cause mold/mildew growth under the stain, which is much harder to fix.  My guess is that ceiling just doesn't get a whole lot of sun which is what is causing this issue.  Nonetheless, a moisture meter is a tool every log home owner should have around for routine maintenance.  You can get them for a pretty good price online.  You don't need anything fancy (like those digital moisture meters that run in the hundreds of dollars!).  A simple $30-60 model will do.

Hope that helps!  Beautiful home, by the way.  I always enjoy watchin the slide shows you homeowners have up.  :-)

Thanks!  -- Charis

Shelley, thanks for the info on the copper caps - we have done some searching on the internet but will check out Lowes!

We are in Lexington SC, about 10 miles from Harbison. Our log home is about 18 miles west of Murphy, NC - we are anxiously awaiting the time we can move there permanently which will probably be next year.

Enjoyed looking at your pics, dogs are beautiful too!