It is hard to deny that every log cabin made of natural wood, regardless the size and design, has its own unique charm due to its unique wood. In order to emphasize this uniqueness and maintain it for as long as possible, it is necessary to provide adequate protection for the timber of your log cabin. For this reason, painting a log cabin is a very important part. Not only does a painted log cabin look more beautiful, it also provides protection against damage from UV rays and the negative effects of water, and more importantly, painting log cabin protects the building from rot and fungus. Today, we asked Maestro Cabins, who are the leading log cabins manufacturers in Europe, to talk about essential steps of painting your log cabin to keep it looking its best for many years.
Correct painting of a log cabin
In order for a house to be adequately protected from the effects of the environment, four essential tips should be followed, say Maestro Cabins experts. Failure to follow any of these rules can not only make the log cabin look bad, it usually also has a negative effect on the wood itself, in which case there are a number of additional costs.
STEP ONE: Preparing log cabin walls for painting
In order to paint a log cabin with high quality, it is especially important to prepare the wood for the walls of the house correctly. When building a new log cabin, it is recommended to delay painting work for a long time, because, for example, wood such as pine, which has reached a humidity of 18%, can start to turn blue. Before painting a newly built log cabin, we recommend not to sand the logs. This way you will get better protection – the paint will be better absorbed into the wood surface and strengthen the wood, while protecting it from insects, UV rays, various types of mold and cracks. However, we recommend washing the facade before painting. Just remember that only completely dry walls of the log cabin can be painted, so be sure to leave them to dry after washing.
If already built log cabin isn’t new and you are preparing to repaint it, it is likely that you will find stains on the facade of it. In this case, before washing the facade, we especially recommend getting rid of the latter stains, because coating log cabin with paint can affect the future color of it. You can easily remove these stains with sandpaper.
It is very important that painting of a log cabin is carried out only when there are no more oil paints or varnish residues based on synthetic resins on the facade of the house, so they must also be removed. Although this work usually takes quite a long time, it has a particularly significant impact on the preservation of wood and the aesthetics of the log cabin facade.
Thus, painting log cabin will only be successful if the painting work is done on properly prepared, clean wood. If you pay too little attention to at least one of the above aspects, you can be significantly disappointed with the end result, despite the quality of the paint and the investment in the painting process itself.
STEP TWO: impregnating walls
Like any other building material, the wood used for the log cabin facade is constantly exposed to the sun’s UV rays, which cause it to turn gray. Therefore, in order for the log cabin facade to remain of high quality and look good for many years, it is necessary to take proper care of its protection and constant maintenance immediately after construction.
After preparing log cabin facade, you can apply the first layer of impregnant. We recommend choosing colorless protective impregnant, as this type of protective agent does not contain pigments, which helps it to penetrate deeper into the wood, thus ensuring maximum protection from biological hazards – insects, fungi, mold. Before starting work, mix the impregnant well. Remember that you can apply the first layer of impregnant on the same place for a maximum of ten minutes, as this protective agent will start to dry later. It is also important to keep in mind that the air temperature during impregnation should be not lower than 5 ° C and not higher than 25 ° C. When the temperature fluctuates around 20 ° C, the pores of the wood open, so the impregnant is best absorbed in such air. After finishing work, leave the impregnated log cabin facade to dry for at least 12 hours.
When the initial layer is completely dry, we recommend smoothing out any protrusions that may have occurred after impregnating the log cabin facade. You can easily do this with 320 gradient sandpaper, which will also help to even out the color of the wood. Later, you can take the next stage of impregnation – lubrication of the second layer of impregnant on the log cabin facade. Keep in mind that the absorption of the second layer is much slower, so log cabin facade should be left to dry for longer.
STEP THREE: choosing paint for your log cabin
In order to be really satisfied with the look of your log cabin, when choosing paint for its facade you should think not only about the color, but also about its practicality. It is especially important to know that the darker and brighter color you choose, the more sunlight walls of the log cabin will absorb and more the facade will heat up on warmer days. This type often fades faster on the south side of the log cabin as well, so to avoid fairly fast facade wear, we recommend choosing lighter colors for painting your log cabin.
It is also important to note that in order to choose the most suitable paint for your log cabin, it is necessary to evaluate the surface of the facade itself, because only in this way painting log cabin will guarantee the desired results. For example, if the wood is planed, it will have a smoother surface, to which much less dirt usually adheres, but it should not be forgotten that the paint also adheres weaker to such surfaces. It is for such a smooth surface that we recommend the use of a protective type of wood paint, which will cover log cabin facade flawlessly, will last a long time and will also not obscure the unique beauty of wood logs.
However, if the surface of your log cabin facade is rough, which is usually the case with sawn wood, this means that paint should adhere much easier. In this case we recommend using regular, high-quality paint for this type of wood surface, which will cover log cabins facade surface with a thicker layer. Worth noting that there is a downside to wood on such a surface – dirt will stick very well to it.
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