Wife wants to put stones over logs

[Howling]

I have cedar. Stained for 20 years...about 7 years ago had bees set up camp. To many and to high to kill. So read up and bought highest rated exterior paint I could buy based on consumer reports and based on what I read about these pests. I filled all their holes with silicone then painted. I then had to use my .12ga do deal with the woodpeckers wanting the larva. ..next year they were much much less.. had a few that insisted on drilling through paint...repeated the process for just the holes including a few woodpeckers. This year I made some traps and only caught a couple...and ZERO holes this year.. (that I saw - woodpeckers will knock if I missed any). Bang

The woodpeckers like to attack my shop/office (T-111 siding). Found that hanging a couple CDs from the eves does a good job of scaring them off.

 

[BoylermanCT]

I live in a log home and have done battle with carpenter bees. I use bee and wasp spray to knock them out of the air, and I spray a shot in the holes they burrow into the wood and then come back with brown caulk and seal the holes shut. Each year I see fewer and fewer of them each year. I would spend a few hundred dollars on an exterminator rather than tens of thousands covering up the logs.

 

[EarPlug]

I have cedar. Stained for 20 years...about 7 years ago had bees set up camp. To many and to high to kill. So read up and bought highest rated exterior paint I could buy based on consumer reports and based on what I read about these pests. I filled all their holes with silicone then painted. I then had to use my .12ga do deal with the woodpeckers wanting the larva. ..next year they were much much less.. had a few that insisted on drilling through paint...repeated the process for just the holes including a few woodpeckers. This year I made some traps and only caught a couple...and ZERO holes this year.. (that I saw - woodpeckers will knock if I missed any). Bang

Woodpeckers are a Federally Protected Species Woodpeckers and the management of woodpecker damage

Legal Status

Woodpeckers are classified as migratory, nongame birds and are protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) and the ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) are on the Endangered Species list and are thus offered full protection. When warranted, woodpeckers other than the endangered species can be killed but only under a permit issued by the Law Enforcement Division of the US Fish and Wildlife Service upon recommendation of USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Services personnel. Generally, there must be a good case to justify issuance of a permit.

Woodpeckers are commonly protected under state laws, and in those instances a state permit may be required for measures that involve lethal control or nest destruction. Other methods of reducing woodpecker damage do not infringe upon their legal protection status. Threatened or endangered species, however, cannot be harassed.

 

[comancheflight]

They peck on my house they are dead....nuf said
Er, I'll just scare them and ruffle their feathers a lil bit...what I meant to say

 

[mark02tj]

I also live in a log home. A buddy of mine does too. Of course, both of us do battle with the carpenter bees. A few years ago he got talked into putting some sort of "rock hard coating" on his logs (basically some sort of epoxy paint) which was supposed to keep the carpenter bees from drilling in. It didn't work - so about $8k wasted. Also killed the charming look of the house.

I would think long and hard about putting some sort of facade over the logs. People who have never lived in a log home want to live in a log home and I think you have a pretty good chance of adversely affecting the value of the home. Plus, if your logs are rounded on the outside, you're going to have a hard time attaching some sort of "panel" to the surface.

It's tough trying to keep up with those stupid bees, but here's what I (try to) do... I try to do walk arounds on the house every day or so, looking for any evidence of drilling. I then "dust" the hole which prevents any further drilling. Often you can get lucky and find them when they're first starting, so the "hole" is basically like just the tip of a drill bit has hit it. If the bee gets any dust on it, it's usually a goner and it's a feel-good moment when you find dead bees around the perimeter of the house.

I HATE ladders, so having a house with 2-story high peaks is a challenge for me. I bought a "pole duster" which allows me to dust any holes from the ground. It's a bit unwieldy, but it beats the heck out of dragging out the extension ladder and climbing up it.

I got my "Delta Dust" and pole duster from "DoMyOwnPestControl.com". Decent prices and you can get all of the same stuff that the pros use from them.

As far as the woodpeckers, this was the first year that I had to deal with them. I'd often hear them out in the woods, but they were going after the Emerald Ash Borer larva. Now that the EAB has run it's course (and killed HUNDREDS of trees on our 5 acres), the woodpeckers were looking for additional meals. We had to take some interesting measures to discourage them from attacking the house.

Good luck!

 

[JRobyn]

When we built our new house, we knew we would use stone on a few of the exterior walls. We had a step put in the foundation, but decided that if we could find a veneer we liked well enough, we'd use that. Settled on Eldorado Stone Veneer.

Eldorado Stone - Stone Veneer, Architectural Stone and Brick Products

It is extremely natural-looking and comes in dozens of color/pattern variations, so that we could get one that was similar to naturally-occurring stone in our area. It is somewhat more expensive than some of the veneers, but the look is SO much better. We were so happy with what we put on the exterior (about 800 sqft) that we also had our mason do about an additional 500 sqft or so inside. Our masons put down regular expanded metal lathe, a thin scratch coat of mortar, and then "lick and stick" for the stone pieces.

We opted for NO mortar in between stones and just a small gap between. This saved a LOT of time (and $$) and made the material stretch. But you can vary the application techniques to your liking - no gap for a dry-stacked look, or mortar in between. The website has a gallery showing many variations.

The lathe and scratch coat would totally stop carpenter bees (and OTHER vermin)!

 

[dstig1]

I read this a bit yesterday and again today. The big concern I have is one I have not seen addressed: wood movement. Cross grain wood movement can be quite large, and logs in a log house are all cross-grain, going up the wall. If you try to put a stone facade over that, the logs will continue to move seasonally, but the stone sure won't. This is a recipe for disaster in the long run. The wood moving will put stress on the stones that will cause them to pop off, mortar to crack out and all sorts of mayhem. While I do not have a solution for you (though it sounds like others do with vigilance and treating the holes), I would be very wary of doing what you described with stone. If you built an independent wall facade in front of the logs and not attached to it, it would hold up much better vs attaching it to the logs, but that now creates a cavity that could cause all sorts of other problems like moisture/rot or critters hiding out and chewing on the logs.

If you can find a coating or other treatment that works, you will be much better off as I fear the stone idea will only end in tears...

My:2cents:

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Lathe:

Lathe - definition of lathe by The Free Dictionary

lathe
lathe (lāth)
n.
A machine for shaping a piece of material, such as wood or metal, by rotating it rapidly along its axis while pressing a fixed cutting or abrading tool against it.


View attachment 484392


Lath:

Lath - definition of lath by The Free Dictionary

lath (lɑːθ)
n, pl laths (lɑːðz; lɑːθs)
1. (Building) one of several thin narrow strips of wood used to provide a supporting framework for plaster, tiles, etc
2. (Building) expanded sheet metal, wire mesh, etc, used to provide backing for plaster or rendering
3. any thin strip of wood


View attachment 484393

Old fashioned lath:

View attachment 484394

 

[Deere Dude]

I read this a bit yesterday and again today. The big concern I have is one I have not seen addressed: wood movement. Cross grain wood movement can be quite large, and logs in a log house are all cross-grain, going up the wall. If you try to put a stone facade over that, the logs will continue to move seasonally, but the stone sure won't. This is a recipe for disaster in the long run. The wood moving will put stress on the stones that will cause them to pop off, mortar to crack out and all sorts of mayhem. While I do not have a solution for you (though it sounds like others do with vigilance and treating the holes), I would be very wary of doing what you described with stone. If you built an independent wall facade in front of the logs and not attached to it, it would hold up much better vs attaching it to the logs, but that now creates a cavity that could cause all sorts of other problems like moisture/rot or critters hiding out and chewing on the logs.

If you can find a coating or other treatment that works, you will be much better off as I fear the stone idea will only end in tears...

My:2cents:

Putting stone on a walls that look nice already would be a super super expensive proposition.

In my buildings I have, sadly, thousands of holes and one fix is to get a ladder and spray a special dust in each hole which was not going to happen. Way too many to effectively do. I can't emphasize enough how good this stuff works.
Bifen IT, Bifenthrin 7.9% Insecticide - Free Shipping

I did put 7 bee traps up even after this, but for the first couple years I got maybe one bee and some other bugs which is good because I want them over at someone else's house. Early this summer I noticed as I was mowing the 3 acre lawn adjacent to the barn that as I would mow I would kick up thousands of bees flying a few feet over the grass.

I have a row of short (3-12') black hills spruce trees in the front of the lawn near the road. There were hundreds of carpenter bees flying around them also which I didn't like. The next day I got my sprayer and sprayed everyone of them with this Bifen IT. So far none came back.

This stuff is sold under other names also but spraying this stuff on and just forgetting the holes would be the easiest fix I read so far.

 

[Piston]

Aside from all that, she's also simply thinking she'd like to change the look of the house.

(turns out, I married the queen of change things just for the sake of spending money to change them)

Hey Richard,
Turns out your wife must be my wife's twin. I didn't know she had a twin...