Log Home Owners?

[twabscs]

A corner view of the construction.

 

[twabscs]

More logs and caulk and (lack of) chinking.

 

[beenthere]

From the corner construction view, you can see the milled spline and dado (for the spline) on each 'log', that will get the argument that chinking isn't necessary. This doesn't explain the passage of water through the logs and down the inside walls. By rights, the spline should have stopped the infiltration of water. It didn't, and I suspect decay is present.

The species of logs used might be helpful (likely lodgepole pine from Western Montana, or thereabouts).

Someone did make a mess trying to caulk the logs, but I suspect that they didn't really know the source of the water and made the mistake many log home owners make. Better to not entrap the water in the log.

Good luck with your plans for the house.

 

[twabscs]

Agree. If they didn't even seal the logs wouldn't the log ends (and the whole log) wick moisture? Given the lack of maintenance throughout the house and the exterior I'm of the opinion that the owner's didn't have the resources or knowledge to maintain the home. From what I can tell, most of the leaking is coming around the windows and that one corner.

Also, I haven't bought the place yet, and I do appreciate the skepticism. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'm hoping to get the local dealer up there with me in the next few days and that should help a lot.

Thanks,

 

[moeh1]

I'll be anxious to hear what the dealer has to say. The corner detail photo was the one was looking for. Other than large up-facing cracks and possibly poor fitting butt joints, there shouldn't be any chinking and or caulk on the logs. The tongue and groove design wasn't meant for any to be put in. It likely is trapping water from poor application and causing the exact problem it was intending to keep out. All that caulk should go, there is a high quality product for application to the cracks called Log Builder, I'm sure other vendors may have a similar product, but I used and liked that one, but it isn't intended to be used on the horizontal seams if you have the log profile shown in your picture, I'd bet that started all the issues, largest question is how much damage has been done. Let us know what the local dealer said.

 

[twabscs]

Had the dealer go up with me on Sunday. He agreed that the home had not been well cared for and that it didn't look like they knew what they were doing. He indicated that most of the leaking was from the joint between the real logs (only going up 8 ft) and the log siding that continued up to the roof line. The outside logs hadn't been cleaned, stained, and sealed in many years. He felt things could be fixed without too much cost/effort and actually was interested in buying the place. He said he would be glad to help out in any way if I purchased the property. I Used 3+ hours of his time and all it cost was lunch.

Anyway, I had made a low offer on Saturday and after speaking with the dealer was ready for the sellers counter offer (I would go up a little). The counter was too high, but it was as low as they could go with out losing money on the deal. I could have come back to see if they would take a loss, but in the meantime (actually just today!), I found a beautiful 110 acres (closer to what I wanted in acres) just two miles from the log home. It was an excellent deal and I just signed the contracts a few hours ago.

Oh well, learned a lot about log homes, and I'll probably build one on the other place in a few years.

Thanks everyone for the help on this!