Subject: Log home wood damage photos 1 - 3
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002

Sirs:
Please view the following pictures of some of the logs damaged on my log house here in Lake Charles, LA and see what you recommend - can your epoxy products help???
Thanks...neil p.

Thanks for the pictures. Very helpful.

You have a choice here:

Choice #1) Saturate the deteriorated portion of the logs with CPES (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer), which will virtually stop the rotting process. You would do this by first pumping in the CPES (with something like a kitchen baster) until you saw the CPES start to run out on the ground. You would pump it into ALL the cracks. You would also brush the CPES across the surface. The CPES will also harden the punky wood inside the log. This is something you will only have to do once.

After at least a week (it can be longer), you would return and flow in our Layup & Laminating Epoxy Resin, again into all the cracks until it to begins to run out.

After about 48 hours the L&L Resin will have set up hard, and you will then return with a soft flowable mix of the L&L Resin and sawdust, and flow that into the cracks -- again until it starts to flow out.

After 48 hours you would come back with a putty mix made from the L&L Resin and sawdust and with a putty knife push that deep into the cracks, and smooth it off across the surface. This will give you a wood-toned final fill.

You're done. The repair will be of structural grade, and permanent.

Choice #2) Remove all the loose wood. Saturate the remaining wood with the CPES. Wait again for at least a week. Then come back and fill the missing space with either the L&L Resin mixed with sawdust, or scrap wood (treated with CPES for rot protection) bedded in the L&L Resin/sawdust mix. Wait 48 hours, and then resurface the log either with the L&L Resin/sawdust mix or wood facing pieces, perhaps those you removed originally.

Based on the pictures you sent, I would estimate you would need a 2 gallon unit of the CPES, and probably two of the 2-quart units of the L&L Resin.

You really have no other alternatives for repairing these logs, short of cutting them out an replacing them, and that's not a very good choice because some of the rot fungi (or their reproductive spores) will remain and rot the new wood. There are other things that will kill rot fungi, such as Cuprinol-type solutions, borates and borate rods. But these will do nothing to restore structural strength to the logs, and they also become ineffective over a period of time.

Hope this has been of some help, and please come back if you have further questions.

Doc