Whether you are living in a traditional log cabin or a chalet with a full basement, wraparound porch, and more bathrooms than bedrooms, you will need to spend some time maintaining your log home. Borate treatment for log home maintenance is an effective way to help preserve the logs and minimize the likelihood that rot will set in. It also helps to prevent infestations of wood-boring insects.
There are three types of borates for log homes: liquids like PeneTreat, Bora-Care or Tim-bor; pure borate rods like ImpelRods; or mixed borate rods like Cobra Rods. We generally don’t recommend that homeowners use borate rods.
PeneTreat
PeneTreat is a powdered borate. The powder is mixed with water and applied to bare wood. It treats the wood in general for rot and also prevents infestations of wood-boring insects.
We use and recommend PeneTreat where we want general protection for the wood. It comes in a powder form and is typically mixed at one pound per gallon.
Bora-Care
Bora-Care is a highly concentrated borate where the borate is mixed with glycol to promote penetration into the wood.
This product is a gel, which is also mixed with water, usually on a 1:1 basis. The mixture is then applied to low, up-facing checks, lower logs that are getting wet all the time, windowsills that need extra protection and crown or log ends. These borates offer good protection from rot when used in conjunction with a quality log home stain.
Borate Rods: Not Recommended for Log Homes
Borate Rods or Crystalline Solid Borate Rods are either pure borates in rod form or borates mixed with copper hydroxide.
While borate rods sound like an easy solution, we’ve found that drilling holes into logs to insert the rods just gives insects an open door into the wood. It’s like pre-drilling holes for them. Drilling into wood can also open channels for moisture to enter the wood, and moisture encourages rot. Therefore, we generally don’t recommend that homeowners use borate rods as they can cause more problems than they solve.
Boron-based treatments are now an established part of log home maintenance. In the past, the chemical Penta was used as a wood preservative from the 1950s up until the 1980s. Penta (made from combining pentachlorphenal and creosote) was outlawed in the 1980s for public use due to its toxicity.
Many log homes here in the Midwest have had this chemical applied to their exterior over the years. Today, these same log homes are running into the issue of turning black where the chemical was applied; the preservative effect of the chemical is wearing off.
Penta wood teratment tended to preserve the outer 1/2″ of the wood. If the area where the product was applied did develop rot, the rot would take hold deeper into the log where the Penta had not penetrated.
Unfortunately, on most log homes, Penta is no longer an effective preservative because it leaves the logs vulnerable to the elements. Modern exterior stains act in a different way to control rot than Penta did. While the chemical reactions in the Penta prevented the rot from the taking hold, today’s modern stains actually control moisture, which ultimately prevents decay.
If your log home was previously treated with Penta and you wish to stain the logs to preserve them, keep in mind that you will need to do some work to prepare the surface before adding the stain.
Borates are generally a good treatment for log homes. Use liquids such as PeneTreat, Bora-Care and Tim-bor. There are other similar brands to try. These are good ways to get borates into your logs to protect them.
Homeowners should understand that borate treatments are prevention, not repair. A borate treatment won’t re-solidify your logs. If the wood is rotten, it needs to be replaced. Borate won’t fix logs that are already rotten. Maintenance of your log home depends on the wise use of borates to fight rot from the outset.
Visit us at www.restorelogs.com for more information on our services, or email us with your questions and concerns.
