The largest investment we usually ever make is buying a house. The crazy thing is we pay thousands of dollars to paint a car and expect to only pay hundreds to paint a house. A lot of people think its not that big a deal.
It seems this is most likely because we can all hold a paint brush or pull a spray trigger. However, this does not mean we can actually finish and protect the huge investment we just made. We build a $200.000 home yet most think we will do-it-ourselves painting or get some school kids to do it!
Also, over and over I see people buy cheap products from the local hardware store (I call them cans of colored water and fillers) then look for the cheapest person to slap it on their huge investment. Then they wonder why the finish failed a few years later but by that time their beautiful home is scared by sloppy and flacky work.
Quality painting is all about proper preparation and using quality products. How cheap and fast you can get it done usually ends up in peeling and flaking.
The final coat is the easy part here, getting it to stick, feel smooth and look "even" is the tough part. It is impossible to do things professionally if the prep work lacks all the basic steps prior to the final coat.

Okay, reality check... CAN LOG BUILDERS STAIN YOUR HOME PROPERLY? I have built log homes and conclude professional log finishing is every bit as detailed and labor intensive as that actual log shell construction. Proper wood finishing can take as long or more to finish the wood as it does to "BUILD" the log shell!
Most log builders sand and finish their homes in as fast as a few days and wouldn't think the painting is worth more than a few weeks work. They usually butch their homes without even knowing this.

I recently talked to a builder that built a million dollar cedar timber frame home. He asked me to quote the sanding and finishing. It was 4500 linear feet of huge timber frame cedar logs. I asked him what he though it should cost and he expected all the sanding and coating plus painting to cost around $8000 and that is could be accomplished in three weeks max.
Now, to do it right the sanding and buffing alone (not horrible grinders) would take two men five weeks to do inside and out. Air blasting would be days after. The coating solution would then take two weeks and I estimate 3 coats would cost $4000 or more. (Not including paint). If all we did was hand brush (no spraying) and lightly sand (no buff) with very little air cleaning after then maybe but it would be a ugly finish.
It was very obvious this builder had no idea what a "real" wood finish would look like, cost and how to actually do the work
He went to all that wood work and was going to finish it like an amateur.

The biggest rip-off to the home buyer and to the home it self is the cheap stain job and the builder that thinks he knows but butchers the finish for life. Remember, how it is "first finished usually sets the stage for the history of the finish. Most builders don't know how nice their homes can look until they see professionally trained finishing. If you let the builder finish your home, expect rough and flaky finishing and the home owner saying they love a log home but hate how dirty and rough they are.

This is not fast food here. Wood finishing "log home finishing" when done to last, is very detailed work.

The PAINTING Guys ™ 31 years experience in quality interior/ exterior painting

• cabinetry finishing
• wood walls
• railings and stairways,
• log homes interior and exterior
• post & beam or timber frame interior and exterior coating
• all commercial and residential interior wood finishing
• some antique furniture
• custom wood finishing etc.