Preserving the natural beauty of a log home is a labor of love for most of the half million American homeowners who live in log homes. It’s also labor intensive, even with a power washer in hand. However, Kramer Industries has come up with a solution that now makes it easier to restore log homes – corn cob grit blasting media.
“Allowing dirt and debris to collect on log homes leads to moisture build-up that can cause a home to simply rot away,” explained Steven Schneider, sales manager of Kramer Industries. “With over 30,000 new log homes being built annually, there’s been a growing need to find a better way to maintain these homes without damaging the wood surface. Corn cob grit has proven to be the way to go,” says Schneider.
Log home owners seem to be in full agreement. Take Rob Nichels, who built his log home in a little town called Heuzelton, close to the St. Lawrence River in Upstate New York. He found out about corn cob grit blasting, and found Kramer Industries, on the Internet.
“Build a home with your own two hands, and you take a lot of pride in the roof over your head,” says Rob. “My wife and I just weren’t happy with the results we were getting using a pressure washer, so I went online, researched a few companies, and went ahead and bought a portable pressure blast system from Kramer Industries. It looked brand new when we were finished, and we didn’t have to waste a river of water to get the job done. We even put tarps down, screened out the dirt, and recycled most of the grit for our next cleaning.”
According to Kramer Industries personnel, some log homeowners are using corn cob grit on their interiors. “You only need to use corn grit every two or three years for interiors,” says Schneider. “It is silica-free, biodegradable, and highly cost effective. Log home owners remove or cover their furniture and anything else that could collect the used media before they blast. The only variable is which of our five grit sizes to use, which depends on the condition of the home and the degree of cleaning that’s required.”
How commonplace corn cob grit becomes may depend on the future of the home market itself. The American Institute of Architects says that log homes already account for 9 percent of the custom homebuilding market in this country. So companies like Kramer Industries may need to prepare for more and more homeowners acquiring a taste for corn. Meanwhile, people like Rob Nichels and his wife have never felt better about living in a home made of logs.