Corn Cob Blasting

I realize that most log home owners have never heard of corn cob blasting, let alone what it involves. This is the best means that I have found for the removal of an old finish that has failed. I have used this method on not only log homes but on homes that have cedar siding. This process can be used on almost any wooden structure.

It is a totally dry process from the start to finish and is enviromentally safe. The grit is made by grinding up corn cobs which are enviromentally safe and biodegradable. Any grit that is left in your flower beds or under any schrubs when the blasting is complete will make for good mulch.

The corn cob blaster operates the same way that a sand blaster works. The grit exits the blaster traveling down a hose under high pressure and is expelled out of a nozzle onto the wood.

I know that I made it sound really easy and in fact it is fairly easy once you get the blaster set up correctly. You need to adjust the air pressure so you aren't using to much pressure and then adjust the amount of grit being released into the hose. These two adjustments are very important so that you are just removing the old finish and not taking alot of the wood with it.

Most log home owners are not going to take on corn cob blasting by themselves for various reasons. The main reason is that you just can't go down to the local rental place to rent a corn cob blaster. Corn cob blasters may look like a sand blaster and work like a sand blaster but they are different in design.

Along with finding a corn cob blaster to rent you are also going to have to rent an industrial sized air compressor to run the blaster. This compressor has to be able to generate 125 cfm at 90 psi to operate the blaster properly. These are not cheap to rent and they use alot of fuel in a days time.

The work is very noisy, dirty, heavy and time consuming. On an average it takes me about an hour to set up in the morning and about two to three hours at night to clean up. I have three to four hours a day that I spend working and I'm not getting any blasting done. A normal working day when I am blasting will be any where from 10 to 12 hours long.

Even though corn cob blasting is alot of hard physical work I think that it is the most time and product efficient method on the market today. When the blasting is done there isn't any down time, just blow off the dust and start the next phase of your maintenance project.

When the chemical stripping or power washing is completed you have to sit back and wait for the logs to dry enough to apply the stain. Unless you have a moisture meter to check the logs to see how dry they actually are you are going to have to guess at it. Hopefully your guess is right when you start the staining.

This brings up the main thing that I dislike about power washing. The fact that you are forcing large amounts of water into the logs. I just find that as being unacceptable. I try to keep the logs as dry as possible between the corn cob blasting and the staining process when I am refinishing a home. Power washing will also leave the logs with a fuzzy look, which I don't care for. When the new stain is applied the fuzz lays down on the surface of the log in a blotch'y manner. It gives off the appearance that the stain was applied in a sloppy manner.

As for using chemcial strippers on a log home. I have never used a chemical and will never use a chemical for removing a finish. Any chemical that is strong enough to remove an exterior wood stain is going to be toxic. The chemical is going to be toxic to both the person applying it and the environment.

Both are good reasons why I do not use chemical strippers.

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Log Home Corn Cob Blasted

Cedar Siding Corn Cob Blasted