Jeremy Hughes

Woodpeckers cannot tell the difference between the wood in your home and dead trees in the forest, so they occasionally cause damage to logs, siding, or fascia boards. People attribute this damage to woodpeckers pecking for grubs in the wood, but that is not always the case. There are three main reasons that woodpeckers peck on wood; one, they are looking for something to eat, two, they are defining their territory and three, they are making a nest. It is usually the second reason that it creates the most damage.

Woodpeckers are very territorial. In order to let other woodpeckers know that this is his (or in some cases her) territory, it flies around the perimeter of its territory, usually in the morning, and initiates a series of raps on hollow trees or other wood members that have the “right” sound. This behavior is called “drumming” and consists of two or three long brrrrrrrrrrrps. The woodpecker will typically drum in one spot for a minute or so, day after day. It does not take long before a large, irregular hole appears at the drumming site. If the site is a log or siding of a home, it can become a real eye sore.

When a woodpecker pecks for grubs in wood it acts differently and makes smaller cone-shaped holes or a long gallery. If you have ever seen a woodpecker searching for grubs it will constantly turn its head as if looking for something on the wood. It is actuality listening for grubs feeding in the wood. All it needs to do is make a hole large enough for its tongue. A woodpecker’s tongue is long and thin and that is what it uses to catch a grub in a gallery. The holes woodpeckers make searching for grubs are usually no more than an inch or so in diameter. Occasionally a woodpecker will attempt to excavate out a round nesting hole in a log, but it is rare and if the wood is sound, it will usually give up after a few days. However, they will make a hole in synthetic chinking to establish a nesting site.

Solving the Problem

One thing you can try to discourage drumming woodpeckers is to put a piece of metal window screen over the area where the woodpecker drums. This often discourages it enough that it will go elsewhere. Fake owls, snakes, and other scare devices may work for a little while, but it does not take exceedingly long for the woodpecker to discover that if it just ignores it, nothing happens. Trapping and releasing woodpeckers aren’t highly effective either. They can fly and unless you release them miles away, they will return to their home territory within a few days.

For woodpeckers feeding on beetle grubs, the best solution is to kill the grubs in the wood and the way to do that is to treat the wood with a borate. This will kill the beetle larvae and if there are no grubs for the woodpecker to search for, it will move on to better feeding sites. However, borates are not effective for eliminating or preventing carpenter bees so other methods of control must be used.

Three types of woodpeckers that occasionally damage log homes

Through late fall to early spring, we occasionally receive calls about Lifeline Advance topcoat turning milky white after application, a condition called blushing. Before discussing blushing, the formulas for both Lifeline Advance Gloss and Satin have recently been modified to reduce the probability of blushing without altering any of their properties.

Blushing is mostly caused by atmospheric humidity, reduction in rate of solvent evaporation, and low temperatures. Any water that gets trapped or incorporated into the film may cause blushing. This is particularly noticeable on shaded walls, especially where Lifeline Advance has been applied too heavily. Once Lifeline Advance has a chance to dry and cure this whitening should disappear, but it may take several warm, dry days. There is not much anyone can do to help speed up the curing process. When the blushing occurs on a few logs, using a hairdryer on the area can sometimes help (do not use hot air). Often, the best thing is to do nothing. If blushing occurs in the fall, it may take until spring for the Advance to completely resolve and turn clear.

The best way to avoid blushing is to apply the Lifeline Advance when the conditions are most favorable for success. For example, avoid applying when the temperatures are low and relative humidity is high. Dew formation is more likely as well as an increased risk for blushing. Instead, apply it during warm and dry conditions when possible.

Blushing does not affect the durability or performance of the finish. It is, however, cosmetically unattractive until the arrival of warm, dry weather. Once the Lifeline Advance is clear, blushing should never re-occur.

Contractor: Ferrari Structures & Woodworks

This historic home in Chesapeake, Ohio, has quite a story. Local tradition says it was built by Jacob Suiter, a stout Pennsylvania Dutch settler, who hand-hewed the white oak logs on site and joined them with wooden pegs. The Ohio Historic Inventory (1976) records the date as 1824, though other sources suggest it may have been built as early as 1805–1825. That makes it the oldest known house in Chesapeake.

The main structure is a two-story, roughly 28′ x 35′, set on a 5′ crawl space/cellar. It originally featured half-dovetail log corners (a hallmark of German-influenced builders), with horsehair chinking later patched in with cement. A family room addition and enclosed front porch were built after 1925, using sandstone quarried right on the property. The upper gables were originally hand-split cedar shakes, which the client asked us to update with cedar shakes vinyl siding for easier upkeep.

In restoring the home, we removed layers of cement that had been applied over the logs and carefully assessed the structure. Twenty-one logs had to be replaced — all with white oak salvaged from a deconstructed 1815 structure in Wheeling, WV. These reclaimed logs were in excellent condition, and it was exciting to bring 200-year-old timbers back into service. We removed the paint on the logs, repaired and replaced chinking throughout, replaced the old fascia and window trim with rough-sawn hemlock and corrected a long-standing gap between the chimney and the house. The roof framing showed sawn rafters rather than rounded poles, which was an interesting detail.

For finishing, we used Perma-Chink Systems products: Log Wash, Ultra-7 in Gentry Gray, Lifeline Advanced Gloss Clear Coat, Stone-colored Perma-Chink log chinking and Chink Paint, and Dark Natural Energy Seal (which blends more naturally into the logs).

It’s been an honor to help preserve this remarkable piece of history for the current owners, The Nelson’s. Many thanks to Wilderness Woods for supplying the reclaimed oak and hemlock materials and to Perma-Chink Systems for their fantastic Products. Here are informative links to the house with a pre-addition and pre-restoration photos: Oldest House in Chesapeake Ohio | Jacob Suiters House in Ohio

Perma-Chink Systems Products Used

• Log Wash
• Lifeline Ultra-7 – Gentry Gray
• Lifeline Advanced Gloss Clear Coat
• Perma-Chink – Stone
• Chink Paint – Stone
• Energy Seal – Dark Natural

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