Log Home Repair and Restoration Serving New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut

Cabin Doctor, LLC. specializes in log home repairs and restoration.

Often older log homes succumb to the weather and have rotted logs. There is a right way to address this. This would mean cutting away the rotted portion of the log and replacing it. We have in stock at all times, wall logs from 3 different mfr's, round pine logs, square oak logs, cedar logs and Chestnut logs.

This can be done 1 of 2 ways. We either remove what is left of the rotted log and replace it completely or we remove enough of the rot from the outside so as not to reduce the structural support and attach a ½ log to the outside taking care to match species, mfr, cut and cambia. This is known as refacing. We then chink or caulk the joints. When completed properly, to the untrained eye, there is no discernable difference.

There are many log home manufacturers that are no longer in business. We will find the closest match to your logs. In addition to log repair or replacement we can also powerwash or cornblast the exterior and apply a stain/sealer to protect your investment.

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Dan Beard Cabin
Late in 2010 we were asked to participate in the relocation of the cabin used and formerly owned by Dan Beard, one of the early founders of the Boy Scouts of America. This Cabin is/was located in Hawley, PA. It had been purchased by a developer (Woodloch Pines) as part of a large land purchase and served them for a few years. Woodloch wanted to repurpose the property and graciously offer the Boy Scouts the cabin free if they could remove it. So we were enlisted to take the cabin down, log by log, mark it and stack it on a trailer. We did this in January of 2011. The cabin will be relocated to the Goose Pond Scout Reservation in Lake Ariel, PA operated by the northeast PA council Dan Beard district sometime in the next few years as funds allow. To see the progress of this project or to donate funds for this, go to this website http://www.nepabsa.org/danbeardcabin

Before and After Shots
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This is the New Jersey State Police Museum located in Trenton NJ on River Rd
We were involved in the replacement of over 500 lf of rotted logs on this project. The cabin served as the State Police original headquarters when they started out in 1921 so the cabin was built in 1934 as a CWA project. The logs we used to replace the rotted logs had to be from the same era and had to match the species which was Chestnut. To find vintage Chestnut logs (after they were all killed off by blight by 1940) we had to scour the countryside to find barns that had been disassembled and were on the ground. We would then have to remove any nails, cut out any mortise holes, run the beams through a sawmill to cut into “cants” 6x6, 8x8, 10x10 or 12x12 we then sawed them into octagon shaped logs and then had to hand plane them into round logs. So, 100 years ago stood a Chestnut tree. It was cut down, sawed into a beam and erected into a barn. 80 years later the barn comes down and we take the square beam and convert it back to a round log.
http://www.state.nj.us/njsp/about/museum.html

Before and After Shots
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Below is the historical landmark home of Gustav Stickley AKA Craftsman Farms in Morris Plains, NJ.
Cabin Doctor, LLC. was selected to restore the log portion on this important historical restoration project.

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The Doctor Says:
“There is a right way and a wrong way to install replacement logs. We only do it the correct way. ”