Black Creek Log Home Restoration: A Discovery Log Home Brought Back to Bare Wood

When a log home is built well, it deserves a finish that does it justice. This Black Creek, BC log home — originally built by Discovery Log Homes of Canada — came to us for a full refinish, inside and out. Frontier was hired to media blast every log back to bare wood and rebuild the finish from scratch with Sansin. Here’s how the project came together.

The Project: A Discovery Log Home on Vancouver Island

This home sits in Black Creek, on Vancouver Island. It was originally built by Discovery Log Homes of Canada, and the scope of our work was a complete refinish — both the interior log walls and the full exterior. The goal was the same on both sides of the wall: take the logs all the way back to bare wood, then build up a fresh, protective finish that lets the wood show through.

Media Blasting Back to Bare Wood

What does it mean to take a log home “back to bare wood”? It means stripping off every layer of old finish so the logs are clean, raw, and ready to take a new coat. We do that with media blasting rather than chemical strippers or sanding the whole home down.

Frontier’s media blasting uses crushed-glass media — recycled glass that’s 100% silica-free. It cuts through old, failed finishes without the toxic runoff of chemical stripping, and the spent media simply dissipates back into the soil. On this project, we blasted both the interior and the exterior logs down to bare wood before any finish went on.

Inside: Osborn Brushing and Two Coats of Sansin Purity Clear

Once the interior was blasted, we went over all of the logs with an Osborn brush to smooth out the finish. That brushing step knocks down any raised grain and leaves an even surface for the finish to sit on.

With the interior logs smoothed, we sprayed and back-brushed two coats of Sansin Purity Clear. Purity Clear is a water-based interior finish that keeps the natural, light tone of the wood while protecting it — exactly the look you want on interior log walls where the wood itself is the feature.

Outside: Masking, Blasting, and Four Coats of Sansin Teak

The exterior started with prep. We masked off all of the window frames with 3M non-residue tape so the glass and frames stayed protected — and so there was no sticky residue left behind when the tape came off.

From there, we media blasted all of the exterior logs down to bare wood, the same as we’d done inside. Then we sprayed and back-brushed four coats of Sansin in the Teak colour. Sansin is a breathable, UV-resistant finish that penetrates the wood rather than sitting on top of it, and the Teak tone gives the exterior a warm, rich colour that holds up to the weather.

Why Sansin on a Log Home?

Why use a finish like Sansin instead of a standard oil-based stain? Because a log home needs a finish that breathes. Sansin penetrates into the wood and lets moisture move in and out, instead of forming a hard film that traps moisture and eventually peels. That’s what keeps the logs protected and the finish looking good for the long run.

It’s the same thinking behind every step of this project: strip back to bare wood, prep it properly, and build the finish back up with materials made for logs. You can see the same approach on our nearby Comox Valley project and our Courtenay timber-frame restoration, both just down the island.

Thinking About Restoring Your Log Home?

Whether your log home is on Vancouver Island, elsewhere in British Columbia, or across the country, Frontier travels to you. We’ve spent 25+ years refinishing log homes from bare wood up — media blasting, repair, and staining, all in-house.

If your logs are ready for a refresh, get a free quote and we’ll talk through what your home needs.