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Log home refinishing · Chewelah, WA
Mike Bellevue came up as a carpenter and got pulled into paint. Three years after he bought his first blaster, log homes were most of the work. Five coating crews now run out of Chewelah, and every log crew is in house.
How a log home gets finished
L&I CHEWEP*779P6
Licensed WA contractor
$1M liability
Plus a $15,000 bond
4.5 stars
77 Google reviews
Five coating crews
All log crews in house
Chewelah since 2008
Stevens County based
Why log work is its own trade
Every log on a wall is a different piece of timber. Species, how it was cut, which face took thirty years of afternoon sun, whether it ever got sealed. They do not blast the same and they do not take stain the same.
That is the whole reason this is a specialty and not a line item on a painting bid. A crew that treats the wall as one surface gets a finish that fails in patches inside three years.
Each log blasts and stains differently depending on species, exposure, and a number of other factors. We learn something on every job. Mike Bellevue, owner
01
Forty-seventy fine glass on a pot blaster takes the failed finish off without burning the wood or leaving sander swirl in it. The grain comes back up raised and open, which is the only state a stain will actually soak into.
40/70 fine glass media
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Two of the crew blasting a log wall under containment
02
Where a log is punky the bad section gets cut back to sound wood and a matching log is let in. Mike is a carpenter first, so this is in house rather than a subcontractor and a second mobilization.
Carpentry division
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Lift work on a two-storey log home
03
Sashco Log Jam on the joints, backer rod behind it, and the checks on the upward faces sealed so water stops sitting in them. This is the step that decides whether the house is tight in January.
Sashco Log Jam · backer rod
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Chinking bead between stained logs
04
Sprayed on and then back-brushed by hand so the finish is pushed into the grain instead of sitting on it. Messmer's UV Plus on most log work, Sashco Capture and Cascade where the customer wants that system.
Messmer's UV Plus · Sashco
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Back-brushing stain on a log wall
Finishes, on real houses
A two inch stain sample tells you almost nothing about how a finish will sit on a wall of forty year old logs. These are four of their own jobs, photographed in daylight, so you can see what each tone actually does to the grain.
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Honey cedar
Loon Lake, WA
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Amber
Mead, WA
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Red cedar
Elk, WA
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Dark walnut
Inchelium, WA
Tones shown are Messmer's UV Plus and Sashco systems on cedar and pine. Mike also has Sherwin-Williams run large colour drawdowns for exterior paint work, so you see the colour at size before the crew starts.
Where the work is
Colville
Dominion Meadows Golf Course and a commercial metal roof, both in 2024.
Spokane
South Hill exterior, an interior repaint and a blasting job on the north side.
Loon Lake
Lake cabins, repeat customers, and owners who are out of state half the year.
Mead
A full log restoration north of Spokane, eight photos deep.
Seven Bays
Cedar restoration on the Lake Roosevelt shore, where the sun does the damage.
Inchelium
Log home on the reservation side of the lake, stain stripped and rebuilt.
Davenport
New construction pre-finished, plus two cedar homes on the Big Bend.
Colfax
The Steiger family farm. Two barns, a house and the outbuildings.
Everything else they paint
Mike kept the painting crews when log work took over, so a house, a shop roof and a deck can all go on the same schedule instead of three contractors and three mobilisations.
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Pressure wash, prep, rot repair, then a finish built for a Stevens County winter.
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Pro-Cryl DTM primer and Bond-Plex topcoat. A 3,600 sq ft roof in Colville took one week.
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Blasted or sanded back to clean wood, then Messmer's. Not a coat over the old one.
Sashco Log Jam over backer rod, and the checks sealed so water stops sitting in them.
40/70 fine glass under containment. Strips the finish without burning the wood.
Open beams, vaulted ceilings, popcorn removal and texture. Papered floors, taped glass.
Loose boards fixed first. Lifts hauled in where the ground will not take a boom.
Doors pulled, sprayed and rehung. Benjamin Moore Scuff X where it gets handled.
The whole system: blast, repair, chink, stain. Most of what the company does.
Who you are hiring
Mike Bellevue trained as a carpenter and moved to Washington intending to stay one. Paint found him instead. Working in a county full of log homes, the first log job turned up quickly, and it was brutal work with the methods he had then.
I stumbled across Zero Failures and was blown away. I immediately bought a blaster and started marketing log home services. Three years later log homes became the majority of our work. Mike Bellevue, in Sashco's contractor interview
Chewelah Painting has worked out of Chewelah since 2008 and incorporated in 2011. There are five coating crews now. The log crews are employees, not subcontractors, which is why a rot repair does not turn into a second contractor and a second mobilisation. The carpentry side is Mike's own trade.
The office is Alyssa and Misty. The names that come up most in reviews after Mike are Darren, Dave, Kyle, Laura and Sam.
Mike Bellevue · Owner · Chewelah, Washington
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What customers say
4.5
77 Google reviews
★★★★★
Mike Bellevue and his team at Chewelah Painting have been maintaining and refinishing the logs on my log home for years. Mike has an impressive knowledge of the various products and techniques needed to care for log homes. Every time they finish a job, my home looks like it's been brought back to life.
Matt Robinson
Google · December 2024
★★★★★
My log home had not been maintained properly and needed some TLC. They removed all the old stain, applied new stain, painted the trim and chinked my log home. Mike provided me multiple options and explained everything they were doing and why he recommended it. I wish I'd done this years ago when I bought the home.
Kallin Baumann
Google · October 2022
★★★★★
I have had several clients use Chewelah Painting and they have always been timely, professional and communicated well. Chewelah Painting has done some of the best log home staining and refinishing I have seen!
Sawyer Bardwell
Google · December 2024
★★★★★
Our house was in pretty bad shape. We got estimates from three companies. Chewelah painting was the highest estimate, but we went with them because their estimate was the most detailed. The crew we had was amazing and I feel like I have a new house! These guys showed up every day and never stopped working.
Terry
Yelp · May 2026
★★★★★
Mike and his team painted our cabin on Loon Lake and did an excellent job. Both Kyle and Mike worked closely with me to make sure the final product met my expectations. I did request a couple small changes and they were made immediately without any pushback.
Todd K.
Google · July 2022
★★★★★
Dominion Meadows athletic association would like to thank Mike and his crew for helping our non profit achieve our goal of improving our facility. A total of five structures were cleaned, primed, and repainted within a week and without any issues.
Frank Young
Google · December 2024
Where the crews go
The crews run out of Chewelah. Colville is twenty minutes, Spokane is an hour, and the Lake Roosevelt towns are the other direction. Small towns are most of the work, and they are worth the drive.
Before you call
Washington State contractor registration CHEWEP*779P6, active and in good standing. Bonded $15,000 and carrying $1,000,000 general liability. Bellevue General Contractors, Inc., UBI 603 143 468.
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Next step
Tell us what the building is and where it is. Someone comes out, walks it with you, and you get back a scope that says what is included. Spring exterior slots fill over the winter.