Log house chinking

[Rob30]

I posted this before, but I hope for new answers. We have a log house that has been covered up. We have found that the chinking is missing in many of the walls. I want replace the chinking. However I am looking for a less toxic material than spray in foam. Is there a more natural substance I can make chinking out of?

[rafter]

We redid a 1929 log cabin. We used masonry cement and added some fibers to it so it wouldn't crack as bad. There was already some wedge backer wood in between the logs or some chicken wire stapled in between to help hold it.

[glenn amolenaar]

Go to www.lhoti.com this is a loghome site. Post your questions there or just search the site, lots of information and helpful people.
Glenn

[NWoods_Hippie]

Having worked as a chinker's assistant/helper for two summer 2004/2005, I don't understand what you are talking about when you say you want to use "spray in foam"? I have never heard of this process. When replacing or putting in new chinking we/I have always used LogJam for the actual chinking material, with backer rod put in behind it if needed.

Peace,
Margie

[coalroadcabin]

I'm currently chinking our log home with Sansin chinking. We're using a 1" poly-foam backer board behind the chinking. It's very easy to do and is elastic enough to move with the logs without cracking like mortar does, but it is pretty expensive.

[Liese]

We used Sashco products on our previous home built from old logs. Although we mostly used the backer foam boards we also split pipe insulation and used that too. But for the time into the job and the repercussions of a poor job - I was happy to use products that were formulated for the job. This cabin had been originally chinked with wire mesh & concrete 15 years earlier and was a cold, drafty place until we redid the chinking. We sold that place for 20k more than we put into it, so a good job also increases the value. By ordering all the materials in one go we were able to have the it shipped directly at no add'l charge.

[homesteadforty]

The most natural (and traditional) chinking material was/is a mixture of clay and lime.

[ericjeeper]

Perma Chink

[Nevada]

There is Biblical reference to using tar (asphalt) for that purpose, which was called bitumen at the time, but I don't know how "natural" you consider tar.

Since shallow petroleum deposits were common in parts of that region, crude oil would often ooze too the surface. After the sun baked it for a few years a homeowner could pick up a blob of bitumen in the desert and carry it home. It was basically used as chinking. There are a number of references to using bitumen for that purpose.

* Noah's ark, although it was called pitch in that verse. "Make yourself an ark of Gopher Wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch."
* The Tower of Babel. "And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar."
* Prior to the incineration of Sodom and Gomorrah, the area of the Dead Sea had open bitumen pits. "Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits"
* The reed basket that carried the infant Moses into The Nile River was waterproofed with bitumen. "And when she could hide him no longer she took for him a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen"

Hey, if it was good enough for them...

[Quinton]

A quick look around gets you a mixture:

2.5 parts sand
1 part Mortar
.5 Lime

Add Water to make a thick peanut butter texture, (think about the stuff that you get fresh ground at health food stores)

Much cheaper than any retail product!

[Wildcrofthollow]

We just built a log cabin the old fashioned way, with axes and insulated it with sheeps wool and daubed it with cob. you can see pics of the cabin (which will become my toolshed when we are finished living in it). at www.wildcrofthollow.com on the homestead page

Chinking is really the boards/pieces of wood/branches/whatever that was used to fill up the spaces between the logs so that you 1. wouldn't have to use so much daubing and 2. had something for the daubing to hold onto. I know that today what we call chinking is the mortar mix, lime mixture, or the caulk-like stuff that comes in a tube. It didn't used to be that way.

Daubing was originally mud or clay or whatever dirt the cabin builder had locally. We did some research and found out about cob. Cob not only makes great houses but it also makes great daubing. looks like concrete, feels like concrete, really cool stuff. Best of all, you make it yourself and it costs absolutely nothing unless you buy straw.

Cob is a mixture of sand, clay and straw. We found that the best mixture using our clay was about 60% sand and 40% clay then enough straw to hold it together well. We ran the straw through a mulcher to cut it up very fine. The mixture i just described is cob but it is not the mixture you would use to build a house with, you would need to add more sand for that. But it works great for daubing.

Dunno if this is really what you are after but it works great and has 0 environmental impact. And it is cheap as dirt. (little joke there)

[greeneyedgirl70]

Originally Posted by Wildcrofthollow

We just built a log cabin the old fashioned way, with axes and insulated it with sheeps wool and daubed it with cob. you can see pics of the cabin (which will become my toolshed when we are finished living in it). at www.wildcrofthollow.com on the homestead page

Chinking is really the boards/pieces of wood/branches/whatever that was used to fill up the spaces between the logs so that you 1. wouldn't have to use so much daubing and 2. had something for the daubing to hold onto. I know that today what we call chinking is the mortar mix, lime mixture, or the caulk-like stuff that comes in a tube. It didn't used to be that way.

Daubing was originally mud or clay or whatever dirt the cabin builder had locally. We did some research and found out about cob. Cob not only makes great houses but it also makes great daubing. looks like concrete, feels like concrete, really cool stuff. Best of all, you make it yourself and it costs absolutely nothing unless you buy straw.

Cob is a mixture of sand, clay and straw. We found that the best mixture using our clay was about 60% sand and 40% clay then enough straw to hold it together well. We ran the straw through a mulcher to cut it up very fine. The mixture i just described is cob but it is not the mixture you would use to build a house with, you would need to add more sand for that. But it works great for daubing.

Dunno if this is really what you are after but it works great and has 0 environmental impact. And it is cheap as dirt. (little joke there)

I have to tell you, i went and looked at your little cabin/tool shed and the work you all put into that is so amazing to me. We looked over 1/2 hour at your pictures lol
We have talked about doing our log home the way you all have but was not sure how to go about doing it. Your page brought us a lot of insight and I want to thank you for sharing that.

[Alex]

Here is a picture of our poplar logs and chinking, from another post.


Double Tree on varnished poplar logs, near stove. Chinking is 1/3 sawdust, 1/3 flour, 1/3 lime, insulation is moss.

This is from further on in that post, about mixing chinking,

Depends on how you mix it. After a few batches you get the hang of it. You have to mix it dryer for bigger spaces; mix it wetter, even a little runny, for smaller cracks or finishing. I have used caulking recently, when to lazy to mix a batch to seal off an area outside which I didn't like the looks of. But I should have mixed up a batch, because it last longer.

Inside, when it's varnished (only was varnished for the last five years -- before that no varnish) it will last (I want to write forever, of course that's not true) a long time. With good roof overhans it will stay dry. This fall, as mentioned, for the first time, we have added a stain-sealer to the outside. That should seal the chinking and help keep it even better.


That's me, with lime in the blue bucket, flour from the yellow bag, some shavings on the ground. Then you mix it with water, about like the mentioned dough, or thinner, depending.

Have fun, give it a try, you can always change it, if you can get it out.

Alex