Sound like you're almost done. Yay!! If you leave an air space in the middle make sure you ***** tightly. I know it's an added expense, but how about a little fiberglass insulation in there? IMO, it would be better.

 

I haven't been involved in a lot of log cabins but generally there is something that takes up the void in modern cabins before you try and fill-it with chinking. The shrinking of the logs will allow the chinking to come away and it could be very drafty. Chinking is not a glue.
THe old timers were constantly adding chinking till the logs quit shrinking.

 

Bill-never thought of placing fiberglass insulation between...hmm...should have asked this question before my husband spent weeks stapling the lathe wire on both the inside of the cabin and out. Live and learn.

Watcher-we don't have to worry about shrinking of the logs as they are about 100 years old. I should have mentioned that. We rescued a ~100 yr. old cabin, and reassembled the logs at our place. There are some areas between the logs that are 5-6 inches apart requiring lots of chinking material.

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

Oh my gosh. If the logs are that far apart, try scribing boards to help fill the gaps on edge, then insul in the middle and a lot less chinking.

 

Bill-never thought of placing fiberglass insulation between...hmm...should have asked this question before my husband spent weeks stapling the lathe wire on both the inside of the cabin and out. Live and learn.

Watcher-we don't have to worry about shrinking of the logs as they are about 100 years old. I should have mentioned that. We rescued a ~100 yr. old cabin, and reassembled the logs at our place. There are some areas between the logs that are 5-6 inches apart requiring lots of chinking material.

Thanks for your suggestions.

May I suggest a little rereach about putting fiberglass insilation in the logs. Infomation I found states figerglass insulation in a sealed area will wick moistune and cause the to logs to rot. Perhaps( Log Homes On The Internet )site may clear this information up for you.
25 years log building. Good Luck

 

Some of the builders use rigid foam insulation cut to help fill the various sized openings and most use the new manufactured chinking more costly but lasts much longer.

Glenn

 

You need to insulate the space betweent the logs if you live in a cold area. We use Sphagnum Moss. Fiberglass is OK. If mice get into to Fiberglass they nest.

Insulation for free

Our Tamarack-forest-bed is lush light-green with thick and abundant Sphagnum moss; Nancy and Gretchen spent a lot of time collecting bags of it for filler and insulation between the logs. The Sphagnum moss is not of interest to rodents;

• If they get through the outer killer chinking, it is made of one-third lime which is lethal for rodents,
• Then there is nothing for them:
• Unlike Fiberglass which they like, and will remove from between the logs,
• Then use it for bedding in their nests.

We arranged one inch of moss on the lower log, then rolled the top log into place on top of the moss filler. The moss compressed and made a good insulated joint, some places where the logs curved a lot, we added extra by jamming it in between the logs.

In general our logs have a six-inch flat face and fit tight together, because we rolled them together on the ground and repeatedly ran our chainsaw between them. Some place there is two-inches to fill with insulation.

Insulate.

Alex

 

Bill-never thought of placing fiberglass insulation between...hmm...should have asked this question before my husband spent weeks stapling the lathe wire on both the inside of the cabin and out. Live and learn.

Watcher-we don't have to worry about shrinking of the logs as they are about 100 years old. I should have mentioned that. We rescued a ~100 yr. old cabin, and reassembled the logs at our place. There are some areas between the logs that are 5-6 inches apart requiring lots of chinking material.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Even though they are 100 years old when you put heat in the house I think you will still get some shrinkage. I think the moss or the foam between the wire is a good idea. you can buy foam that has rodent and insect stuff in it.
My other question about 100 year old logs is how clean are they. IF they have a surface dirt and deterioration you could find your chinking falling away

i'm a carpenter turned furniture builder so I'm just coming from my experience in using old lumber

 

Great Stuff is indeed great stuff. Its what we used on our cabin that we are building from scratch. I didnt use the wire lathe though, just squirted in the great stuff twixt the logs, trimmed off the excess later and went over that with drywall mud on the inside of the walls, still havent gotten around to the outside yet. Prolly get on that part later in the spring. In the older cabins that I have built using old logs, I always chinked them with fiberglass, then wire lathe or hardware cloth and then a coat of mortar, with a bit of portland type one in the mix. Its always worked well for me. You should be able to use the greatstuff, just squirt it in through the wire lath. It takes a lil practice, coz it expands a lot as it sets up.

 

If the chinking is stretchy, how about using this underneath?

 

Thanks EVERYONE for all your input...I'll definitely share it with my husband. Looks like he'll probably start on it midweek according to our weather here in NC.

Today we spent the day dry stacking rock under the cabin. It is really looking pretty darn neat! I'm really getting excited now that we are getting towards the last half of the putting up a log cabin. I'll post a picture when we finish it up. Thanks again for all the information. (oh, and yes, we did clean the logs prior to starting...what a job that was!)

 

We chinked with cob and used sheeps wool for insulation between the logs. Pics at wildcrofthollow.com, the pictures will tell you more than I can in pages of typing. I don't get on the computer much anymore but you can PM me if you have any questions

 

Here are a couple of pics of the technique I use. It involves galvanized nails and expanding foam. The nails are there to keep the chinking in place. I suspect your wire mesh serves the same purpose. Put expanding foam behind the nails to fill gap between logs but be careful not to use so much that it expands outside the nails (or wire mesh in your case). You can buy some foams that expand very little and others that expand a lot. Use the appropriate one for your application. Get a can of each and experiment to determine which expanding type you need and to practice technique.