Log Home Chinking

People often ask me what log home chinking is. You would be SURPRISED how many of them are log home owners. Most log homes built today have small horizontal joints between the logs and use caulking to seal them. You don't see to many chinked styled homes around.

Log home chinking is a high grade caulking material with an artificial sand mixed into it so that when it dries it looks like mortar. It is formulated to stay flexible after it has cured to allow it to follow the movement of the logs. This helps it to maintain a tight seal to the logs stopping any air, water or insect infiltration into your home.

Some log homes have it applied to both the interior and exterior joints while others will just do the exterior joints. It depends on the log style of your home as to if you do both interior and exterior or just one.

I have for some log home owners, who used tongue and groove logs for constructing their homes. They applied chinking on the interior joints of their home, even though they didn't need it. It accented the joints and gave the home owners the feeling of a chinked log home. This would also be one option for sealing the interior joints against any air and water leaks you might have.

A tip for anyone who is going to build a new log home and it is going to be chinked. I would suggest having a professional applicator do it for you. It can be kind of tricky applying it and getting it troweled properly so it looks right and seals the joints properly.

If you insist on applying it yourself and you want some instructions get in touch with me and I will try and help you out.

However if you have an existing chinked styled log home and some of the joints have failed, you can probably repair them yourself.

I have never seen where a whole joint has failed. Usually there are spots where it has torn away from the log on one side of the joint. I call this a stress tear. These are usually caused from the stress the logs are under from their constant movement.

The best way to repair these is to run a new bead of chink over the tear itself. Make sure that you are getting some of it forced into the tear when you are applying it. Then you just lightly mist it with water and lightly trowel it out. Feather out both sides of the bead with the trowel to make sure you get a good seal.

Always make sure that you make the bead big enough so that it can take the movement of the logs. If you don't make it big enough it will over time tear again. This is the easiest way that I have found for repairing a joint without tearing it completely out.

The wide variety of colors log home chinking comes in enables the home owner to choose a color that will either blend the joint in with the stain or one that will accent the joint. It is totally up the home owners on what type of look they want on their log home.

It is available in easy to use 11 oz and 30 oz tubes or in 5 gallon pails. If you are doing your whole log home I would recommend using the 5 gallon pails, but if you are just repairing a few joints then go with the tubes.

For any questions about log home chinking or if you want more information on chinking please fill out the contact form below.