Cabin progress
Floor framed up and two roles of logs down
Doing some experimental chinky
Anybody have a recipe?
In the pic I mixed floor, sawdust, and white paint from the free store
Cheap, and easy;)
In Virginia we used clay and ashes and some sand. that’s a 250 plus year old family recipe. Our family built a really big cabin for a widowed aunt back in 70’s using the traditional method. worked great.
I would add a modern item and that is some steel wire mesh, honey comb style stapled or nailed to the logs. Pencil size holes in front of that insulation. gives the chinking mix a better hold on the logs.
looks great. I wish I could be there to help.
Denny Mullins
Thanks Dennis,
Do you remember the ratio ?
I read the mesh is not a good idea as it may rust? Maybe alumiun or something similar
I was going to use clay lime and straw. But all I got on my property is sand! Real good perc for the septic field. We dug a waterline in from another well 600 yds, 8 ft of beautiful beach sand
2 parts Clay, one part wood ash (just the fines) its best to sift it, and half part sand. Old time chinking won’t last forever. It does have to be redone every 20 or so years. Just depended on the up keep.
Or you can go equal parts sand, lime, clay, water. I’ve even heard tell of old timers grand fathers mixing manure in because of the grass. But I never seen it actually done that way.
I think the the modern way now a days is portland cement 2 parts, (replaces the clay), lime half part, and sand half part. I would still use the wire, because its cheap, and galvanized, and just remember log cabin chinking requires maintenance, not much and not very often if you take care of it along the way when problems first start to appear it will last a long time.
Denny
Thanks so much, I’ve been researching everywhere not much real world info. I priced out synthetic chinking I estimated $3000-$4000 for a 16x16 cabin because of the caps. That costs trumps my total build cost including tin, foam for the roof and floor windows door and so on. Then I thought there’s great guys on the woodgas forum someone here will have a idea! Thanks again
Byron: I have no personal experience but a very experienced and knowledgable (~35 years of “natural” professional timber framing/log cabin building) acquaintance of mine suggested:
shred newspaper and/or sawdust, theroughly dampen with concoction of (total 6 parts): 3 parts (half) clay, 1 part wood ash, 1 part fine sand, 1 part lime, enough water to make a “slip”/thin paste. Be sure to wear a filter mask during dry mixing and chemical resistant “vinyl” gloves once water goes in. It will be somewhat caustic while it is wet.
Theroughly mix “fiber binder” (aka newspaper/sawdust) with enough “slip” to theroughly coat everything and make a thick paste. “Paint” surfaces of logs with slip every 10 years, or as needed for conditions. He’s from down south and so he couldn’t make any personal claims for your weather conditions but said “It ‘should’ work ok…”