Chinking

[joln]

DH and I are building a conventional home with a log room on one end. We salvaged the hand hewn logs from an old 1860's structure. DH has notched the logs and stacked them up. Now comes my part of chinking. What is the best method of applying the mortar mix. I have fiberglass insulation between the logs and some of the nails put in. I got impatient and tried a spot with the mortar, but man did I make a mess. I appreciate your time in replying.
Jo Ellen

[rreidnauer]

"DH" = "Da Husband"? :?

The right tools make life easy. Get yourself a hawk and a 2" margin trowel.

A hawk is just a board with a handle. This is a hawk: http://www.tool-crib.net/graphics/hawk.jpg

This is a margin trowel: http://www.oldnorthknoxville.org/images/trowel_2_inch.jpg

Put a stiff load of mortar onto the hawk, and place the edge of the hawk up against the log where the bottom of the mortar joint is going to be. Use the trowel to push mortar off the hawk in controllable amounts, and into the log gap. Don't waste time making it pretty. Just get it in there and keep moving down the wall. Once you got the length filled, come back and pretty it up. Try not over-working the mortar where it starts to get a wet surface. If this happens, just move on and come back to it when the water goes away.

Also, some folks here have used spoons to do the final touches. That's about it. It will get easier as you go. For now, work in the least noticable places until you get the hang of it.

Good luck!

[JeffandSara]

"Dear Hubby" = DH


:D

[DYork]

Color of chinking. We've seen pictures of homes that used a darker colored log and had very light colored chinking (mortar I suppose). Is there a way to color the mortar to match the log color more closely? Perhaps with water based paint--or would that eliminate the needed breathability?

(Jane made me ask this. I'm color blind myself and am chiefly only concerned with building a strong weather tight structure)

[JeffandSara]

Don,

This has been discussed a couple of times in the past, but I'm not sure where.

You can certainly tint the mortar, if you choose, but my understanding is that getting the SAME tint through batch after batch of mortar is pretty tricky. There's a lot of chinking to do, depending on the size of your house, number of log courses. We had more than a mile of chinking on ours.

You can also affect the brightness of the mortar by the specific type of cement/sand you use... someone just mentioned the details of that the other day, hopefully they'll notice this thread and provide them here again.

Frankly, my Jeff and I hardly notice our chinking now that it's in. Seems like all we see when we look at our walls are the logs. But our logs are not particularly dark, so there's less contrast than if you stained yours dark. On the other hand, we also own a 1930 log cabin with dark-stained logs and traditional mortar.. and come to think of it, the contrast there doesn't bother us, either. Must just be our tastes. :D

On old forest service buildings, they solve the "problem" by painting/opaque staining both the logs AND the chinking. But that's probably not what Jane had in mind! :wink:

Sara :D

[joln]

Thanks Rod for the technique lesson.
DH (Tommy) and I are just the opposite of DYork (Don and Jane). We would like our chinking to be bright white to contrast the logs. I have not found a white colorant for the mortar only browns and reds. Which mix is not so gray and will the lime help to make it white?
JoEllen

[DYork]

I don't think our logs will be very dark either, since they are pine,but they may change some after a period of time. Yep, I know it's going to be a LOT of chinking, but there's a lot of painting on a conventional home too. Chink every log X 2 = a lot of linear feet. If it were easy--everyone would build log homes--right? I'll see if I can't find the older threads about chnking and post the urls. I also took some pictures on my last trip over to East Texas of a cabin that has been in the town of Cleveland since my boyhood, which is what got me interested in building a log home to begin with. Notched or dovetail-don't remember now, and the film is still in my camera. Kinda ugly, as the logs have been painted red, but it seems to have stood the test of time in a very wet environment. But still, I'm set on the butt/pass method. I just can't see doing all that notching if it isn't needed, and have read all the problems caused by opening up the interior rings of the log to the elements.

http://www.loghomebuilders.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=50&highlight=chinking

[JeffandSara]

Hello, again, Don--

I guess my point about the amount of chinking was that we and others we've talked to have had a small issue with keeping the starting and stopping points of the chinking well-blended into one another even with "plain" mortar (over-working the chinking also seems to affect the color when dried).

Just seems like an in-mortar colorant could potentially be problematic, because the process of applying chinking doesn't go fast enough to mix large batches (unless you have LOTS of manpower-- we had five guys working on ours, and we still had to make relatively small batches in order to get it all "applied" before it.... what's the word for when cement all the sudden gets unworkable? "Flashes over" is the thing that comes to mind (sorry, must be a fireman's wife thing?), but I know that's the wrong term...

Well, anyway, I would personally think that if you were going to do a colorant, something like the grout colorants you apply to the surface (but on a much grander scale, of course) would be more the ticket than a mix-in variety.... just for the sake of simplicity and sanity and overall uniformity. Seems like spotty colored chinking could be even less attractive than "too bright" uniform chinking in the end, potentially.

I don't know of anyone here who's done it, but seems like "if there's a will, there's a way" and there must be something you could do. People do paint concrete floors and such, but of course, as you mentioned, since the air/water purpose is different for that, might be something else rather than a specific concrete paint that would be the best option.

Don't worry, someone smarter than me will come with ideas. :D

Sara :D

[rreidnauer]

Thanks Rod for the technique lesson.
DH (Tommy) and I are just the opposite of DYork (Don and Jane). We would like our chinking to be bright white to contrast the logs. I have not found a white colorant for the mortar only browns and reds. Which mix is not so gray and will the lime help to make it white?
JoEllen

There isn't anything to make regular portland cement white. Lime won't make it whiter. It would be a little like trying to make a pail of grey paint white. The only way for white mortar is to buy white portland cement, lime, and white sand. It's probably going to cost more than regular cement.

[farmercolby]

I used to drive a cement truck and I poured alot of colored concrete. All you need to do is make up you batches of chinking the same. I suggest measuring the sand by volume due to difference of moisture content through the sand. Cement powder, lime and your coloring can be added by weight. Then make sure its the same for every batch. Also keep track of the amount of water you use in your batch and try to keep it the same too. The water you use may vary a little depending on the moisture content of the sand. When you chink do one gap at a time so the same batch goes in the same gap. Try to judge your batches so you don't run out in the middle of your wall. I think I would start in the middle of the wall and go out to the corners.

As for colors, you can get about any color you can imagine. I have personally have pored red, black, brown, white, pink, grey[go figure], blue, and I am sure I am forgetting some.

[Longhare]

If I recall correctly from class, they recommended that even if you want to tint your mortar, you might consider using untinted mortar for the original chinking. Then when (if?) you go back a year or two later to fill in any gaps resulting from log shrinkage, you can use tinted mortar in the gaps and spread a thin layer over the original chinking as well, which would likely give a more even color match.

Louanne

[Mark OBrien]

If you want white chinking, you would need powdered titanium dioxide. It is available through any cultured marble or onxy shop that makes vanity tops and shower panels. To keep you color consistent just keep your mixes consistent. It is and excellent tinting medium and really whitens anything it is added to.

[RockEngineer]

:idea: One thing no one has mentioned and is something that is taught in the classes is the use of "chinking nails". If you just put mortor between your logs it can crack and fall out over time. If you put small nails in the lower log and bend them up and then put the mortor in over the nails, the mortor won't crack and fall out. You have trouble even chipping it out if you need to.

SHHHH. Don't tell anyone else this secret. :twisted: :twisted: This is just one of hundreds of excellent things you learn in the class that make it well worth your money no matter what type of building you do in the end. :idea:

Well I guess I missed the part of the original thread where they said they put some of the nails in :oops:

[ssrusticlogdream]

I'm glad I came across this thread. I do not like the looks of white, grey, or lighter chinking on a log home. I'm looking for a more natural, medium color, and will have to look into some of these suggestions. Anyone ever tried coloring/any of these ideas in their log home? Did it turn out how you wanted it to, or was it too difficult to get an even color throughout?

[rocklock]

The easiest way to get white chinking and no cracks is to use the below or something like that.
http://www.permachink.com/chinkpaint.htm
There are many ways to chink... I would suggest that you google chinking and read all you can. There are easy ways and there are really hard ways... But like everything else, you can have easy, fast and cheap... chose two...

Best of luck and if you use mortar you must use nails. And if you need mortar the easy way, go to Lowes and get the type S stuff....Its less than 5 bucks a bag...

OBTW, coloring mortar is a real pain in the poot...

[happyquilter]

In class they did mention that some people stain their logs after chinking and the chinking gets stained too and blends a bit more with the logs. I would imagine with the porosity of the chinking you would get a lighter more washed out color.

[WornOut]

In class they did mention that some people stain their logs after chinking and the chinking gets stained too and blends a bit more with the logs. I would imagine with the porosity of the chinking you would get a lighter more washed out color.

The problem here will be that even if you did a cover-all of all the chinking with the stain it will be all over the place as far as color, darkness, etc
No doubt many batches were mixed and mixed slightly differently every time, some will be packed differently, some may have cured longer and some will be thicker or deeper to. All these things will have an impact on the way the stain takes and the color in the end.
As some have said - the only way to make it consistent is to mix it all in at the same time but do to the nature of this job being done that is impossibe.
That said - some may not fret the inconsistency in a stain colored chinking. Others will not. Personal preference.
I learned over the years that even will uncolored plain cement or mortar on a re-tuck that some always were unhappy with the look. It's cement, it's mortar, it's not always going to look the same. ;(

[Timber]

I know this is an older started thread but here is a great looking home. This guy also is a LHBA Member.
Go through the pictures of this old historic lodge...simple amazing.

http://www.bearfortlodge.com/bearfort_lodge/2007/12/log-home-chinking-white-interior-chinking/

[LogLover]

This is the manner my BIL created his "mix" from. Actually I know he copied the recipe.
In a year since he did it I have noticed one thing - it's nice and pretty white in the rooms away from the great room and gets lesser so as one moves towards it. I suspect, don't know for fact tho, that it is due to some type of smoke. Maybe the fireplace, maybe the stove (he has a classic wood burner) or maybe just the cooking of food itself. It is not something most would probably even notice unless they wandered thruout the place like I do. Just something to mayb ethink about and no doubt will be unique to each place