panderson03

prep for chinking

Rate this Entry
to prep the logs of our 35x35 for chinking we had to clean the logs, borate them and stain them

we'd talked about cob blasting the logs to clean them but it turned out our compressor was not strong enough to move the cob fast enough to do a good job. so we powerwashed the logs instead (and are selling the cob on CL )

we used a 3750 PSI powerwasher which worked great til the pump died. while we waited til the new pump arrived, we rented a 4000 PSI one.

with the 3750 PSI machine it took 2 hours per wall to clean. with the 4000 PSI one, it took about an hour. but the 4000 PSI one had so much power I found it exhausting to use (hands/arms to keep the spray trained on the area that needed washing and core just to keep upright as the force of it seemed to want to push me over!).

when we powerwashed the garage we learned that if we did not totally remove the outer grey layer, it resulted in 'fuzzies' on the logs. we were particularly careful not to allow this on the cabin walls.

we pressure washed the inside first, then the outside. when pressure washing, while we made every effort to move all the crud in one direction (really 2; down and over to one side) inevitably some crud ended up on the outside of the log when we were powerwashing the interior (and on the inside when we were powerwashing on the exterior). so we did the interior first. the inside crud ended up outside. then when we did the outside, the crud ended up on the inside. we then used brass brushed to remove the crud from the interior logs. it worked well!

borating took about an hour per wall, so approx 8 hours total.
we used 14 gallons of glycol to make enough home brew.
we used backpack sprayers to apply.

we're in the middle of staining now. using Outlast Q8 medium gold. we LOVE it. our logs LOVE it, soaking it in almost as fast as we can apply it. manufacturer says 'apply to refusal' so that's what we're doing. used 40 gallons on 3 exterior walls.

will use Sashco CAPTURE Natural on the inside; hope to finish up the staining this week so we can work on chinking nails and insulation

for insulation we're just using fiberglass insulation

bought 2 50 lb buckets of chinking nails at Menards and intend to use our palm nailers (we have 3) to get all the nailing done.
nailing is a bit tedious, as we not only have to place the nails but also bend them into position.

we have 13 working days with 3 workers each day to get the tasks done by chinking week. I think we can make it!!

we intend to be chinking 7/20-7/23.
when we chinked the garage we were able to 3 3/4 exterior walls in 2 12-hour days. hoping to be able to do the same on the cabin! we'll see...

Submit "prep for chinking" to Facebook Submit "prep for chinking" to Twitter Submit "prep for chinking" to del.icio.us Submit "prep for chinking" to StumbleUpon Submit "prep for chinking" to Digg Submit "prep for chinking" to Google

Updated 07-03-2015 at 06:47 PM by panderson03

Tags: None Add / Edit Tags
Categories
Uncategorized

Comments

  1. slamasha's Avatar
    Thanks for sharing the story. Good luck with your chinking plan!
  2. panderson03's Avatar
    thanks Slamasha