Chinking alternatives?

**wristwister** · 09-21-2009, 08:03 AM

Here's the deal folks, I'm in the final stages of reconstructing a small ~100 year old cabin on my land. The logs are held together purely by corner notches and they were hand-shaped to fit log to log and minimize gaps. The cabin also includes pine interior planks that I was able to remove without damage and plan to re-install.

I've re-constructed this cabin to be movable, as my plans are to some day move this cabin to a new location at the top of my land when we're ready to build a much larger home on the main building pad.

Because of that interior paneling, my plan is to wrap the interior of the cabin with Tyvek or some such thing between logs and paneling. This should provide decent weatherproofing. However, I still want to do some sort of chinking on the exterior of the logs to close up what minimal gaps there are, provide additional weatherproofing, and keep bugs out. But remember, this thing's being built portable, so I don't want to use mortar or permachink.

So here's my thought: rope! I'm thinking maybe some sort of compliant nylon or polypropelyn rope wedged between all the logs and secured in place with either tacks from the outside or maybe wire pulled through the gaps and secured inside. What do you think? Stupid idea, or might it work? Ever seen this before? Any other suggestions for chinking alternatives that retain the portability I'm looking for?

Thanks.

**mlr1968** · 09-21-2009, 06:14 PM

Attended Class March 25th/26th of 2006.
If you are gonna be dumb, you better be TOUGH!
but unless i misunderstood your post, u are having the outside chinking as a temp measure till u can move again, why not just get some foam board cutt to fit in the spaces and simply nail some wood over the chink gap? this may be a simple way of getting it weatherproof, but it wont look orginal. Oh I assume the logs are not round but square cutt? If they are round then my idea I dont think will work. But the rope idea sounds interesting.

**loghousenut** · 09-21-2009, 08:06 PM

So how large are the gaps you're trying to chink? Post a photo or two with something to add scale. If they are pretty small (1/4") you might consider some cheap sisal rope and unwind it into it's individual strands and then driving the strands into the cracks with a screwdriver, putty knife, or maybe a dull brick chisel. If you drive the rope in tightly, you shouldn't have to tack it in. All you are trying to do is keep out the weather.

**exsailor** · 09-22-2009, 10:31 AM

When used for tempoary chinking, I would think raw rope would be a problem. After all wouldn't the rope act as a wick to pull water into the joint between the logs promoting rot and mildew? It seems the twisted strand and the individual fiber construction would be conducive for wicking. I know natural fiber rope swells when it gets wet, which may stop wicking action. I can not say that would happen or not happen. I do not have enough background to say one way or the other. I do know oakum was made of tar and jute rope. It was used extensively in wooden ship construction and I have heard in cabin chinking as well. Since it is water proof, I don't think the rope fibers would swell. That means it would have to be packed and compressed into the log joints, as it was in ship construction. Besides leaving a stain on your logs it might provide a solution. I am curious to see your working solution.

**wristwister** · 09-22-2009, 11:04 AM

Thanks for the quick advice everybody.

mlr1968; these logs were and shaped with an adz or some such thing. In some cases they were flattened log-to-log, and in other cases they're round to round. And the logs are up, I don't want to pull them all down to put some substance between logs.

loghousenut; the gap size between logs varies from no-gap to maybe an inch in worse case areas. My rope idea may involve several different rope diameters, or maybe somehow multiple strands in the big gap areas.

exsailor; good point, I hadn't considered the idea of rope wicking in and trapping moisture. I was thinking some sort of synthetic fiber rope, nylon or polypropylene or some such thing, wouldn't absorb moisture like natural fiber, but maybe that's not right. I need to investigate a bit further.

I'm heading up this weekend. I'm going to bring some samples of different types of rope and try stuff out. Should be fun at the hardware store when I ask them for 6 inches of everything they got!

Thanks again all. Keep the suggestions coming!

**wristwister** · 09-22-2009, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by exsailor

I do know oakum was made of tar and jute rope. It was used extensively in wooden ship construction and I have heard in cabin chinking as well. Since it is water proof, I don't think the rope fibers would swell. That means it would have to be packed and compressed into the log joints, as it was in ship construction. Besides leaving a stain on your logs it might provide a solution. I am curious to see your working solution.

Hey, I did some research on Oakum. There are places that still provide it, and there are alternatives to the tar saturation. It's a little pricey, I'm seeing around $.50/foot. But then again, this is about what I'd pay retail for new rope. Another issue with Oakum is that apparently it's designed to expand greatly when wet. If it's confined to within a joint, like ship planking, this makes for a great seal. But I wonder how this expansion would look on the exterior of a logs!

I'm guessing Oakum isn't very pleasant to work with. One source had the following quote: "In centuries past, tarred oakum was often prepared by persons serving time in prisons, as well as people who were forced to labor in workhouses in order to work off outstanding debts. "

But ... it has possibilities and I'll keep it in mind. If I do go the rope route I'll be scouring some of the marine hardware stores for deals on rope. I'll see if I can learn more about Oakum while I'm at it.

Thanks again for the advice.

**Will Dye** · 09-22-2009, 04:27 PM

My friend Nathan moves houses for a living and rarely ever has a crack in the drywall on the inside of a stick frame house. Use a mortar mix to keep it simple and save a fortune. Then make sure you get a house mover that knows what he is doing.

**wristwister** · 09-29-2009, 03:41 PM

OK folks, I've been experimenting around with different types of rope and attachment methods. And the winner is ... drumroll please ... 5/8 "Pro-Manila". Looks like manila (will look great as chinking) but made of polypro so it won't absorb moisture or shrink/swell. Should last many years. I found it for ~$.28/ft on Ebay and ordered a bunch. And I'm going to attach it with 1" brads via an electric brad stapler. What the heck, worse case it's a failure and I rip it all off and chink right ... but I don't think that's going to happen. So far I'm not seeing a downside to my rope chinking idea. I'll let you know how it goes.