our 85 year old redwood log cabin caulking question

[asadotzler]

My wife and I have an 85 year old redwood log cabin in the redwood forrests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The cabin was built with local redwoods, complete with their bark on. There is no chinking except for some old rope caulking here and there. It's a bit drafty and I'd like to re-caulk but I have no idea where one gets the rope or how it's applied. It's a natural fiber rope but I don't know if it's hemp or sissel or something else. It's pretty shredded. By that, I mean it's not like a braided contemporary rope.
I don't see anything online about this particular kind of bark-on, rope caulked building (damn the over-abundance of kit home pages which are probably hiding otherwise good resources). Hoping someone here can tell me more about what I'm dealing with. Thanks in advance.
This is a shot of one end of the main cabin room for a possibly better explanation of the type of construction:
<img src="http://grab.by/89ql" width="713" height="465" />

[StressMan79]

is prolly what was used. I have no idea about where to get it, how much it costs, etc. Check out Dick Proenekke on youtube. He used it to chink his cabin. He basicallally stuffed it between logs with a butter knife.
-Peter

[asadotzler]

I'd seen oakum in several of my web searches but each time it came up it was for caulking in boat building. Also, this isn't heavily oiled like most oakum references I've found on the web. If there's any oil there at all, it's very minor.
What's really odd to me is how little there is about bark on log homes like ours. There's next to no information. Even in this forum, there have been a couple of threads where folks were pretty sure it wasn't possible or it was a horrible idea. But our redwood home's in pretty amazing shape after 85 years and the bark is solidly attached to the logs everywhere I've checked. It's a bit of work to keep clean -- dust settles on the bark and the bark itself "sheds" a small amount of redwood fiber, but it's very solid and with only a couple of exceptions where the oakum (if that's what it is) is falling out, it seems quite well sealed from the elements.
Do any of you know of any resources out there, either online or off, for taking care of a bark on log home?

[rreidnauer]

I'm afraid I can't help much with your bark concerns, but if it's been there that long without problems, I wouldn't worry about it. I've seen photos of homes with bark left on in some books I've read in the past. Here at LHBA, the method is taught to remove bark, simply as a step for dealing with mold and bugs that come with the green logs.
As far as replacing your old chinking. I found "dry" oakum here. (http://www.aloghomestore.com/insulation.shtml#oakum)
You may also want to consider using wool rope (http://www.aloghomestore.com/wool-insulation.shtml) instead. It has quite a few more benefits over oakum.

[asadotzler]

Thanks for the links on the chinking.
I appreciate that this doesn't quite fall into the LHBA wheelhouse, being that it's really more of a maintenence/restoration issue. Just figured that you all were a bit closer to the kind of experts I need than the kit world which seems very much the opposite of our home which clearly is not sealed up 100% air tight.
Thanks again, for your help. And if you do ever run across any more releveant resources, books or sites, I'd love to hear about them.

[Mark OBrien]

Here is a source for sisal rope if that is what you end up using.

http://www.jbropesupply.com/1-Sisal-Rope-371_p_87.html

[Basil]

Hey, no need to apologize, this is a neat question! I always love seeing REAL log homes, even if they are a different style than B&amp;P...as a matter of fact, B&amp;P is the easiest way to build a log home, so other ways of doing it hold great interest for me.

[asadotzler]

Thanks again, rreidnauer, Basil, StressMan79, and Mark. I'll post back here when I've managed some kind of solution to the drafts.

[WNYcabinplannin]

That redwood sure is pretty! I imagine those roof trusses are also redwood?
I sure had log envy when I lived in NorCal and saw those redwood logging trucks hugging Highway One... going up the Mendo and Humboldt coast, as I drove up to go Abalone diving...
memories....

[edkemper]

I still regularly see log trucks with logs with over 3 foot bases driving along Highway 50.

[asadotzler]

Our cabin is nested among some big ones. On our several acres, we have at least a half dozen that are over 200ft tall. The big guy is 23' around at chest height. I'll bet it's 8 feet across at the base.

[hawkiye]

That's a nice looking log house on the inside there. I'd use hemp rope or wool if it were me.