Chinking Alternatives

When performing an estimate for log home restoration a lot of folks go with synthetic chinking. Synthetic chinking is real nice and expands and contracts nicely with the logs. There is a less expensive alternative that a lot of folks use and blends in with with older chinking if you are in that type of area or have an older cabin to restore. The homemade recipe we use is 1 part Portland Cement, 3 Parts Masonry Sand, and 1/2 part Masonry Lime. Then we use chicken wire or finish nails to hold the chinking. For older restoration you can add ash, silt, and clay but we have never had to use that. Saves a lot of money over synthetic chinking and an alternative you may want to give to your customer.

I started a complete restoration on a log house today. the chinking looks good so no need to replace any. I did a walkthrough the inside of the house before I started and good thing I did because they had all kinds of water stains on the walls. I took pictures and documented it. on some of the butt ends of the logs there is no chinking at all. they are pretty tight together. some with bigger gaps have chinking but the tight ones don't. is that normal?

It could be normal especially if it is an older home where they applied chinking more recently for weatherproofing. Usually the chinking will go to the ends though. Good move on going inside and documenting pictures!

here's a strip job I did today. I had to do a couple of applications but it all came off. it was pretty heavy up under the eaves. but if you look close you can see where the but ends aren't chinked

Wow, thats really great to know one of my customers was wanting to find someone to do this for his old cabin they put back together on his property I will have to pass this along to him.
Junker1 that is some great before and after photos, keep up the great work