In Between the Lines

Back when they used to make cabins out of logs, they would fill the gaps between the logs with a mud and straw mixture called chinking... They might still do that in some parts of the world, but not in Tahoe.

All of the gaps between our Pioneer Log Siding needed to be filled, just as if it the cabin was built with actual logs. We didn't use mud and straw. We used Permachink. Permachink, according to all that I read and was told, is vastly superior to mud and straw. It is applied with a caulking gun instead of by the fistful. It is weather tight and moves with the siding as it expands and contracts with the weather.

When one uses mud and straw to chink ones house, one doesn't need to calculate how much chinking to purchase. Given that a five gallon bucket of Permachink costs upwards of $250, I didn't want to overbuy, so I spent an evening calculating how much chinking we'd need for our little house.

After coming up with some way off base numbers, I finally resorted to the only thing I remember from high school chemistry... conversions. I should have taken a picture of my scratch work, but didn't. It looked something like this:

650 linear feet x 2 inches wide x 3/8 of an inch deep = 534 cubic units... but what units? Oh wait...

650 ft x 12 in/ft x 2 in x 3/8 in / 231in/gal / 5 gal/bucket = 5.06 buckets... follow that???

After checking and re-checking my work, I ordered five buckets of the stuff.

Permachink is applied over the plywood spacers that I mentioned in a previous post. It also is applied over foam backer rod. The foam fills large gaps and cracks. So, after filling all the gaps and cracks with foam, Caren and I set about chinking. And we chinked for days... I would apply the chinking using a Cox gun (basically a caulking gun on steroids) and Caren would smooth it using what amounts to a spatula.

I think that what we ended up with looks pretty authentic. As of today, we have finished chinking about eighty-five percent of the house. The remaining portions will involve scaffolding and ladders. Caren doesn't like scaffolding and ladders, so we have been putting off the last few courses of chinking.