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chinking our log walls

shirley | Posted in General Discussion on March 1, 2009 01:09am

We are in the process of cleaning up the interior log walls of our 100 yr old squared log house. 

The chinking (mortar/lime etc) is falling out and we wish to replicate its appearance and not use the more ‘plastic’ permachink which we used for the exterior of the house.

The spaces between the horizontal squared logs is generally 3 inches or so.

We have the recipe that the previous owner used but we cannot eradicate the major vertical cracks which appear within a day of our applying it.  Also the colour is much grayer than the original.

 Does anyone have a recipe for ‘original’ chinking? ie one using lime, portland cement and sand?

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  1. Piffin | Mar 01, 2009 01:58am | #1

    the cracking is usually from shrinkage caused by too much water in the mix.

    whiter would come from more lime and less portland

     

     

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  2. cut50 | Mar 01, 2009 02:10am | #2

    What Piffin said

    And mist the logs with water, they will suck the water right out of the mortar being 100yrs old. After you have some done and the mortar is still soft mist the mortar,a slow dry should stop the cracking.

    Good Luck

  3. [email protected] | Mar 01, 2009 06:41am | #3

    Portland cement also comes in white.

  4. DavidxDoud | Mar 01, 2009 06:49am | #4

    add some fiber plaster to the mix - will help hold everything together -

    "there's enough for everyone"

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