Chinking & Caulking
Caulking, such as Perma-Chink Systems' Energy Seal is used where gaps are less than an inch. Energy Seal will accept stain uniformly. If you are wanting a sealed home without the chinking look, Energy Seal can be made to blend right in with the color of your stain. It is a premium acrylic latex formula that allows 450% to 550% elasticity. Energy Seal is the caulk we prefer to use because in our opinion it is the best on the market. Prior to application you want to make sure the logs are clean and free from dust. If an oil base stain has been applied you will need to make sure the oil has penetrated enough to not interfere with adhesion of the caulk to the log. If the oil stain is fresh this may mean waiting several months.
One of the advantages to a water base stain is that you can caulk or chink within 24 hours of the stain application.
Here is a problem we come across often: trim that doesn't match up to the logs nicely. How do you fix something like this? You could either replace the trim, or use Energy Seal to fix this eyesore and seal up the gaps. On this house, we are doing a complete Energy Seal to the whole inside, so the owners decided to have us fix this with Energy Seal. We will show you how to make this look finished. |
In these pictures you see backer rod already applied to the log courses ready to have Energy Seal applied. To fix this trim we inserted backer rod and some grip strip in the gaps between the logs and trim. We had to use several sizes as the gaps varied quite a bit. Having the backer in the gaps is a must to keep from having the caulk fail in the future. |
The end result is a nice finished transition between the trim and logs. Now that the trim is finished, we will apply Energy Seal to the log straights. You can see we already have the 1/4 inch backer rod in place. You cannot imagine the difference finishing all the trim in the house makes, in addition to all of the log courses. |