Chinking...the word of the month!

Chinking Central on the north (ugly) side

 ....Or longer! I thought I had the mixture figured out..then the latest batch wouldn't stick in the crack! Arrgh! I was ready to replace the chinking with Duct Tape and call it good. Then I tested a wetter mix and found it worked great. There's not much room for error when it comes to mixing your mortar. Too wet and the mix slumps in the crack and won't stay. Too dry and your getting a heck of a workout trying to smooth the stuff along the way. Just right, and oh the stuff goes in quick...as long as you're not filling in gaps the size of cats!
As the Log Home Members said, the mixture needs to be like "thick peanut butter" and that's what I've found is the perfect mix. The problem is towards the end of a batch, the stuff gets dried out and needs water. This while atop a 12" wide plank 8 feet off the ground isn't the easiest balancing act to perform! I'm wishing for wider scaffolding now as the height has become uncomfortable without some rigging. To this point it's also been just me having fun. I'm finding the chinking can either be a fun detail oriented project or a slap it in and forget about it job. Being the anal one I've chosen not to have a "chinking party" but to hire a guy I've worked with lately on another job. We'll see how he does Monday. If I can be "kept in the mud" while staying on the scaffolding, things will go faster. I'm on the 7th of 14 courses now and need to complete this first side this week. Fortunately there's 5 windows on this side so the courses are getting shorter as I go up.

...not that I'm forgetful

I showed off the home to neighbors yesterday and the question came up again.... " why don't you use the synthetic chinking?" The answer is easy....1) Cost - I'm told it'd take $8-10,000 to chink this home with the synthetic stuff vs. $800-$1000 with a mortar based product like I'm using. I don't even see it being that much as I already had a lot of clean sand left over from my septic system install. 2) Synthetic chinking doesn't breathe. It will allow moisture to be trapped behind it and allow rot to begin. Not that our climate is prone to that but its just not a smart solution for this home. The mortar based chinking breathes and allows any moisture to dry as the air penetrates it. And yes this chinking might shrink a bit with hairline cracks already visible. The theory is to come over it again after a year or so and use a very light mix, a mortar "cake" bag and a paint brush to touch it up. Ha, we'll see about that part...been there, done that once!

A closeup example