More on 10 West Huckleberry-- walls and chink

Work continues in anticipation of the electrical rough in in a week. Got the appliances "placed" with chalk marks on the floor and more graffiti to denote lights fixtures and extra AC receptacles. Am putting a full-size stacked washer/dyer in the upstairs bath to free up kitchen floor space. Unlike a stick built project, electric service (and plumbing, and even some HVAC) goes between the logs and then chinked in, so its invisible, but requires careful thought before hand. So, the old cement chinks coming out, then we got to clean and seal the logs before the new synthetic chink goes in. Unfortunately, someone used Cabot's Driftwood oil stain liberally inside the walls and we are hoping that we can get some of it off. the build wants to grind them down to unfinished wood, but doing so would lose the wonderful patina of the 1750's adze cut chestnut so am crossing my fingers and mixing up a lot of trisodium phosphate (TSP). I'm big on patina- i dont care how many times you hit something with a chain or wire or finish nails- nothing will duplicate the wear of the centuries and the hands of man that made it. Time takes time. For preservation purposes, chinking is deemed a finish- so anything goes as far as choice of chink. One good thing in the little cabin here (38) is the sand colored Permachink used in the walls. Synthetic chinks like this have higher R-value and while it takes them years to harden past the consistency of stiff toothpaste, they stick top the logs for the duration. that's important. another source of water damage on 10 was the cement chink had begun to protrude from the walls making each chink joint a little collection trough that funneled moisture into each log below. All cement mortar type chink will eventually do this as wood expands and contracts thru the seasons.

Now the finish in a cabin is much cleaner and nicer if you seal or stain the walls BEFORE they are chinked- so I'm thinking finishes his week. The finish is 38 West Huckleberry done by Todd "it don't show from MY house" Moss is pretty dismal. A good product from Sikkens marine varnishes was thinly sprayed and rubbed around the board and batten stick built additions there. Lots of mark on the chinks from touching up and of cpurse the rough sawn board/battens didn't take the finish even at all. Somehow, Moss Log Homes
was unable to actually get the Permachink into the houses corners either- leaving the biggest no-no of all at each corner of the house: caulk. NEVER caulk over chinking- it wont hold up and its looks so amateurish. Y'all can ponder that for the rest of the weekend.