I am getting ready to start a small dove tail cabin. I am debating if I should build a chinkless style or conventional chinked log home. I like the look of both. Just wondering about pros and cons of each. I am thinking chinkless will be less maintenance in the long run, probably less work in the building stage.
I would go with chinking . The reason is when fully scribed you remove all the sapwood from the dovetail and very little from the lateral groove . So the lateral will shrink more than the dovetail . What started out as nice tight fitting logs will require caulking or chinking of the laterals a few years down the road . scouter Joe
We did chinking on my son's cabin. It is not cheep. We put in a backing material. This keeps the chinking from breaking. It sticks to the wood but streaches across the backing. Permachink is the product we used.
I like the contrast of each log . My wife does not. The jig we used is from Northern Dovetailer out of Darby Montana. You can get as little or more chink line, he custom builds them .
Pm me if you want more details on our build.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36761/20171105_095303.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1542124872)
I would recommend chinkless. You can solve the problem of opening joints by using a free spline between courses, or better yet 2 splines set into grooves cut into the timber course above and below. Set a bead of roofing tar or log cabin sealant into each groove as you assemble, and you will create a joint that remains air and water tight as the logs move and settle.
I personally like the look of tight fitting logs. You'd have sort of an Austrian or Bavarian style building doing it this way. But if you like the look of chinking, you can just cut rabbets on the outside corners and slap some lime plaster into the gap.
Are you using dry logs to cut down the amount of shrinkage? Or using fresh logs and allowing to dry together? I would be worried they would dry too much and open the space between logs resulting in chinkage being required anyway.
Well according to what I have read. I am leaning towards chinkless. I do no have the equipment to make groves between the logs. I will use some kind of gasket material between logs. From what I understand it is inevitable that there will be leaks from logs drying and moving. These cracks will be dealt with with caulking unless I can find another solution.
The saw mill is arriving this week. I will be practicing cutting lumber before tackling the house. We have 300 acres with plenty of white and red pine trees which we will be using for the logs. I am still researching whether I should cut the logs and dry, or just cut and go. I am afraid that the logs would not be dry anyway. If we build in a ear or two from now, I harvest logs this winter and cut them to size, will they be dry? I know I have cut firewood logs that are still wet two years after cutting.
With pine if you can saw, sticker with 2x2's, cover the tops, not the sides, in the breeze and wait a year they will be considerably drier and you will be much happier with the results. I've built a number both green and dry, waiting for it to dry is worth it.
What about red pine? Has anyone built with it? I have lots of nice straight red pine. I have lots of white pine as well but I find they are not as long and straight as the red.
All you need to do to spline is use a dado or stacked blades in a circular saw, just cut a groove wide enough for roof lath to fit into and this will make a remarkable difference on performance and stability. Go slow because there is more resistance on the motor than it is designed for.
Keep in mind it is impossible to stop a split in wood or to stop the expansion and retraction once these things have started, to such an extreme extent that swelling of wood can be used to split stone. But use of splines and locking joints can redefine where these things occur. This is because nature will always choose the path of least resistance, and if you are careful you can redefine where that point of least resistance is. This is also the reason why kerfing a hidden face on a timber helps control these things.
If you build logs stacked tight together you don't need logs the entire length of walls either. Either insert a post into the wall (short so as not to take up any vertical loads, it's just meant to hold the ends of the logs in one spot) or you can even just stagger the log ends throughout the wall. Be sure the courses are pegged about every 3 feet (which they should be anyway). White pine will be more stabil, but red pine is fine for log building.
Red pine will work just fine, stronger for sure, great for flooring also. On average it will take 7 years for your log/logs wall to finnish shrinking/drying. They will always move. chinking is the way to go for your style of building. An electric caulking gun with backer rod material.
There is no 'easy' in building a log building.
In my experience, trying to dry whole logs ends up allowing degrade to occur, especially rot. It's not easy to stack, sticker and cover logs in a way that moisture won't get into them. Say you use a blue poly tarp and it fails halfway through the drying time you had allotted. Now you have a mess on your hands. Put them up green, allow for settling (which you have to do either way) and get a roof over them. Under a roof, in a walln is the best place for logs to season, imo.
Just a wee note
The only tools you need to cut the groove in a scribed building is an axe and a log scribe. If you want to speed up work you can use a chainsaw to remove the bulk.
So....it is not a matter of tools. It is only a matter of time and determination.