Home Buyers/Owners Guide to Types of Splines & Gaskets on Solid & Milled Log Homes InspectAPedia® -
Log caulk, spline, gasket, and coating product guide for log houses - where the leaks occur
Guide to Diagnosing & Repairing Leaks & Other Problems on Modern Kit Log Homes
Window & Door Installation Details for Log Homes can prevent later leaks & Damage
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Here we the types of sealants, chinking, splines or gaskets used during the construction of both traditional rough cut logs and modern milled log or solid log houses. Readers should also see Spline Gaps & Gasket Omissions and Log House Leak Diagnosis & Cure. Our page top photo shows a modern milled log that uses a double raised rib or "spline" that mates itno a groove milled into the bottom surface of each log above. Gaskets (or in some cases caulk) are used on top of each spline (or on occasion along side them) in this design.
This series of articles provides information on the inspection and diagnosis of damage to new and older log homes and includes description of log house and log siding insulation values and alternatives, and also a description of the characteristics of slab-sided log homes as well as all other types of log home construction. We include illustrations of log structures from several very different areas and climates in both the United States and Norway. Our page top photo shows a modern kit log home constructed in New York State.
For modern kit and factory-sourced log structures we include details of common construction and building defects that cause water and air leaks and ultimately rot damage and we point to key problem areas that need to be inspected carefully when buying or maintaining a log home.
On both traditional rough-cut log buildings and on modern kit logs and milled log structures there are many designs for sealing the interfacing logs as well as sealing at windows, doors, and building eaves. Here we provide photos and text of basic log sealing methods, both traditional chinking and weather stripping and modern splines, gaskets, and caulks.
Traditional Log Walls Used Chinking not Splines nor Gaskets
As our photo (above left) shows, a traditional log house, built from individually-cut logs, may have included cutting or sawing the mating surfaces of horizontally (usually) or vertically (less common) placed logs against one another to obtain a flat surface. Other homes were constructed with fully-round logs and no planing of the mating surfaces.
But in all cases, to avoid terrible drafts and water leaks, a variety of log wall chinking methods were used between the logs of a log house:
Mud and straw or oakum or animal hair
Wood strips nailed between logs on the building interior often over newspaper or oakum. Often milled quarter-round strips were added on the interior of an older cabin such as this one that was built in the 1920's on the shore of Lake Superior. (Photo at above right is of a combination vertical and horizontal log cabin wall in Two Harbors, Minnesota)
Concrete log wall chinking (photo at above left is of a native-log rough-cut un-milled vertical-wall log cabin in Pennsylvania)
Modern log wall chinking materials such as Perma-Chink™ that may be used as a retrofit repair product on all of these older log buildings
Single-Splined Log Mating Surfaces
Our photo (left) shows a simple single-spline log constructed building built probably after 1970. The top and bottom of each log was milled flat and a single rabbet groove cut into the log.
The groove was intended to carry a single wooden spline between logs to stop draft. You'll notice that no chinking is used between logs in walls that use a spline design.
Omission of log splines or log gaskets specified by the log manufacturer will lead to infiltration losses, drafts, possibly water leaks from wind-blown rain, and higher heating bills.
Double Splines Between Log Mating Surfaces
Logs in more recent modern kit homes are mated along their horizontal surfaces either by one or more splines that are set into grooves cut into the mating surfaces of logs as they are stacked, or the upper surface of the lower log may one or more raised ridges that set into grooves cut into the bottom surface of the log being placed on top of the lower unit.
Our photo shows a typical "D" profile log in cross-section at a building corner. The checking you see in this log end is normal and is not a structural concern. But notice how the left-hand large check just below the middle of the log slopes down to the log interior ? This opening will collect water and can lead to long term log rot or frost damage.
Log kit specifications usually call for either caulk applied atop the raised spline, or as in the case of the log we show here, along the two raised splines. Other log companies call for a special gasket to be placed either atop the splines or along side them to assure that these joints will be weather tight.
Caulk or Gaskets Used at Multi-Splined Log Mating Surfaces in a Log House Wall
Most milled-log manufacturers now use a more complex spline design, often with two raised splines on the upper surface of each log that are intended to mate with two rabbets cut into the bottom of the log above (see our photos just above). (Photos courtesy of Merrimac Log Homes)
Gaskets are placed on or between or in front and behind each of these mating spline/groove seals, or on top of a single wide spline (photo above-right) or the manufacture may specify use of a bead of special caulk on top of each spline (photo at far left).
In Merrimanc's photo (above-left) you can see the required bead of caulk set atop each spline as the log is being placed. Don't let too much time elapse between caulk placement and log placement or the caulk may be dry and may not seal well.
We advise against simply using generic caulks in these locations. Luckily, and probably because this is a common error, there are special products that can be used to remedy leaks in log walls. If inspection or if cold, windy weather reveals air infiltration leaks, call your inspector or log manufacturer for suggestions for special log chinking, caulks, or other log home crack or leak sealants.
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Additional technical contributors & reference sources for this article are listed below.
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"The Logless Log Home," Jim Robbins, New York Times, 01/22/2009 Home section, p. D1 & D6.
"Shop Talk," Martin Mintz, AIA, Builder Magazine, April 1986, detailed solutions for log shrinkage movement by using a "T" jamb at windows and doors. A January 1986 Builder Magazine article shows window installation details in 8" thick log walls.
"Caulking, Chinking, Insulators, Sealants - which System works Best," Log Home and Alternative Housing Builder, Nov-Dec 1983.
Insulating Characteristics of log homes were neatly summarized by Roger Rawlings in "Log Homes in a New Light," Rodale's New Shelter, April 1983, p. 28
Lincoln Log Homes Marketing, Inc., 6000 Lumber Lane, Kannapolis NC 28081 704-932-6151
Merrimac Log Homes, Henniker, NH, sells log home products, milled log home kits, log siding, and log home plans and log home construction accessories. 866-637-7462 or logs@mlhnh.com - merrimacloghomes.com
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