Log caulking technology - which is better with your own hands or order, price analysis. Do-it-yourself caulking of a log house from a log house: tasks, stages, working tools and materials To caulk a log house assembled on moss

A log bath is a tradition that has not lost its relevance even after several hundred years. Wood has the highest level of thermal insulation among building materials, while the weight of the structure from a log house does not go beyond the permissible limit. The only conditional drawback of this technology is the presence of gaps between the laid logs.

When laying and adjusting the logs between the individual elements, there will inevitably be horizontal through cavities around the entire perimeter of the bath, and before its operation, they must be caulked.

To learn how to properly caulk a bath, you need to deal with all the intricacies of this case. The process of caulking the cracks itself does not contain any difficulties, however, there are several special points that must be taken into account..

This article will describe step-by-step instructions and the main points on the topic - "how to dig a bath with your own hands." In addition to describing the technology, it will also provide detailed information about how the bath is caulked, since in this case the correct choice of material plays a decisive role in the success of the whole process.

Selection of material

Forest moss is the most traditional material that our great-great-grandfathers used for caulking a log house. It is the most environmentally friendly material of all the analogues used, since it is of natural origin, collected by hand and does not undergo chemical treatment. It has bioactive properties - it does not start moths and molds.

Moss is especially appreciated for its antiseptic properties - it does not rot even when exposed to high humidity. At the same time, cauliflower from moss is not only not subject to rotting, but also protects the nearby areas from damage, which is especially.

Also, the use of moss as a material for caulking can significantly save on the purchase of material, since it can be collected in the nearby forest with your own hands. Even if there is no such possibility, its price in stores is quite democratic. Natural moss is the most rational solution to the question, what is the best way to caulk a bath?

The most common material for caulking a log house in view of its cost, but at the same time flax has the lowest quality characteristics. Before caulking a bath with flax, it should be borne in mind that there are practically no natural antiseptics in its composition - in this connection, putrefactive bacteria, which moist wood contains in excess, will quickly destroy the formed seam, after which the nearby areas will undergo degradation.

It quickly collapses under the influence of high humidity - its service life is from 1 to 3 years, after which the seam begins to crumble. It is loved by insects - moths, beetles; in a raw state, mold and fungus grow quickly enough. Without chemical treatment for the next season of operation, you can find a large number of insect larvae in it.

Note!
Some disadvantages of this material can be leveled by chemical impregnation, but this will negatively affect the atmosphere of the bath.

Of all the analogues used, flax can be called the most undesirable solution to the question: how to bury the bath?

Recently, the opinion of experts on the question, what is the best way to caulk a bathhouse? - is increasingly leaning in favor of jute fiber, which has recently appeared on the domestic market.

And this makes sense - natural jute is a durable material that contains a large amount of natural lingine, which makes it water-repellent. Also, jute is much less damaged by insects than flax.

Note!
Not to be confused with jute felt, which contains a certain proportion of flax, and, accordingly, all its negative qualities are present.
It is quite simple to distinguish them from each other - 100% jute is gray.

Cauliflower

In this process, there is practically nothing difficult - the main thing is to choose the right material for sealing joints. You will need a mallet (wooden hammer) and a set of caulkers. There are two technologies by which caulking of seams is made - stretching and in a set.

Stretching

The insulation is pushed into the cavity by fibers across, this is done either by hand or by caulking, depending on the width of the cavity. The material is hammered inward until about 4 - 5 cm of the insulation edge remains outside;
Then, a roller of the appropriate diameter is made from the insulation, which is wrapped in the remaining edge, after which it is driven into the cavity by means of a caulking chisel;

In the set

For this method, the insulation must be twisted into strands like a rope, the diameter of which is selected based on the size of the cavity between the frame;
The finished strands are pushed into the gap with a caulking chisel - first the upper part is pushed, and then the lower one. A road builder is used to level the seam;

During the caulking of the slots, the blockhouse rises a little, and therefore, it is necessary to hammer each slot along the entire perimeter and only then proceed to the next level, otherwise the bath can "skew";
If it is necessary to release it so that the structure that has risen due to caulking does not damage the masonry.
To do this, it is enough to free up space by a few centimeters;

Outcome

Caulking a log house in a bath is one of the simplest construction processes

The correct selection of material and our helpful tips will help you carry out these manipulations without any difficulty. You can familiarize yourself with the process of caulking a bath more clearly by watching the video in this article.

It is well known to all that the grooves formed between the logs of a log house should be caulked. The essence of such work is to seal the gaps remaining between the logs and in the corners of the log house with moss, tow or any other sealing material. The instructions on how to caulk a log house correctly indicate that the seal should protrude 3-4 mm from the grooves on both sides of the wall, which will protect the future house from blowing and reduce heat loss during the frosty period by 5-6%.

The process of caulking (caulking) a log house is as follows:

The evenly distributed fibrous material should be applied across the gap and, using a special device (the so-called "caulking"), hammer it into the existing grooves with strong blows. In order for the walls to keep warm better, they need to be caulked both from the inside and from the outside of the log house.
When organizing these works, it should be borne in mind that uneven caulking of the walls can cause a log skew. That is why caulking work is carried out immediately along the entire perimeter of the felled structure; the rims are processed sequentially, starting from the lowest one.
They proceed to caulking the inner surfaces of the walls immediately after finishing the processing of the outer walls.

In construction, two methods of insulating log cabins are used, which are called caulking in a stretch and caulking in a set.

Stretching caulking

It is recommended to use this method for caulking the grooves and cracks of a small size available in the log house. When sealing the gap, a strand of tow is applied to it and pressed inward using a sealing blade (caulk) until the entire space in the groove is filled with material. After that, the top layer of tow is carefully compacted by means of a special type-setting "caulk" Then a dense roller is twisted from the tow, which is placed in the groove between the crowns so that it adheres to the fibers protruding from the groove and is driven in with force.

The roller must be grasped by adjacent strands hanging from the grooves, because otherwise, it may simply fall out of the groove.

This method of insulating a log house is usually used when it is necessary to seal large gaps and wide grooves. When it is realized, small strands are prepared from hemp or tow, then collected into a ball to form (set) a loop, which is hammered into the grooves as a seal. It is quite natural that the thickness of the loop to be dialed depends on the dimensions of the existing groove. The resulting layer of tow is compacted first along the upper cut of the gap, and only then along the bottom. All these works are carried out with the use of a special caulking machine - road builder.

Required tools

It was already noted earlier that log cabins are caulked with the help of special tools, the so-called caulkers, made of metal. The main tool for compaction work is the so-called type-setting "caulk", which is a flat blade with a blade about 100 mm wide and about 5-6 mm thick. In addition to it, when carrying out work of this class, the following tool can be used:

"caulking" curve with a blade width of about 50-60 mm and a thickness of the working part of about 5 mm (used for caulking the corners of a log house);
cauliflower - "road builder" with a blade up to 170 mm wide and about 8-15 mm thick with a groove along the length of the blade up to 10 mm deep (used to form rollers from twisted strands of tow). There are three types of "road", which are used to work with wide, medium and narrow seams;
split wedge up to 30-35 mm wide; used to break (cut) too narrow grooves, making it easier to drive tow in them.

The blade of the tool used must be smooth and slightly dull, otherwise it will simply chop off the sealing material. Any hammer of suitable weight can be used to drive the tow with metal caulkers.

Additional help in solving the question "how to caulk a log house" will be provided by the following tips:

If you use moss as a sealant, then you must first moisten it in a special solution prepared from 200 grams of soap and 500 grams of oil, dissolved in one bucket of water. It is advisable to soak tow before use in any potent disinfectant, which will protect it from pests.

If the roller twisted from fibers is not large enough and dense, it is necessary to add strands to it from the stock of insulation material. The spare strand catches on the ends of the tow hanging from the wall and clogs between the logs.
When driving the insulation into the slots, the crowns can be slightly raised. At the same time, the insulation designed in the form of a roller is hammered into the gap with a mallet hammer.

Re-caulking should be carried out 2 years after the manufacture of the log house, after the latter shrinks and cracks form again between the logs. It is usually performed in a "set" method.

Video

We invite you to watch the process of caulking a log house in the video.

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In the modern world, the meaning of the expression - my home is my fortress - takes on slightly different shades and is not limited only by the strength of the walls and the reliability of the castle. Increasingly, for the sake of increasing productivity and reducing the cost of material, manufacturers go to dubious schemes, adding various fillers to their construction products that release harmful substances during their decomposition.

This factor, together with the unfavorable environmental situation of the present world, makes its negative contribution, and can pose a real danger to human health.

To protect yourself and your loved ones, as well as to exclude the possibility of harmful effects, it is necessary to use proven and reliable materials that will help in the construction of your home and various outbuildings. Wood is not only an environmentally friendly product of nature, but its use will contribute to the long finding of any building among the list of fashionable and modern objects. The reason for this factor is that, despite the centuries-old experience of using wood, this material is a classic, and has long earned its place of honor, which can not be influenced by alternative opinions or fashion trends.

In addition to the environmental and external component, one of the main advantages of wood is its thermal conductivity. Houses made of this material are distinguished by the warmth of the premises and internal comfort. But in order to achieve such indicators, it is necessary to carry out a certain type of work, especially this must be done when the construction of a log house is carried out with the help of logs, since cracks and various holes are a constant companion of such walls.

Despite the fact that most experts try to eliminate this issue in the process of building a log house, it still remains relevant for a long time. The reason for this phenomenon is the fact that the insulation layer, laid between the elements of the tree, in the process of shrinking the house, loses its properties and original advantages. For this reason, it is necessary to additionally caulk the entire building. It is better to carry out this process in 3 stages, which fit into the following time frames:
immediately after construction;
1-2 years after its completion;
4-6 years after the construction of the house.

The need for repeated actions is the tendency of wood to change its physical parameters under the influence of external influences. Wood can change its configuration not only due to pressure during shrinkage, but also due to changes in moisture content, leading to the formation of cracks.

Among the many materials that can be used in these matters, the most commonly used and with a sufficient number of advantages is tow. Therefore, the question is: How to caulk a log house with tow? - quite often found in people who dream of their own wooden housing.

To successfully solve this issue and do everything efficiently and reliably, it is necessary to take into account several rules leading to the achievement of the desired result.
You need to caulk around the entire perimeter, starting from the lower levels. Strengthening the process in one direction can lead to a shift in the frame and aggravate the situation.
It is best to caulk before finishing the building, as this process can slightly raise its overall level. This technique will allow for a more rational use of the finishing material, and will eliminate the danger of the need to rework such work.
After insulating the outer perimeter of the building, it is imperative to go to the inner side, which will strengthen the overall positive picture.

These moments in most cases are the main guarantee of a high-quality result and a solution to the question: How to properly caulk a log house with tow.

In addition to the general rules, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the technology of insulation using tow. Caulking with this material can be done in 2 ways - in a stretch and in a set.

In the first case, a strand is made from tow, which is applied to the problem area. The strand is hammered into the slot using a special tool called a caulk. Chisel-caulk, as this product can still be called, really has the shape of a chisel with a distinctive feature in the form of a wide and flat end. The tow should be clogged as tightly and deeply as possible, without the possibility of self-extraction. The edges of the insulation should protrude from the wall at a distance of 5-6 cm, since they will serve as a connecting link for the next formation, the edges of which will need to be intertwined and driven into the gap.

Warming in a set is used in cases where the dimensions of the gaps are large enough, and the use of a strand does not lead to a positive result, as a result of which it is impractical. In this case, the tow is divided into separate strands, from which a roller is subsequently formed. This roller is hammered into the slot, and it is necessary to start this process from its upper part, and send the lower part to the depth of the slot last. Thanks to this technique, a seal of tow will form on the surface of the tree, which will be difficult to remove, and also act on it mechanically.

The safety of a log sauna building to a large extent depends on the choice of how and how to caulk the bath, the ability to correctly identify future problems with crowns, and the skill of working with a tool. First of all, you need to know what kind of insulation to choose for a bath. You can, of course, wave your hand and seal the joints with silicone, but this will only aggravate the situation. It is better to do a full-fledged caulking of the bath with your own hands.

Why do you need to caulk a bathhouse

Masters usually answer such a question simply - so that the log house does not rot and collapse. Without a seal, the log box becomes a cold, ever-creaking hut. If you do not caulk the bath and close the seams tightly, then the supporting surfaces of the crowns will rot in a year or two and the frame will simply "sit down" or fall on its side to the north side.

In addition to choosing how to caulk a bath from logs, it is important to do the job correctly, so we will try to understand the tools used, tools and rules for caulking a bath.

For high-quality sealing of seams, you will need:

Investment jute, linen tow or any other fiber-structured sealant that has been proven over the years;
A set of tools - a wooden hammer, a ramming blade, a wedge knife and a hook for stripping a seam or an electric strobe;
Stiff bristled brush;
Joiner's measure.

Advice! There are few tools, but all of them are required for work. First time they can be rented. After the first practical experience appears, it will become clear how to caulk the bath correctly, then you can buy a good set or make it yourself.

If there is a desire to close the seams with a sealant, since a lot of different brands and types are sold for the needs of the bath, then in this case no tool, except for a nozzle pistol for a tube with a liquid polymer, is not required at all. It is possible and necessary to seal the joints with a sealant for logging a bath in one day, the technology requires laying a pasty mass in two passes with a difference of no more than four hours. Any violation of the process can lead to peeling of the seal, while the blockhouse of a bath can be buried in a couple of days with interruptions.

Choosing a stuffing material

Traditionally, seams and joints between wooden parts are sealed with a moisture-resistant, durable and necessarily easily deformable material. Mezhventsovy heater for a bath can be made of:

Synthetic polypropylene fibers, for example, in the form of a web of woven and non-woven structures;
Organic fibers, primarily jute cords and linen tow;
Natural plant fibers from certain types of moss for a bath.

For your information! Sometimes the problem arises of choosing what is better for moss or jute for a bath or trying to determine before starting work what is better to caulk with synthetics or organic matter. You need to choose based on the degree of shrinkage of the bathhouse and the size of the seam between the crowns.

What is better moss or tow for a bath

Both materials are recognized today as the most durable and reliable of all conventional fiber seals. In both cases, the decisive factor is not even the appearance, but the quality of the preparation of the material.

Moss is recognized by all craftsmen as a universal means for sealing crowns. Most often they try to caulk the bath with red or white moss. The bunches of the plant are harvested 2-3 weeks before the start of work. Before caulking the bath, remove the debris and dry the moss under a canopy, periodically turning and shaking the layers.

The organic matter should remain slightly damp. After drying, the fibers turn into a springy and strong structure, like a wire.

Caulking the walls with moss is not difficult, you just need to correctly measure the amount of material and the force of the hammer blow on the blade. The easiest way is to caulk the seams immediately on the new log house, after assembling the walls of the bath. After shrinkage, after a year and a half, the procedure will have to be repeated with the same material.

For your information! Often, the masters who undertook to caulk the walls of the bath tell tales about the bactericidal properties of mosses, the ability of a plant to germinate and completely fill the gap between the crowns.

In fact, a compactor can only bloom and turn green if the birds have collected seeds and herbs in the spring. If caulked with organic matter, the caulk can easily become a source of problems, from fungus to green growth. Therefore, the moss for the bath still needs to be able to prepare for caulking. Overdried - the material becomes brittle and does not hold well in the gap, too wet moss is very difficult to caulk into the seam.

How difficult is it to caulk the walls of a bath with tow

Tow or bundled, combed flax fibers are found to be safer than moss or jute. Because of its soft and thin structure, linen is more difficult to work with than any other sealant. It is convenient to caulk the seams on the walls of the bathhouse from the cylinder. Mezhventsovye gaps on chopped buildings are too large, so the fiber has to be folded into several loops. Technologically, this does not affect the quality, but it can seriously delay the caulking process in time.

Linseed tow, due to the small amount of non-drying oils remaining in the fabrics, has the best damping properties of all possible seals, both natural and synthetic. Bath tow is very well suited for sealing corner locks, especially hand-chopped ones. When shrinking, it does not emit frightening creaks and sounds, the process itself takes place without any complications.

The only drawback is the low durability of flax fiber. In a log house, cauliflower from tow will stand up to 5 years, in a bath the fiber will burn out in 2-3 years.

Jute fiber

The stalks of jute hemp Jute Tassa treated with mechanical comb give a tough and at the same time durable fiber, which is used not only as a seal on the walls of the bath, it is an ideal material for containers and technical fabrics. Jute is produced in the form of coils, tapes, ropes, which allows caulking the cracks on the walls of the bath several times faster than using tow and moss.

Technical jute has only two drawbacks:

High hygroscopicity;
Prone to decay after prolonged locking.

Jute for a bath is interesting in that during the shrinkage process it ideally fills the space between the crowns, especially if the frame is built of chopped logs. In this case, it is only necessary to caulk with jute fiber and rope.

If, according to the project, the bathhouse is planned to be revetted with decorative trim, the jute rope will simply rot in a couple of years. The tapes are laid to seal the crowns of the new log house; the open surfaces of the walls of the bath are well finished with a rope.

In fact, jute occupies an intermediate position between dense and hard moss and soft linen tow.

Synthetic materials

In addition to natural fibers, it is possible to caulk a bath with more modern materials, for example, a composite rope, consisting half of polypropylene threads and woolen fibers. This type of caulk provides a firm hold of the seal even when the gap widens.

Caulking with synthetics is much more difficult, in addition, polypropylene burns out and crumbles under the influence of ultraviolet radiation, therefore, it is best to use seals made of natural materials for a bath.

Seam filling technology

The process itself looks simple. In theory, caulking the crowns of a successfully folded bath is necessary twice, immediately after construction and upon completion of the shrinkage processes. In practice, caulking is done every three years, especially if the log has not gone through grinding and cylindering.

First of all, before digging in the bath, you need to inspect the seams, check and release the joint line from the old burnt-out seal. If the clearances of the inter-crown space of the bath are supposed to be caulked with a cord or cord, then you will first need to measure the maximum drawdown of the crowns with a caliber.

This is done in order to determine the uniformity of the shrinkage of the bath building. If on the one hand the seal is pinched and compressed, and on the other it fell out of the cracks, then before caulking the box, you need to determine the reasons for the uneven settling of the log house. At the same time, we clarify the required thickness of the jute or linen hemp rope.

Sealing material with tape

The easiest way is to caulk the bath with a tape seal. After measuring the slots, it becomes clear what width the tape should be used in this section of the log house. One end of the roll is fixed in the gap at the corner, carefully, without twisting, unwind the sealing strip along the wall, leave a 20-25cm margin and cut it off.

The ribbon laid out on the slot is carefully tucked into the gap so that the material does not sag or stretch. Caulking starts from the widest edge, using a hammer and a wooden spatula with a rubber tip. The ribbon is sank into the gap with light blows. It will be necessary to make 3-4 passes so that the seal evenly and completely goes end-to-end between the crowns.

Three or four pieces of tape will need to be caulked before the desired sealing density can be achieved.

For your information! In this way, the slots around the entire perimeter of the crown are sealed before it can be passed to the next higher level.

If you caulk the entire wall at once, then one edge of the log house can rise by more than the thickness of the log, which will lead to the breakage of the upper rows of the bath.

Caulking tow joints

The procedure for sealing the mezhventsovo space with bundles of fibers, for example, tow or linen yarn, looks a little more complicated. After cleaning the seam between the logs, the future place of laying the tow is rubbed with a mixture of formaldehyde alcohol and linseed oil. You can impregnate individual ropes with a disinfectant mixture before laying them in the wall of the bath.

Caulking the wall of the bath is necessary in the same sequence as when using tape. If the thickness of the seam is not large, then the material can be laid by immediately folding 2-3 mm thick cables from the fiber. A tightly twisted tow roll attached to the gap, without blows, is gently crushed with a spatula into the gap.

For the next pass, a thicker cord is rolled out of tow, about 3-4 mm, this time it is necessary to caulk the seam with effort. For the last pass, a thick rope is rolled up, sometimes up to 8 mm. The material is hammered into the slot so that the edge protrudes above the line of the bath rims by no more than 3-4 mm.

If there are wide cavities between the crowns, they are caulked with additional ropes twisted from tow with a grease from any elastic glue on a rubber base. Cracks in the logs of the bath walls are hammered in the same way. Repaired areas are rubbed with additional acrylic paste.

Conclusion

Before caulking the bath, it is best to practice on a small area in order to assess how correctly the embedding is carried out, and at the same time to measure how high the upper log of the crown rises. With too much force, the frame can rise by 10-15 cm, on a soft seal the walls quickly settle into place, on a hard synthetic material, the shrinkage process can take several weeks.

You were told that it is not necessary to caulk a house from a bar, they say, everything is perfectly fitted there anyway? You can safely send such "grief" specialists home and invite real professionals in the construction of wooden houses. Like any other, the technology of building houses from a bar has its own stages and design features, which invariably include caulking a log house, even if you are going to do external and internal finishing with insulation in the future. You should not try to save time and money so as not to overpay in the future. If you do not want drafts to constantly walk in your house, the curtains flutter even in calm weather, and over time, wet and rotten places in the wood appear, it is better to do all the caulking work at home on time.

Is it necessary to caulk a log house and why

In some sources you can find information that a log house can not be caulked. And the builders who are building your house can say the same thing. They explain this by the fact that, in contrast to log houses, shrinkage and displacement of wood occurs more and more intensively in log houses, cracks and leaks appear, so it is imperative to dig the structure. But houses built from profiled timber practically do not sit down, since the wood is pre-processed. Let's see how it actually happens when building a house from a bar with your own hands.

Natural moisture bar - a relatively cheap building material, for which it is popular in the construction of economy-class houses with subsequent insulation and siding. Even if you invite the best architect, he will not be able to build a house from such a bar without gaps between the crowns and gaps. Moreover, when the timber starts to dry out, and this is inevitable, additional cracks will appear, wider, the timber will decrease in size, it will begin to "twist". As a result, such gaps will appear, due to which the wooden wall will lose its thermal insulation capabilities. To avoid such a sad end, the walls must be buried at least 3 times and carefully insulated.

It was invented precisely in order to reduce the costs and time for the construction of a wooden house. It undergoes special processing in production, due to which it practically does not dry out during operation, and its tongue-and-groove connections are perfectly calibrated to the nearest millimeter. The bar adjoins each other as tightly as possible, and a 5 mm insulation is placed between the crowns, which is located between the engaging parts. Despite the seller's assurances, the house made of profiled timber still shrinks, as the timber finally falls into place under the weight of the building. In addition, the properties of wood are highly dependent on the region of growth, climatic conditions and storage conditions. No one can guarantee that absolutely all the timber you have purchased is of the same high quality. As a result of the movement of the building, the timber may slightly shift, the insulation wrinkle. Even if no cracks appear after shrinkage, and this option is possible, all the same, those gaps that are in the space between the joints outside and inside the house accumulate moisture, and since the place itself is very secluded and vulnerable, mold and rot can form in it.

Caulking of a log house is necessary in order to insulate wooden walls, completely filling them with natural insulation and sealing the gaps and gaps between the timber and in the corner joints. This guarantees tightness, no heat leaks through the walls, drafts and icing of the timber outside the building, which occurs when warm steam comes out through the cracks and settles with wet frost on the surface.

How to caulk a log house

To summarize, the material that can be used to dig a house must meet the following requirements:

Have low thermal conductivity.
Be immune to temperature and humidity fluctuations, and easily withstand wind.
To prevent insects and pathogenic fungi (mold) from growing in it.
To be absolutely environmentally friendly material, otherwise the whole point of building a wooden house is lost.
Be relatively durable (do not lose properties for at least 20 years).
Be breathable.
Be hygroscopic, i.e. when it is necessary to absorb moisture, when it is necessary to give it away.
And the most important thing is to be similar in its properties to wood.

Due to the fact that our ancestors for hundreds of generations caulked their homes on their own, materials that have been tested and tested by thousands of years of successful practice have survived to this day. They can be called traditional materials.

Moss - the best material even today for caulking wooden buildings. This sphagnum moss is a marsh plant that can be red, white or brown. Subsequently, peat is formed from it. None of the modern materials can compare with moss, it is so durable and environmentally friendly. You can travel through old abandoned villages, look at houses: the logs are almost rotted, and the moss is still in excellent condition. As a mezhventsovy sealant, moss is simply irreplaceable: it has antiseptic, antibacterial and medicinal properties. Sandwiched between wood, it inhibits the development of putrefactive bacteria and molds, due to which the wood lasts longer. Moss easily passes air through itself, which, passing through it, is saturated with healing vapors, so the atmosphere inside the house becomes healing. Moss is hygroscopic, which means it smoothes out fluctuations in humidity. In general, moss has no drawbacks, except for one thing - it is not so easy for them to caulk, otherwise no one would have invented or looked for anything new.

Linen fiber tow It is used as a sealant and sealant everywhere, but for caulking - mainly in regions where flax grows and where there are no swamps, where you could stock up on moss. No one produces hemp on purpose, it is waste from the production of ropes, ropes and cloths or stripping and stripping after cleaning flax fibers. Hemp has some antiseptic and bactericidal properties, but to a lesser extent than moss. Therefore, in some cases, the tow is treated with resins to increase resistance to high humidity. These resins can be natural, i.e. resin of trees, then this material can still be called environmentally friendly, but oil products are also used for impregnation, then the tow has nothing to do with natural materials. The tow contains a large amount of fire, which will shake out during the first years of using the house, so the caulking will need to be repeated several times.

It is very similar to tow, only its fibers are coarser, so they are sometimes confused. Hemp is not afraid of temperature extremes and high humidity, so it can be used even in very humid regions. These properties are due to the high content of lignin polymer, which is also found in any wood for bonding cellulose fibers. Hemp does not lose its properties even after getting wet, therefore it is resistant to decay.

Among modern materials for caulking are the following:

A foreign product, it is imported to us from China, India, Egypt and other countries with tropical climates or heavy rainfall. It is made from the shoots of the jute plant of the Malvov family. Jute fiber is very durable, not affected by mold, putrefactive bacteria, not interesting to insects and birds, hygroscopic, i.e. easily accumulates and releases moisture, allows air to pass through. Jute contains about the same amount of lignin as wood, so their properties are similar and together they are a perfect match.

Jute is produced both in fibers and in strips of various widths. Jute tape heaters very convenient to use for laying between the crowns of a log house. In addition, pure jute compresses evenly. These advantages more than exceed the price of this material.

In addition to materials made from fibers for caulking, felt insulation (inter-crown felt) are also used:

Jute mezhventsovy insulation consists of 90% jute and 10% flax. But it is better to follow this ratio, since jute felt is found, 70% consisting of jute and 30% of flax, which significantly impairs its properties.

Linen felt also called Eurolene or flax. It is a needle-punched material made from highly refined linen.

Flax-jute felt consists of jute and flax in a 1: 1 ratio.

Fully modern jute heaters are considered the best, since they perfectly interact with wood and shrink evenly, while other materials with the addition of flax deteriorate the properties of the insulation. The more flax, the worse the properties.

When to caulk a log house

Caulking work at home is carried out in several stages, this is due to the fact that the timber dries out gradually, the house sinks under its weight. The largest shrinkage occurs in the first year and a half after construction, and every year it is less and less. Experts say that after 5-6 years, shrinkage practically stops.

First timea log house is caulked immediately after construction. During the construction process, insulation is laid between the crowns, and after the whole house is erected, the gaps between the bars are filled with caulking material, but not too tightly.

Second caulk produced a year and a half after the completion of the construction of the house. The house will already sit down, so it is necessary to caulk it tightly, leaving no gaps and hanging material.

Third time caulking work will have to be done again after 5 - 6 years, carefully filling in all newly formed gaps and crevices and adding material where it accidentally spilled out or was pulled out by birds.

If the log house is planned to be sheathed with siding from the outside, then the third caulking is not made, but the first two must be performed without fail. You should not rush and save on what you will later have to pay much more for.

Do-it-yourself caulking of a log house

Caulking is a very responsible and laborious process, despite a certain monotony of the operations performed. Not many construction crews agree to caulk work, they simply do not know how to do this and are afraid to spoil it, which is why they recommend not caulking at all. We have already figured out why you shouldn't listen to them.

But there are teams and entire organizations that professionally deal with caulking. For caulking a log house, the price depends on the stage of work and is a certain amount for 1 linear meter of each crown. The average cost of caulk is 50 - 60 rubles. for 1 lm And the caulking of corner joints can reach 200 rubles. for 1 lm At a separate rate, caulking will be carried out with a decorative rope (rope), which decorates the appearance of the bored walls and prevents the birds from pulling out the material. By the way, it is customary to pay for the material separately. If you are offered to perform caulking work for 25 rubles. m.p., it is not worth agreeing, since the work will be done out of the ordinary.

If you want to do all the work yourself, then please be patient, material, tool and further information.

How to dig a log house with jute

Jute, as a material for insulating a log house, is gaining frenzied popularity. It is often used in the construction of the house itself.

Before caulking a log house, you first need to properly lay and fix the timber. Insulation is always placed in the space between the crowns with a layer of at least 5 mm. Even if the timber is profiled, jute must be laid between the spike and the groove. But its width depends on the shape of the thorn-groove system. The simplest option is when the lower beam has a surface convex with a crescent, and the upper one has the same recess (somewhat reminiscent of the connection of logs), in which case the space between the crowns is completely filled with insulation, and its edges remain hanging by 4 - 5 cm on each side. A more complex version of a profiled beam, when it is impossible to lay the insulation with a solid carpet, then it fits only in the middle, and the external and internal slots are then caulked separately.

If the house is a timber of natural moisture, then the thickness of the inter-crown insulation should be 10 - 15 mm.

Important! Caulking must be done from top to bottom. In this case, first one crown is caulked completely outside, then inside, and only then they move on to the second crown. It is better if the work will be carried out by 4 people at the same time on 4 walls. This is necessary so that the house does not warp. Indeed, after the caulking is completed, it will rise a few centimeters, from 5 to 15 cm.

Consider the option when the insulation hangs between the beams by 4 - 5 cm. The caulking technology is very well shown in the video example. With the help of caulking (tool), the jute is tucked under the bottom and slightly pushed into the gap. Then neatly, but already more strongly pushed in the upper part, and finally - in the middle. To push the material into the slot, a rubber or wooden hammer (mallet) is used, which is gently hit on the caulk.

If, after the work performed, loosely clogged cracks are still observed, then additional caulking is performed.

Consider the option when the gaps between the crowns are not filled (the insulation is somewhere in the middle of the timber). The work will be exactly the same as with additional caulking.

Usually, the gaps between the bars are rather narrow, so this method of caulking is used: a rope with a gap is twisted from jute fiber and hammered into the gap with a mallet.

There is one more way - "stretching". Separately taken jute fibers are laid with fibers across the bar and pushed inward with a spatula or caulk until the gap is completely filled. We leave the remaining ends of the material hanging, it should turn out to be about 5 - 6 cm.Further, a little more jute is taken, rolled into a ball (roller), which is wrapped in these hanging ends and pushed into the slot.

Important! How can you check if it's enough to push in the insulation or if you need to add a little more? If a kitchen knife reaches 15 mm or less into the gap between the crowns, then the caulking is successful. If the knife goes further, then the material should be added.

When large gaps are formed, the caulking method "in a set" is used. Long strands are twisted from jute and rolled into a ball. Then loops are drawn from the ball and pushed into the slots until they are filled.

After the completion of all caulking work, the house is loaded and, if possible, is operated for a whole year. In winter, it will be possible to check for gaps by the so-called "hares". These are pockets of frost on the outside of the wall. If you find them, mark the place, this means that there is a leak of warm air from the house. A year and a half after the first caulking, the second is made, the house is carefully inspected, insulation is added to the places from which it spilled out or frayed, where the cracks have increased, where the timber is warped, as well as in the places of "hares".

Only after re-caulking can you start the exterior and interior decoration of the house. Even if it assumes 100 mm of mineral wool and a ventilated facade.

You can dig a log house with other materials. But there are some exceptions. For example, you can caulk only a house made of non-profiled timber with moss, since this material is laid down and fills the entire space between the crowns, which is absolutely impossible if the timber has a thorn-groove system. The work on caulking at home is complex and painstaking, although it seems painfully simple from the outside. If you are not confident in your abilities, invite a specialist.