The Hearthstone's Prospective...
Hearthstone’s career in log home restoration began many moons ago. We've worked with all types of timber, and this includes: 200 year old 'seasoned' material, trees salvaged from the river bottoms and lakes, timbers air dried naturally for two years, freshly cut trees from the Eastern and Western US and Canada, standing dead, laminated logs and now vacuum-kiln material. We've seen them all. All this wood has one thing in common: it still shrinks and it still settles.
If timber can be dried down to 12% consistently, you will see minimal shrinkage thereafter. But shrinkage from moisture only accounts for HALF of the settling.
The other half comes from compression. This is driven by the weight of the roof (with a full snow load). It is helped by the weight of the second (and third) floors. And it is accelerated by the use of throughbolts and compression springs. The harder or denser the wood, the less settling from compression it has. All told, the longer you take to build a home and the later you design and install the finished stair system, the better.. But shrinkage from moisture only accounts for HALF of the settling.
Chink me now, or seal me later!
In the old days, there was mortar mix and chicken wire to use between the hewn logs. We would painstakingly splice and dovetail these old timbers and make certain it was perfect. During the higher humidity summer months, these joints would swell tight. Come winter when humidity dropped, these same joints opened up ever so slightly.
Then came Perma-Chink®. Making the home weather tight around the chink joints became easy. It stretched and compressed and moved with the seasons. Attractive colors were added the battle of the chink space was solved.
But what about log-on-log? Over the years, we've seen many folks initially object to "that white stripe" and rule out our chink style for someone else's log on log. Then after two good years of living in the home and dealing with real-world issues, they're back to caulking or chinking the seams to make it weather tight.
A solution for these log-on-log clients has finally arrived in custom Energy Seal® colors to match the Lifeline interior and exterior stain. No more worries about last minute touch up or sealing gaps with caulking that doesn't match. For those who don't want the color and performance of chinking, they now have an attractive alternative with Energy Seal. A case of interior and exterior should be priced and sent with every home sold. Maybe the old saying should change to "Chink me now, or Seal me later"?
By Chris Wood, VP Sales Hearthstone, Inc
www.hearthstonehomes.com
